Got Lucky Today (minds out of the gutter please.... hah)

[colin779]

I was home at lunch today and was waiting for some pizza to re-heat in the microwave. Was looking over at the tank wondering what the temp was since the house gets a little colder during the day now. Just wanted to make sure my heater was keeping up. Walked over and looked at the thermometer, it said 85 degrees. WTF was my first though. Opened up the stand, pulled out the controller for the thermometer, the light was on (indicating the heater is currently on) and the dial was set to 79 still. Turned the dial all the way down, light stayed on (it did eventually go off). The controller was very hot and the light would come on as soon as it was turned up to any temperature. Unplugged it and went back to work. Guess i'm buying a heater on the way home =(

 

[user 26995]

Hate when things like that happen. Always when you have to leave too.
Hope all was well and it didnt get too cold before you got home.

 

[pandora32]

Bummer! Like lorrie said. Hope all is well with your livestock.

 

[colin779]

Everything seems to be ok =) Tank was actually at 78 when I got home. Like Lorrie mentioned, always happens when you aren't home.... I have a buddy about half a mile from me who had a spare heater I was able to borrow so I can now spend the $40 on something better online than I probably would have found at Petco after work.

 

[Derbird]

Oh man I'm glad to hear that your livestock are all right. The fear of just this is why I use two under powered heaters on my tank. If one goes bad the other will just turn off.

 

[blk822822]

I had a freind that had a heater blow up and blew the front off the tank. Killed everything. But he was cycling and had only like 2 damsels. Heaters are probly the most problematic equipment we have on our tanks.

 

[kpiotrowski]

had a pretty much new heater cook a tank once ( felt like I wanted to jump in with a cold beer). now I use 2 smaller heaters so that if one goes rogue its hopefully not powerfull enough to cook it. also run through apex controller too, so thats dbl redundant.

 

[senji]

i also run 2 on a reefkeeper temp controller. i dont trust the therostats in them things but i do trust a temp probe. and the reefkeeper turns them on and off when needed. one of the best failsafes to have is an aquarium controller imo

 

[aja19919]

I just bought a brand new heater and having the same issues, trying to get the tank at 78. Thinking I will set it lower and see if that does the trick.

 

[colin779]

had a pretty much new heater cook a tank once ( felt like I wanted to jump in with a cold beer). now I use 2 smaller heaters so that if one goes rogue its hopefully not powerfull enough to cook it. also run through apex controller too, so thats dbl redundant.

That's pretty rough, sorry =( What size tank and what size heaters do you use now?

i also run 2 on a reefkeeper temp controller. i dont trust the therostats in them things but i do trust a temp probe. and the reefkeeper turns them on and off when needed. one of the best failsafes to have is an aquarium controller imo

Wish i had the funds for a controller, someday maybe =)

For now i'm going to go with the two lower power heater method vs the one higher wattage one. I'm not sure how hot a 250 watt heater could have gotten the 110 gallons of water up to though? What wattage heaters should i buy? I was thinking 150 watts a piece.

 

[kpiotrowski]

I use only 2x200w for my sps tank with which has a total of 175 actually water, and 1 200w for my 65g which is still capable of cooking the tank but is also on a controller.