Baked Fish

[Carey27]

I woke up this morning to two dead tiger barbs. When i opened the lid i could tell that the temp was way too high (it was out of the range of the stick on thermometer that i have so i don't know exactly how hot).

I've been cooling the tank with water changes and took pH and NH4 readings (pH 6.5, NH4 ~0). I wanted to put a post up to see if there are any other problems i should be thinking about and to let everyone know that i regret purchasing a cheap heater. Any recs on a good one, or a way to avoid this?

 

[DarkEntity]

I just use Hagen heaters they have never let me down yet.

 

[Carey27]

Sorry to double post (i put that last post out in a rush).

I wanted to mention that i have (had) 7 Tiger Barbs, 2 Bolivian Rams & 1 Firemouth. So far 3 barbs have died (note the barbs are as big if not bigger then the rams). Im guessing the new world chiclids have a high temp range and thats why none have died...

 

[*Fishkies*]

I have an Aquaclear heater and some whisper heaters. They work great for me. As for cooling down the tank you could try putting a fan over top the water, help cool it down. Also adding ice cubes helps sometimes, but do this slowly as to many cools it down to quickly.

 

[Carey27]

Really wanted to post an update b/c Im shocked at what happened...

So the water temp in the aquarium must have been over 100 degrees F (~38 degrees celsius), It took a ton of time & water to lower the temperature. I stablized the temp around 80 degrees around noon and my barbs are continuing to die. Right now the count is 5 dead and the other two do not look good. Im still wondering why only the barbs were affected and why they continue to die... Any ideas on what happened?

I had a cheap heater (old school heater with the knob adjust) and i so regret not getting a digital one...

 

[rabbut]

Really wanted to post an update b/c Im shocked at what happened...

So the water temp in the aquarium must have been over 100 degrees F (~38 degrees celsius), It took a ton of time & water to lower the temperature. I stablized the temp around 80 degrees around noon and my barbs are continuing to die. Right now the count is 5 dead and the other two do not look good. Im still wondering why only the barbs were affected and why they continue to die... Any ideas on what happened?

I had a cheap heater (old school heater with the knob adjust) and i so regret not getting a digital one...

Hi there. Bad luck on the heater thing. Keep an eye on your ammonia and nitrite readings, as high temps have been known to nock out the filter bactria. A good way to avoid this type of thing is to run two heaters at half the recomended power. That way if either fails, the other can make up for it by staying off/on solidly. This reduces the temp difference, giving more time for you to react, before it is too late.......
Good luck. Hope the fish recover
rabbut

 

[stop moray eel hunting]

thats very unfortunate
happened once to one of my precious eels so i know how u feel
i also now use a hagen heater and all is now good as gold
my deepest condolences to the deceased fish of yours carey

 

[SouthernCross]

I'm sorry to hear about what happened. From reading posts on this board, you are not the first to have a heater get stuck on and overheat your water and cook your fish.

I have Aqua One heaters and so far (touch wood) I have not had any trouble with them. Once I had a Resun heater but it was causing electrical interference in my television/speakers whenever the thermostat would switch off. So it was swapped for an Aqua One and all has been running smoothly since.

I didn't know you could get digital heaters - mine are just the twisty knob kind...a coloured line shows what temp you have it set at and when it's on theres a little bright orange light on. It's easy to see when its coming on/off thanks to that light.

I hope you have better luck with your next heater.

 

[petetong]

Sorry about your fish. You would think somebody would have invented a device that alerted us if the temperature went out of range. Or is there such a device?

 

[JamieBailie]

Well, They have. I seen them years ago.

http/www.cichlid-forum.com/reviews/view_...tails.php?id=17

 

[Jabba]

One of the other things you need to do in such cases is run as much air through the water as possible, high temperatures mean low oxygen levels, air will help reduce the temperature and keep the oxygen levels up too.

Do yourself a favour and ditch those cheap crappy glass heaters, I have had two fail this way and fortunately caught them both in time.

I now run undergravel heating (Hydor HydraKable) using an external control (Hydor Hydraset). The bonus is that this cable uses 70% less energy and also if properly sized can't cook your fish overnight - it is very slow acting, temperatures in my tank are now solid as a rock and stay where I put them. The Hydor is also far more accurate than any of the glass heaters I have had, it controls to the temperature it is set to - I had one heater that controlled at 26 but had to be set to 32 to do it, I had one that controlled at 30 when set at 26.

I'd never have another glass heater in any tank even if it was free.

If you must use these horrid glass things then use more than one but deliberately undersize them, for example use two 150 watt instead of a 300 watt at least that way a failure of one won't be so severe on tank conditions whichever way it fails.

Oh and the other advice is correct you may weant to be throwing some Nutrafin Cycle or other filter media in there just as a precaution since filter bacteria start to die above 35 or so.

There are also a number of digital thermometers on the market with high / low temperature alarms http/www.aquatics-online.co.uk/catalogue/thermometers.asp (see top of page)