First day fish disaster?

[blueseas]

I've just bought a male betta and he was settling in well to my ten gallon, when about 3 hours in, there started to be trouble with the heater. It started turning off and not on again, and I kept having to manually turn it on every five minuites. I was worried because I know that the temperature changing too much could put extra stress on the fish, on top of moving into a new environment. I've been battling with this heater for a few hours now (from 5 pm to 5am, including re-arranging all my furniture so the tank could go to a different outlet) and it's finally working normally, but it could fail again.

I was wondering if anyone knows what could have caused this problem so I can avoid it in the future? I feel like replacing my heater entirely to prevent this from happening again but i know it might also be some kind of manual fault.

By the way, my heater is the submersible type with the dial, and I keep it at 28°c. There are no bubbles or cracks or other abnormalities with the heater that I can see.

Thankyou!

 

[The Lumpfish Guy]

Hi,
How do you know it is turning off? If you are just watching the little light which many of them have, that's connected to a tiny thermostat in the heater which turns it off when you are at the desired temperature and will turn back on when it gets a bit colder. it stops the tank from over heating.
Do you have thermometer in the tank? if so what temperature is it reading?
What make and model is the heater?

 

[Colin_T]

As the Lumpfish has mentioned, most aquariums heaters are thermostatically controlled and have a small red or orange light that comes on for a short time when the heater is warming the water up, and the light goes out when the heater is no longer warming the water.

In cold rooms or aquariums without insulation on the bottom and back, and without coverglass, the aquarium can lose heat very quickly and you might see the light going on and off every minute. If you insulate the tank (base, back, sides and top), the heater won't come on as often and will stay off for longer periods of time.

You can use polystyrene foam under the tank and on the back (and sides if you want) to help insulate the tank. Just buy some of the foam that normally goes underneath the aquarium and sticky tape it to the outside of the tank. Have a set of coverglass on the top of the tank and you're good to go. Try to get coverglass that are 4 or 5mm thick and avoid 3mm thick coverglass because they chip and break easily.

Have a floating glass thermometer inside the aquarium to tell you the water temperature.

Have some water movement near the heater to help circulate the warm water.
Have the heater on a 45 degree angle, with the cord up higher than the heating coil to maximise the surface area of the heating element.
Have the heater as low down in the tank as possible. Having the heater closer to the gravel means as the heat rises, it creates currents that draw in cool water as the warm water rises up to the top of the tank. You get a more even temperature in the tank this way.

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Drop your temperature to 26C. 28C is not necessary and wastes power.

 

[blueseas]

Hi,
I believed it was turning off completely because it would not turn on after about and hour and at that point I had to step in so the water temp didn't drop too low.

I have one thermometer in the tank which is currently reading 26° and I also have a stick-on one outside the glass which is also 26°, so the heater is working fine now. My heater seems to be a Japanese brand called 'Huge' ? This was the only one my local pet store stocks.

 

[blueseas]

Thanks for the advice,
im starting to think it may have been an issue with an extension cord that I was using which I think has a broken circuit. Now that I've swapped out cords, everything seems to be going swimmingly (pun intended.)

I've dropped my temp to 26° c and my fish seems better off for it too.