Had An Accident With A Heater....

[Jessica13]

My poor little betta nearly got turned itno Sushi

I have my three boys in a divided tank, and one of my plakats has the heater in his section. I was given the heater by someone with some stuff i bought from them, and i've had it a year or so with no problems. Anyway, was just sat revising for my exams quietly, as ya do, heard a crack and a hiss - turned around and saw smoke coming out of my betta tank I went to have a look and the glass casing around the heater had completely shattered!! Obviously the water was getting pretty hot.

Luckily the little betta was fine, i got him out and stuck him in a jar (did the same with the other two) and then had to spend about 2 hours picking bits of glass out of the water and gravel, before deciding it would be easier to throw all the gravel away and buy some new!

Thankfully none of the bettas seems to have been cut or anything by the glass, though they are a bit cooler as they just have a reptile heat mat warming the tank. They're at about 24 celcius though so should be fine!

Anyway... Just thought i'd let you all know - Keep an eye on your heaters!!!

 

[Joby]

eeek! Good job you were there. Poor little boys, hope they get their pad back to normal soon

 

[chrismr]

Glad to hear you saved them. Lucky you were around!

I know the panic that is involved.... once whern doing water changes I forgot to unplug my heater... phone rang to distract me a fe wminutes before putting waer back in. Heater got hot and when I put water back in... hiss, crack! OH MY GOD!

At least none of my fish got fried.

 

[bettawen]

lol i know someone else who has fun with heaters

 

[liz2]

My nephew a few years ago was well into tropical fish. He had two really big tanks all his fave fish in one and odds and ends in the other. He went off to work came home at night and thought funny smell! The heater had overheated and cooked all his fave fish. He was so upset he had to get them all out and sort it all out. It was a second hand heater! Shortly after that he was so disillusioned he gave me his spare tank and all his fish!

 

[wuvmybetta]

Heaters make me so nervous, it's like a screwed up Russian Roulette of sorts I plugged one into a breeding tank last night and I immediately started flipping out and pulled it after an hour.
"Why isn't the light going off, it sure feels warm from the outside, yipes look at the fogged up glass"
..it was just too if'fy for me. I'd rather have them a bit cold, personally.

Glad you found them in time, Jessica

 

[Joby]

lol i know someone else who has fun with heaters

 

[Jessica13]

Awwww... Poor coocked fish How awful would that be to come home to!! Im so glad i was home or i guess my boys would have been cooked too its kind of lucky i have exams really as i normally would have been in a lecture and wouldn't have found them for a couple of hours! Poor things!

They seem to be doing just as well with the reptile heat mat so will stick with that. In the summer i tend to not use heaters anyway but its so cold here at the moment they need something for the next couple of months. Im going to be paranoid about checking the heaters in my other two tanks now You wouldn't believe how much glass they use to make those things either - its was everywhere!!