Heater?

[kank]

My tank is running 70 degrees without my heater on and when I turn it on to only 72 the tank is now hitting 80 degrees. Don't worry nothing is in tank just setting it up to cycle. Is it possible my heater is shot? It was sitting for a couple of years and the plug in corroded!

 

[snakeblitz33]

Wherever you are, it must be really cold to be 70F. My AC is going full blast and my tank is currently running at 85.5*F.
Could be the heater... check it by turning it down to the minimum level, adding a fan to the water and see if it gets that hot.
Though, with heaters I say you should rather be safe than sorry and go buy a new one.
Looking forward to seeing a tank build thread of yours.
Good luck!

 

[saxman]

The trouble with heaters is that they never seem to fail in the "off" position...they tend to fail where they'll cook your fish. I never like to run heaters without an external controller just for that reason. All of our heaters are plugged into some other controller, be it a stand-alone (such as a Ranco) or the internal controllers on a chiller.
It does sound like your heater is on the fritz tho...