i think i'm quitting after this...

30-xtra high

30-xtra high

Active Member
so i am in school and it's midterm week, so i get off at 11:00 a.m., and i came home, and went to turn my lights on at 2:00 p.m. only to find:
4 red mushrooms- melted
3 fuzzy mushrooms-melted
3 metallic blue musrhooms-melted
3 superman mushrooms -MELTED
2 metallic green mushrooms-melted
3 stalks of xenia-melted
5x5 inch of gsp-charred
2 dead fire fish
1 dead coral beauty
1 dead royal gramma
1 dead clownfish
1 dead cleaner goby
surprisingly i have 1 live clownfish... i don't know how he's alive?
only to find that my heater has malfunctioned, and the temp. went up to 108 degrees.
i'm debating on either quitting the hobby, or just getting a fish like a lion or eel or somethin...
 
n8ball2013

n8ball2013

Member
dont quit I was in the same boat a couiple months back went to jamaica and came back to all kinds of chaos. The only fish that didnt die were the ones I wouldnt have missed and almost all of my coral kicked it. Now I have different stuff and I happen to think it is much more impressive now than it was before we left.
 
saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
ouch
i once lost a CBBF in my QT tank when i got a new heater for it. the heaters in this hobby are some of the junkiest pieces of equipment that we put in our tanks. And now, you know first hand what can be the outcome when these things crap out. look into the titanium heaters - they are more expensive but are supposed to have much better track records.
 
emm0909

emm0909

Member
Me telling you a bad story isn't going to help so all I have to say is do a water change asap and get that temp back to normal. you'd be suprised as to what is still alive and will come back. Many things can survive with the smallest spec of flesh still alive and regenerate their whole body again.
 
bronco300

bronco300

Active Member
i'm sorry for you lose....but id disagree with looking into titanium....finnex and won have very bad records...either a year or a little over ago the store i work at got TONS of finnex heaters back because they would malfunction,etc....its pretty bad when you get a dozen returns that are all the same product for the same cause weeks at a time...we no longer recommend them
 
threed240

threed240

Member
Originally Posted by Bronco300
i'm sorry for you lose....but id disagree with looking into titanium....finnex and won have very bad records...either a year or a little over ago the store i work at got TONS of finnex heaters back because they would malfunction,etc....its pretty bad when you get a dozen returns that are all the same product for the same cause weeks at a time...we no longer recommend them
What would you recommend for a good heater. I need one myself. I have a Via Aqua, and it has been great, however it recently hasn't been able to keep my water at a consistent 79-80*. I had a reading of 73.5* last night, and the heater was running. I need one with a seperate thermostat.
 
myzislow

myzislow

Member
ouch, srry to hear that. I must ask tho, what kind of heater was it and why did u have a 300 watt heater for a 30 gallon tank?
 
bronco300

bronco300

Active Member
i personally like the visi therm stealths...plastic casing so no worries of glass breaking...this is what i have in my 75 and never had any problems but one with a separate stat i dont think you'll find besides in titanium..at least i havent seen one here
 
paintballer768

paintballer768

Active Member
I have a 100 watt heater for my 24 gallon and that does plenty well. 30 gallon shouldnt need much more watts. I can understand how a 300 watt heater could cook up the mushrooms.
 
nycbob

nycbob

Active Member
sorry for ur lost. i had a heater malfuntioned on me once, but it was in a freshwater tank. i now use visi therm stealth. no problem thus far. but i'd definitely chng my heater every 18-24 months. u will be surprise how salt can corrode even the toughest component.
 
maxalmon

maxalmon

Active Member
Originally Posted by teen
next time do two 100w heaters, rather than a single large heater.
Some of the best advice you will ever receive

Always run multiple heaters on any tank! And don't use the most powerful, if you need 450w's of heater, either use 2x250 or 3x150...
I have 2x75w on both of my nano's, 3x150 on my 85g frag tank etc....
I like the stealth heaters, i'll never use a glass tube based heater, as I've cracked a few over the years.
I have a total of 4x250w heaters on my 215, if one goes bad, very little chance of it overheating the tank. Plus, I'm running a neptune controller that will shut everything down if temp hits 84.
 
psu

psu

Member
I've used visi-therm stealth in all 3 of my tanks for many yrs---never a problem, and definately go a few smaller instead of just 1 big one.
 
lion_crazz

lion_crazz

Active Member
Originally Posted by teen
next time do two 100w heaters, rather than a single large heater.
wow, I am very sorry for your loss.
I agree with the above quote, though. One of my included 101 tips for anyone with a saltwater tank.
 
30-xtra high

30-xtra high

Active Member
hey guys, i only had a 300 watt heater because my dad used to have a 125, so he gave me his old heater, and i didn't think there could be too many watts, but i went out and bought a visitherm 100 watt heater last night, and the temp is back to 79.5, and amazingly both of my clowns made it, and i think a red mushroom might make it. the heater melted a hole in itself, broke, and shattered? i took it to the store and they said the springs in the heater dropped from 108 to 62 degrees to quick and it stretched the springs so it shattered, but i dunno... i vaccuumed the glass that i know of out, and i guess i'm starting over, any suggestions on fish?
, to my knowledge i have 2 misbar occelleris clowns.
 
ccampbell57

ccampbell57

Active Member
30-xtra - I had this happen to my QT tank about a year ago. I had $500 of fish in it getting ready to go into my DT. My heater malfunctioned while I was in New Orleans for business. When I got back, the temp was around 100 degrees and I had the displeasure of watching my fish get cooked in front of me.
I used it as a learning lesson and pressed on. I have since gone to the 2 smaller heaters in a tank and have learned to NEVER use glass heaters. I use only Steath.
I hope that you stay with us because when done right, this hobby is very rewarding.
Also, if your tank was perfect and you never had issues, how bored would you be???
Good luck
 
n8ball2013

n8ball2013

Member
I would wait a couple weeks and get your parameters right. Take it slow and steady that way you dont have any more problems good luck!
 
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