Broken heater, temps plummeted

[squidneh]

I woke up this morning to find that not only was it our coldest night of the season so far, but my heater decided to stop heating. I have a digital thermometer that is battery operated so I usually turn it on to check when I feed the fish and then power it down to save battery. I turned it on this morning and my tank temp was..... 63.9F !!!! My tank is usally 76 to try and be in the area that suits all of my fish. But my main concern is that I have a betta in a divided portion of the tank. The other fish (harlequin rasbora and otocinclus) seem unaffected but my Betta is of course extremely lethargic right now.

What's the best way to warm the water back up without shocking the fish? Since I checked this morning, the water has now hit 66.4F via ambient temperature. Should I add small amounts of warm water slowly? Or just put the heater in and let it slowly warm up the tank? Both?

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Do you have a replacement heater now?

I'd do a water change and replace the water with some that is a couple of degrees warmer, no more. Then add the heater and let it bring them the rest of the way back up.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Or add the heater then do the water change, might be better that way around as long as the heater remains below the water level.

Always happens in cold weather doesn't it? Mine broke in the middle of the night in winter last winter, woke in the morning to find the tank at 63 when it was usually at 78. Guppies weren't happy, but they can tolerate it that cold so they survived, but that's how I raised it, so they were a little warmer immediately, and the heater didn't need to work quite so hard to bring the temp up either.

 

[squidneh]

Or add the heater then do the water change, might be better that way around as long as the heater remains below the water level.

Always happens in cold weather doesn't it? Mine broke in the middle of the night in winter last winter, woke in the morning to find the tank at 63 when it was usually at 78. Guppies weren't happy, but they can tolerate it that cold so they survived, but that's how I raised it, so they were a little warmer immediately, and the heater didn't need to work quite so hard to bring the temp up either.

Murphy's law in action!

My poor Peach is not a happy camper right now, I feel so bad and I hope there won't be lasting effects to this ~16 hour stint of unreasonably cold water.

I do not have the heater yet, I've had mandatory meetings throughout the morning and now my last one is in an hour, so after that I'll be able to get out and get the heater and put it in. I wasn't sure if it would be a good idea to add warm water, have it possibly cool back down to room temp, then start raising the temp again - the back and forth temperature swings make me a little nervous. I can't devote full attention to watching the temps and adding warm water to keep it stable until after my meeting. At which point, I'll get the heater.

For now I'll take out 25% of the cold water and add in water that's 71F which is 4 degrees more than the tank is right now. Hopefully that will raise the temp a little without shocking them. Then when I get the heater I'll do the same thing again but maybe 73F, depending on the temp of the water at that point, and the heater can do the rest.

 

[HoldenOn]

Murphy's law in action!

My poor Peach is not a happy camper right now, I feel so bad and I hope there won't be lasting effects to this ~16 hour stint of unreasonably cold water.

I do not have the heater yet, I've had mandatory meetings throughout the morning and now my last one is in an hour, so after that I'll be able to get out and get the heater and put it in. I wasn't sure if it would be a good idea to add warm water, have it possibly cool back down to room temp, then start raising the temp again - the back and forth temperature swings make me a little nervous. I can't devote full attention to watching the temps and adding warm water to keep it stable until after my meeting. At which point, I'll get the heater.

For now I'll take out 25% of the cold water and add in water that's 71F which is 4 degrees more than the tank is right now. Hopefully that will raise the temp a little without shocking them. Then when I get the heater I'll do the same thing again but maybe 73F, depending on the temp of the water at that point, and the heater can do the rest.

I wouldn't add warm water, like you say it can make it unstable and cause sad fishy moments.

 

[squidneh]

I wouldn't add warm water, like you say it can make it unstable and cause sad fishy moments.

I did add some warm water, just enough to bump the temp of the tank up to 68 which I believe the tank can hold as the room temp is now higher than that. Peach at least swam over to see what was going on, but then went back to resting in the water sprite.

 

[HoldenOn]

I did add some warm water, just enough to bump the temp of the tank up to 68 which I believe the tank can hold as the room temp is now higher than that. Peach at least swam over to see what was going on, but then went back to resting in the water sprite.

Ah, it'll be alright. I'm sure there are cold snaps in all fishes natural habitats. Even bettas. Just follow the advice of other members, and I'm sure it'll be fine.

 

[squidneh]

For anyone who may stumble upon this in the future, I successfully added small amounts of warm water until I was able to get the heater in. The heater slowly warmed up the tank the rest of the way and we're now back at 76. All fish seem no worse for the wear.