Broken Heater

[cahnnarel]

My heater just broke when i was doing a partial water change....it being a sunday, i will have to wait until morning to buy a new one...the current water temp in there is 25 degrees. i have guppies, lemon tetras, swordtails and 2 young bristlenose plecs...

Anyone have any pearls of wisdom to get them all through the night? I read on other threads that turning up room temp and covering with a blanket?? I should be able to have a heater back in by 9.30am...

 

[happyannie]

Do you have a heating pad?

 

[cahnnarel]

Hi Annie,

No I don't.. is that a specialist fish keeping thing?/ Please do excuse my ignorance!!

 

[WILDER]

Just turn heating up in the room, and cover with a blanket. Good Luck.

 

[cahnnarel]

Thank you Wilder. I cranked the heating up about half an hour ago, and will put a blanket over the tank.. The lemon tetras are whizzing around in a shoal at the mo,. and I believe they do that when they are stressed water temp is still the same...

the annoying thing is, i bought this heater just over a week ago (a fluval one), because the previous one had blown... I have been keeping tropicals since September, so am pretty new to all of this...upon reading the fluval instructions I realised that it most likely blew because I had emptied water below the heater - keeping the heater horizontally at the back of the tank... and it seems I have done exactly the same thing again without *thinking*... i think i'll keep the next heater vertically. !

 

[WILDER]

I would get a different brand of heater.
Lemon tetra just got some myself today.
Good luck, fingers crossed.

 

[Maxta]

What about a few hot water bottles pressed against the outside of the window?

Buy a spare in future, could come in handy, i might do that

 

[WILDER]

Water bottles are only good if you can get a heater fast, otherwise I wouldn't bother the temp will just be up and down, stressing the fish.

 

[BigIan]

yea turn the heating up in the room and cover with a blanket..

you don`t want to keep your heater verticaly as the termostat is at the top of the heater so the warm water rising will give a false reading and your tank will end up a little cold..


laying it on a 45 degree angle is much better or even horisontally, but have it near the bottom... atleast here it can be hidden by plants and such, and also won`t come out of the water at water changes

 

[cahnnarel]

Thanks for all the advice ! The temp in there is still 25, so I reckon they will be ok til the morning, will just have to go into work a little bit late...

I did have the heater slanted but obviously not far enough down to prevent what happened. I have a long tube thing for air bubbles and wondered if having the heater in this air bubble flow would affect the overall temperature...and also worried having it too close to the tubing might cause it to burn.. ?! Am I making any sense?

The lemon's have calmed down, in fact all the fish seem fine apart from one of the female guppies who has something sticking out of her mouth...that's been there since Friday... I tried to pull it away from her but she just went wiggly mad so I had to stop...it's like a thin blade of maybe plant root or something? I'm at a loss to know what to do about it actually..hoping it might work it's way out somehow...

well, fingers crossed they will all be warm enough over the next few hours....I got the fluval heater on recommendation as the temp is easier to control on them, they also have automatic switch off if it breaks so that the water doesn't boil up...like some of the horror stories I've read ..the previous heater was cheaper at £15 and had no cut off, only noticed there was a problem when OH noticed the temperature had rised to 30! Luckily it was spotted in time...

anyone have any heater recommendations?

 

[happyannie]

Do they sell the brand Stealth over there? That's been a really reliable brand for me and easy to regulate.

By the heating pad I meant those electric things you'd use if you have an injury or something similar. I used one for a Betta tank once.. but it's pretty irregular.

Sounds like you have a plan going now!

 

[cahnnarel]

Hi Annie,

Well I've not heard of Stealth...but it may well exist over here. I have just bought a new heater, the fish are all fine, and the temp has gone down to 22 degrees... I covered the tank with a thick towel over night...so now I'm just waiting for a while before turning the heater on and taking half day leave from work

Crisis over, thanks everyone for all the suggestions!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

just remember to bring the temp back up slowly, doing that too fast could stress the fish so just set it to 23, then in an hr or so up it to 24... and so on

 

[cahnnarel]

Thank you Miss Wiggle, I hadn't thought of that

 

[newtotropical]

It would be worth turning off your heater approx 10mins before you do a water change, then if its uncovered it wont matter