Close call!!!

[Synirr]

I went to feed my bichir today and stuck my hand in the tank, like I usually do, to hold the food out for him. If I don't hold it, the oscar eats it... also, I want to oscar to get used to seeing my hand in the tank so that maybe he won't bite he later on
Anyway, the water was absolutely freezing!! I checked the temp, and it was 70 degrees instead of the 80 it is usually set to! I just figured my heater was being screwy or something... I unplugged it and plugged it back in, and the pilot light came on. I put my hand up to it and it was warm, so I went about my business figuring all was well. 30 minutes later I checked it and it was still 70 degrees!! I was really confused and trying to figure out what the problem was when I felt a draft.... come to find out, the window directly behind the tank was cracked open, and probably had been for days, but I hadn't noticed because the tank was in the way!!!!
My mother is the only one who opens windows in this house, and she had opened it at some point, but it apparently got hung on the way down when I closed it. I fought it for 15 minutes before I was finally able to close it completely!

This is the first really cold day we've had in a while, so that's why the water temp hadn't fluctuated until now... I guess the heater just couldn't cope with having a 37 degree draft coming in

 

[Ben]

ouch, lucky you took action soon

you should buy an aquarium thermometer it always helps mewhen it sometimes gets too hot. they shouldnt be that expensive because theyre only a couple of dollars in Australia
DD

 

[Synirr]

I HAVE a thermometer, hehe. It's just that I don't check it often, because not only do I have a heater in that tank, but our house has central heat. My 5 gallon tank, which is across the room from the tank in question on this thread, was a nice and toasty 78 degrees, even without a heater... so yeah. I didn't think I had any reason to worry about the temp

 

[Jen]

Its a good think you caught that. Your babes might have gotten sick or worse. The only time I stick my hands in the tank is when I'm cleaning the tank or planting something.

 

[wer34]

i always dip my fingers in the tank just to give check and make sure because its sometimes hard to read my thermometer.

 

[fufanu360]

the same thing happend to me except my heater got unplugged! my tank was at 66 degrees though, even colder the fish were soooo sllllooowwww