Disaster Struck!

lljdma06 · Nov 29, 2005

When I left this morning, the temp of my 15g was 76. I personally like 78, the imbellis do better in that temp, so I turned it up one notch. When I got home it was 96.5!!!

I lost 3 harlequins out of the ordeal, but it looks like my imbellis got throught the heat wave ok. I managed to get the temperature down to 86, still too high, but at least it's not too bad, and the fish are starting to move again. I did it over 7 hours and now I'm really, really tired, so I'm going to bed. I'm letting nature take it's course for the rest of the temperature drop. I feel aweful! It was totally my fault, sometimes, you should just leave things alone! I increased the current in the tank, CO2 be darned for the time being. :-(

I think the fish will be ok. I'm really surprised that my imbellis pulled through. I really expected them to be dead. I also expected my pygmy corys to kick the bucket too, but all of them are fine, as are my tough little bridget rasboras. I'll probably go to the fish store and replace the lost rasboras and get a new heater on Thursday. But I've had that heater for three years and it's been great, so I can only assume that it was totally my fault and I just wasn't watching. :-(

I think I'm going to lose a few plants from this too. My wisteria looks really depressed and my hygro is shedding leaves. Tank looks just aweful, please give me some pity. :-(

All this time I'm worrying about the stupid cold in IL, and then it's the heat that ruins everything. This, friends, is what I call irony. :crazy:

Hunding is biting me and trying to cheer me up as I write. :-(

He is a good little fishy.

AHHHHHH. BEATING MYSELF UP!!!!!!!!!!! Time for bed now.

Mr.September15 · Nov 30, 2005

Well that sucks. I hope it doesn't happen 2 me. Well thats what im afraid thats going to happen. They tempreture is going to go crazy. Well sorry for your loss.

-Arrowhead :ninja:

JoLtNbolt · Nov 30, 2005

Sorry about your troubles...

If you want some free plants, I've got a ton of Hornwort that i'm giving away. Let me know and i'll ship you a ziplock baggy full of it. It floats towards the top and my bettas love hiding in it.

Synirr · Nov 30, 2005

Awww, that's terrible!! At least losses were minimal! The heater in my 80 gallon decided to get stuck in the on position once and the temp shot up to 90 in no time, but I got it under control.

fishykisses · Nov 30, 2005

Same thing happened in my 10g sorority tank. it was 68, i wanted to get it up to at least 74 but i wanted to do it slowly so i turned it exactly 1 notch. I went to bed and got up the next morning and the temp was ...wait for it....102 degrees!!!!!!!
and i only noticed because i touched the glass on the way out of my room and it was HOT. All were still alive and it turned out ok. i took the heater out and the temp lowered on it's own. Nobody died - boy was i surprised!

Ben · Nov 30, 2005

try putting ice in water bottles and let that float in the tank, should cool it down faster.

hope everything is okay

DD

Elisabeth83 · Nov 30, 2005

It's happened to me as well. For some reason the heater in my Smaragdina tank went crazy. I went to do a water change and when I felt the water it felt like bath water but sometimes the water feels warm to me if my hands are cold so I wasn't too worried but when I looked at the thermometer to my shock and surprise it read I think around 90

By the morning with the help of some water changes (with the old heater out and a new one in) the temp was back to normal and my Smaragdinas were just fine. It actually got them in the mood :hey:

and I had 2 spawns right after it!

I'm sorry to hear though you lost 3 of your harlequins but I'm glad the rest of the fish are ok especially your Imbellis

lljdma06 · Nov 30, 2005

Thanks everybody. Well, I checked today and the temperature is back down to 76! Again, note the irony at work. I think devine intervention was in play, I'm not messing with it anymore. I checked the heater and nothing's broken, but I will probably not use it. The plants have also perked up quite a bit, so I think everything will be fine. Thank you JoltNBolt for your hornwort offer, but I think I'll be ok. Most of the fish fish don't look too worse for wear from their experience, I have to watch a few of the harlequins closely. They have that

"What the heck happened here?" look. They also may be missing their comrades, as their schooling behavior is not as strong. But I may wait on this until I return from Christmas break.

:rip:

My poor little rasboras.

wuvmybetta · Nov 30, 2005

awww,so sorry to hear that,ljd. I would imagine the cories were cooler at the bottom, and the bettas have that good ol' labyrinth at times like these. I'm really surprised they handled such high temps, they must have stayed low.

This is exactly why I don't use heaters in any of my tanks, even those without bettas. They just scare me and it seems they do more harm than good. I honestly believe that if you are comfortable, so are your fish. Over time. I've finally convinced my husband that it's cheaper for me to run the central heating, rather than heat each tank individually :look:

I've noticed that the bigger the tank- the steadier the temp. My 120 feels a few degrees above room temp when I test it out on occasion. Last year one of my heaters went bonkers and killed off all but one of my clown loaches when I turned it on at the start of winter. We're going to see how far we can go without this year. I guess that's a benefit of living in such a crazy place as Texas.

lljdma06 · Nov 30, 2005

wuvmybetta said:
This is exactly why I don't use heaters in any of my tanks, even those without bettas. They just scare me and it seems they do more harm than good. I honestly believe that if you are comfortable, so are your fish. Over time. I've finally convinced my husband that it's cheaper for me to run the central heating, rather than heat each tank individually I've noticed that the bigger the tank- the steadier the temp. My 120 feels a few degrees above room temp when I test it out on occasion. Last year one of my heaters went bonkers and killed off all but one of my clown loaches when I turned it on at the start of winter. We're going to see how far we can go without this year. I guess that's a benefit of living in such a crazy place as Texas.

I agree with you Wuv, and when I'm in FL, I don't use heaters, just the lights and add a humidifyer to my room. In IL, I have to use one, or I couldn't keep anything but goldfish. And my 15g and 10g is no place for goldfish! Funny, in FL I kept goldfish and should have kept labyrinth fish, and here, I keep labyrinth fish and should be keeping goldfish.

In May, I'll get it right and keep labyrinth fish in FL.

Synirr · Dec 1, 2005

Definitely agree with you Wuv, I don't normally use heaters except on fry tanks and such, and on those I use one that's about half as powerful as "needed" so there's no chance of a fish fry. Doing that means I can't bring the temp up more than a couple of degrees, but that's really all that's needed