Heater Disaster

[debbie1971]

Hi all,

Have had a terrible disaster. Did my water change yesterday and all was well. Went out for the evening last night and when I got home had lost 13 of my 18 fish! I must have caught the heater stat when changing the water and when I got home the water was 39 degrees. I got all the dead fish out and quickly added cold water until the tank temp was down to safe levels. My 5 rummy nosed tetras have survived the night and are all swimming about together normally this morning.

My question is have I trashed all my filter media by the temperature being so high? My son has said he will buy me some more fish today but I don't know if I should wait and see if it all returns to normal first and the rummy's are ok before I put more fish in?

Any advice would be much appeciated.

Devastated Debbie!!!!

 

[Fishkeeper4567]

Bacteria usually dies of at very high temperature so you might be alright, but I would check with other members.

P.S Why do heaters even have 30 plus temps on the dial?

 

[debbie1971]

I don't think they do but my heater is playing up- it is inside the filter cartridge with a dial at the top to adjust it. The dial is set at 16 degrees but the thermometer is showing the tank temp at 26 degrees. I am going to get a new heater today!!

 

[hillmar77]

I'm currently using a stealth heater and it's pretty accurate. Also there is a red and green light that tells you it's running and the black molded case is pretty sleek inside the tank. On my 10 gallon I'm running a ebo jäger and it's pretty good too, it has a orange light on the side and a blue dial for adjustment. I just bought a fluval E series heater during Christmas to replace the strealth if it ever went. It's got all the bells and whistles on it.... Protected casing around the heater, digital temp readout, red nob as temp adjuster to name a few!

 

[L4byr1nth]

My Fluval 'M' series mirrored heater does the job admirably. While not having all the bells and whistles of the 'E' series, it blends much better into the tank.

Ben.

 

[Skins]

If your worried about your beneficial bacterias being killed off Debbie i would just perform daily parameter checks just to make sure. I use the fluval E300 in one of my tanks, very good.

Keith.

 

[debbie1971]

Hi all,

Thanks for all the recommendations- didn't get it today but am going tomorrow- tank seems to have settled and my son bought me 2 dwarf gouramis and 6 neon tetras to cheer me up . Could cry seeing them all swimming about happily this evening, hopefully the drama is done for now .

All water tests are within normal parameters so hopefully no harm done (apart from all my deceased fishies which I am still devastated about ).

Debbie