Help! Heater Broke, Most My Fish Are Fried!

[tamara]

Alright i left over night to visit my dad, and my mom called me this afternoon to tell me my tank was hot, i thought it was normal but i came over anyways and found my tank at about 100F. I guess my heater broke or something!!!, there's NO way that could have happened by it self. I'm doing water cahnges right now, finding more and more dead fish. So far my toll count has been 8 guppies and my two cory catfish! What else can i do besides water changes?!?!?!

 

[RiiCKYOMD]

Alright i left over night to visit my dad, and my mom called me this afternoon to tell me my tank was hot, i thought it was normal but i came over anyways and found my tank at about 100F. I guess my heater broke or something!!!, there's NO way that could have happened by it self. I'm doing water cahnges right now, finding more and more dead fish. So far my toll count has been 8 guppies and my two cory catfish! What else can i do besides water changes?!?!?!

Erm you could throw the ehater away and put the fish in something voernight that will be an average temp for them and tomorrow go buy a heater... Do a 90% water change with the fish out.. to cool the weater down.. is the water hot?


soryr to hea bout ya fish

 

[tamara]

By the way, i right away threw out the heater. And i'll be putting in my spare one as soon as i get it to regular temperatures.PLEASE HELP ME!!The water is the temperature that i would probably take a shower in! Actually it might be hotter than that... considering it is 100degress Farenheight

 

[RiiCKYOMD]

By the way, i right away threw out the heater. And i'll be putting in my spare one as soon as i get it to regular temperatures.
PLEASE HELP ME!!

If the tank is hot then do a real big water change... but if its cool now then dont worry and put the heater in

 

[tamara]

...the temperature doesn't change that fast. it's still at 100degrees farenheight.

 

[three-fingers]

Take out the heater and put a bottle of frozen water or a bag of sealed food bag of anything frozen floating in the water.

Remove all the dead fish you can find and do a 75% water change.

Whenever the temperature drops to something acceptable, take the frozen stuff out.

Test for ammonia and nitrite.

If either is present, just do another water change.

Your fish will be OK without a heater until you can buy a new one, but do so as soon as possible.

May I ask, what brand of heater were you using and how old was it?

 

[tamara]

Actually i'm not sure of the brand of the heater, but it came iwth my 20 gallon tank [i upgraded to a larger tank] and i only got the tank 2 maybe 3 months ago!

 

[RiiCKYOMD]

Dont put the ice in.. because even when you take the ice out... it will still drop the temp and after putting the ehater in it will still take a while to get it perfect

water change is the key




i did that with an axeltole once... the animal in the tank is not impriotant the temperature is to make sure they survive

 

[three-fingers]

Dont put the ice in.. because even when you take the ice out... it will still drop the temp and after putting the ehater in it will still take a while to get it perfect

After you take the ice out, it will only drop to room temperature...no problem.

I personally really wouldn't risk putting the heater back in if it's caused this, the temperature isn't going to be perfect until a new heater is bought.
In the meantime room temperature (22-24 degrees celcius) will be perfectly fine for most community species and a hell of a lot better than 100F.

 

[CruX]

My Mums tank had the same problem, the thermostat stopped reading the temperature correctly, we froze bottles of water and floated them. Once the temp had got to room temperature we put a new heater in.

 

[tamara]

Yes well so far now the death toll is 19 [17 guppies&my 2cories]
and 22 survivors... ones floating upside down though...hopefully they make it!
It's odd though, all the adult guppies died, leaving the fry/teenage guppies still alive
[And to think, this morning i was oging to buy an angel to eat all the fry-the heater did the job for me.. but it's still sad ]
The brand of the heater just said "Aquarium Heater SA" -i threw it out along with the 19 dead fish.
i will only put my spare heater in when the temperature drops back to a better temperature.

 

[tamara]

Alright, jsut thought i'd let you all know i got the water down to about 82/83 degrees put the fish back in [acclimating them of course] And that 20 died, and i have 23 in the water, but i'm still missing 3 or 4 fish...they're most likely dead, will this be a big problem?

 

[CruX]

Alright, jsut thought i'd let you all know i got the water down to about 82/83 degrees put the fish back in [acclimating them of course] And that 20 died, and i have 23 in the water, but i'm still missing 3 or 4 fish...they're most likely dead, will this be a big problem?

Ideally you need to find them, if they are dead they will cause water problems. if you really can't find them then I would suggest you keep an eye on your stats, at the 1st sign of anything wrong start with the water changes and body hunts. Have you removed all ornaments from the tank, we noticed that some fish in my mums tank when they were being boiled got stressed and tried to hide in the ornaments.

 

[tamara]

yup i checked everywhere but under the rocks...i've swished around them though, but i haven't literly taken them all out..
And so far all my stats are good 0 all around.

 

[CruX]

Sounds like you are on the mend then, sorry you have lost so much. Keep an eye on the stats, if they creep up you might have a few dead bodies still in there.

When this happened to my mum she was on holiday, I offered to feed the fish while they were away and they said no. If they had I might have spotted it for them. We popped round so the kids could see them when they came back and my step dad was running round like a madman trying to save the fish. The only survivor was a plec in the end.