Watch Out For A Faulty Heater...

[martyn21uk]

After 2 and half years of my small tropical fish tank, set up with so much help from reading and posting on this site, I came home Sunday evening to find all of my fish dead. The thermostat had broken on the heater and it had locked on whilst we were out basically cooking all of the fish... I have stripped down and am stepping out of the fish game for the time being. It's been a hard blow to take but hopefully I'll come back some time soon and I'll have all the fun of fishless cycling!!

Have fun all and watch out for those bloody heaters...

 

[frida]

Oh no, I'm sorry to hear your loss. It must be such a blow.
Maybe it's just me but it seems like breaking heaters seems to be a common issue?? I seem to have read many such cases recently
Perhaps it's an idea to make a list of heaters that have broken (make, age, conditions when in use - was it hot outside for example?) and see if there is something in common with these cases.

 

[mixmaster jay]

oh dear sorry about that well gutted for you

i agree it is getting more common nowadays it must be a build quality thing the factory just knocking them out for quick £££££££

 

[lilacamy931]

Very sorry to hear of your loss and hope you will come back to the fishkeeping business soon, hugs x

 

[ellena]

Sorry to hear that, it must have been awful Nothing you could have done either.
I know you must be feeling dreadful, but if you do think you will give it another go, fishless cycling is a long, hard, emotionally draining (for me personally anyway) slog. If you don't want to get more fish straight away (completely understandable) I'd at least get a bottle of ammonia and dose it daily to keep the filter bacteria alive

 

[martyn21uk]

Sorry to hear that, it must have been awful Nothing you could have done either.
I know you must be feeling dreadful, but if you do think you will give it another go, fishless cycling is a long, hard, emotionally draining (for me personally anyway) slog. If you don't want to get more fish straight away (completely understandable) I'd at least get a bottle of ammonia and dose it daily to keep the filter bacteria alive

I know what is involved but I have already striped down the tank and filter and cleaned it all out so I killed all of the millions of friendly bacteria already. If and when I do get going again though my mum has a tank with the identical Tetratec filter to myself so I will be nabbing some of her media to kick start and speed through the painful part of fishless cycling hopefully!

 

[NaughtyT]

I really feel for you,the same thing happened to me on Sunday http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=297085

 

[star4]

how awful for you . Its the trouble with heaters there is no way of testing them!

 

[afishdude]

That is why I don't run my heaters in the summer.

 

[NaughtyT]

That is why I don't run my heaters in the summer.

You replied with the same thing on my disaster thread,here in the UK it's not that simple,up here in Scotland we had temps of below 12c last week so heaters have been needed.

 

[frida]

That is why I don't run my heaters in the summer.

You replied with the same thing on my disaster thread,here in the UK it's not that simple,up here in Scotland we had temps of below 12c last week so heaters have been needed.

It's true... The weather in the UK has been up and down and completely unpredictable lately! If only we had stable weather!

Edit: by the way, what brand was your heater?

 

[confused mermaid]

I have been reading about this issue and am petrified of it myself. Is there anything you guys think could help avoid this? Like perhaps replacing your heater once a year or something like that? I suppose it wouldn't reduce the chances because any heater can be faulty..... Hmmmmmm

 

[Geoff1991]

Thermostat.

The heater plugs into it, the thermostat plugs into the wall and a probe goes into the water. You then set a cut off point and if the water temperature goes above the set temperature, power to the heater is cut off.

 

[frida]

Thermostat.

The heater plugs into it, the thermostat plugs into the wall and a probe goes into the water. You then set a cut off point and if the water temperature goes above the set temperature, power to the heater is cut off.

My understanding was the thermostat failed in all these cases?

 

[nickelplates]

Thermostat.

The heater plugs into it, the thermostat plugs into the wall and a probe goes into the water. You then set a cut off point and if the water temperature goes above the set temperature, power to the heater is cut off.

My understanding was the thermostat failed in all these cases?

I think the idea is you have two, the one in the heater stat normally does the work but if it fails the external one (set to a slightly higher temperature) takes over. I have often thought of doing this but never seemed to get round to it but it is the right answer, you will find the same thing is done in industry all the time and in some domestic appliances too. For example if you have an electric deep fat fryer you will see it has two temperature probes in the oil for exactly the same reason.