Why I Hate Heaters Part 2

[severina]

I woke up today and noticed the weather was dramatically warmer...stretched got up to go turn on the fishy lights...and when I got to my 5 gallon with my Betty Betta in it...she was floating.

I scooped her out and examined her...her skin was coming off and she had a gash in her side. It was a sad sight...I prepared myself to sterilize the entire tank, becuase I just couldn't figure out what happened...I started boiling water and getting the bleach out. Then I went back to the tank to take it apart..

"Wow...this water is really hot," I thought. I looked at my thermometer and it was 102 degrees!

*dies*

Fish killers, they are. RIP Betty.

 

[DanDanUK]

I woke up today and noticed the weather was dramatically warmer...stretched got up to go turn on the fishy lights...and when I got to my 5 gallon with my Betty Betta in it...she was floating.

I scooped her out and examined her...her skin was coming off and she had a gash in her side. It was a sad sight...I prepared myself to sterilize the entire tank, becuase I just couldn't figure out what happened...I started boiling water and getting the bleach out. Then I went back to the tank to take it apart..

"Wow...this water is really hot," I thought. I looked at my thermometer and it was 102 degrees!

*dies*

Fish killers, they are. RIP Betty.

BLEACH..... You were gonna use bleach !

And was you thinking about using your tank again ? you should never use bleach it leaves traces of bleach behind it takes ages to get rid of all the traces of bleach.

If you want to sterilize your tank you can buy specilized sterilizer from your LFS !

Your heater you do realize you can turn them down i'm asuming you have a heater with thermostat ?

 

[TammyLiz]

I am sorry to hear about your betta

DanDanUK, even heaters with a thermostat can malfunction and be stuck "on", baking the tank.

The kind with no thermostat are evil and any change in the room temperature or extra heat from a incancandescent light can overheat the tank. Once my grandmother was taking care of my fish for a few days and she turned on the light with the heater on in warm weather because she thought it was pretty, even though I told her not to turn it on. She left it on overnight and my fish all died (3 guppies in a 2 gallon tank). They were my first fish and I cried!

 

[Bahamut]

My problem is that my heater doesn't heat the tank at all. I bought a $20 heater and within 3 days it broke. I left it on all the time thinking it would know when to heat and when not to heat. The heater worked for those three days (very well, i might add)...then all of a sudden it stopped working. I really don't want to waste money on another heater if the same scenario is to happen again.

Now, I'm just manually heating my tank with hot bags of plastic bags and putting them in the tank. It's quite effective...but tiring.

 

[Animation]

Get a heater made a a ruputable company like clearseal or fluva,
It may cost a little extra but shouldn't break
UL about your betta mate

 

[wuvmybetta]

Firstly, I'm sorry to hear of your fish. How tragic. I hate heaters too.

Secondly, I bleach everything. There's no harm in bleaching a tank provided you rinse properly.

 

[Synirr]

Oh no, Betty!
This is why I avoid using heaters whenever possible, and always use one with half the wattage recommended for my tank size so if it malfunctions it can't cook everything.

Bleach is just chlorine... meaning it dissipates if allowed to dry completely and can be removed with dechlor.

 

[Elise]

oh Severina, so sorry to hear about that! Poor Betty, what a way to go! Damned heaters, I don't use them because our house stays relatively temperate...except for in the kitchen (we have the windows open all the time to let the smoke out from when Mom's cooking...) I use a heater in my 10 gal but I have it on low watt as well.

Rest in Peace, Betty.

 

[Tolak]

Sorry to hear about your fish. Even some of the better heaters are defective. A friend of me bought 6 Ebo Jager heaters, 4 were inoperative in less than 3 months. I also believe in going a little undersize with heaters, they do sometimes stick permanently on, or permanently off.

Bleach is fine to use when sterilizing aquatics equipment, as long as it's used properly. I'd like to hear about any problem's you've had using bleach, and the procedure you've used DanDan. This is the place to put it; http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=119809&hl=