Mayday Mayday!!!

[nminunni]

I woke up on Friday to see one of my heaters was on. I thought it was a little strange as I hadn't seen that one on in the past couple of months, went to work figuring with the weather changing maybe my temps had dropped low enough for the heater to kick on. However, when I came home from work 11 hours later, the heater was still on. I knew right there I was screwed. The temps got up near 95 and just about everything was fried. The water felt like a nice hot bath.

Casualties are as follows:

1 purple firefish
1 large 4 headed hammer coral
1 toadstool leather
1 pipe organ
1 piece of rock with GSP
2 cleaner shrimps
1 emerald crab
1 sand sifting starfish


Still left standing: 1 small BTA, 1 clown, 1 hippo and a couple zoas. The tank feels so empty! I went to the store to buy a new CUC and ended up with a brittle star, which isnt really compatible with the livestock direction I think I am going, but that is in my other thread.

http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/sale-trade/66827-wtt-serpent-star-cleaner-shrimps.html



Just goes to show ya, even when you think you got everything going right, something can sneak up and screw you from behind.:smash:

 

[Awibrandy]

So so sorry Nick!;( Had that happen to my fowlr about 5 years ago. I just got, and installed a rk2 on my reef for a little extra security against these darn heaters. Although I don't think it would have helped with my heater episode this past April.;(

 

[nminunni]

Thanks awi, its sh!tty, just figured I would share my misery!!! hahah.

 

[KathyC]

So sorry to read about this..rip fishies...

Do you have a controller you can use with the heater?

 

[nminunni]

No I dont have a controller, I run a fairly small, basic operation, just a 20g tank with a HOB filter and lots of LR. This is the first major problem that I have had since March (which was completely my fault).

 

[ycrazyy]

So sorry to hear! I had a similar situation not more than a month ago when my tank sprung a leak. Put everything into a couple of tubs and one of the heaters just never turned off. Fortunately, that bucket only had a bunch of LR and some zoa's (which I do miss) which fried. The other tub had my livestock....

 

[nminunni]

yea man, you lucked out!

 

[Solace Aquatics LLC]

Sorry to hear that. I agree with Awibrandy, adding a controller is never a bad idea, and for your purposes I am sure you could get away with the new Reef Keeper Lite Level 1, which is comparison to several other systems is very inexpensive. It will give you a piece of mind and better control over not only the temp, but lights, pH and basic monitoring functions.

Sorry to hear about your loss.

 

[Awibrandy]

Just remember that any controller is only going to keep your reef safe from over heating. It will not tell you the heater is shot, and not coming on. Or like what happened to me in April where the stupid stealth heater not only burned out, but leaked something in to the water that killed almost all of my fish.;(

 

[nminunni]

Yea agreed. stupid things!

thanks

 

[Brian65901]

What i've done

I have 2 heaters rather than one which don't have the power to cook my tank quickly. I have them hooked up to a controller that is set at 78 and the heaters are set to 78.3 on there internal thermostat I also check them them for proper operation every few months. I am planning on replacing them when they hit 2 years old just to make sure I have newer one working. And I still keep my fingers crossed as I know nothing if fail safe I just try to stay ahead of it.

 

[nminunni]

I also had two heaters (my 20g tank was using 2 10g heaters) I was not running a controller, but they were both less than a year old. 1 small heater can, infact, heat up your tank if it is on for long enough.

 

[greggnyce]

If you want to keep it simple go for a ranco controller, you can get them used for under $100.00. It will only control the heater.