MissMTS

Last night I set my heater to raise the temp in my 80 gallon tank to 86 degrees to treat ICH (I swear it never ends, lol). I think it may just be a result of stress on the fish from the move because all water parameters are fine.

Anyways, I woke up this morning and the tank was at 91 degrees!!! I unplugged the heater right away. I am so happy that I caught it when I did. All the fish seem fine. I did gradual smaller water changes (adding cooler water to the tank) to adjust the temp. I am glad I caught it when I did!

CHoffman

Holy moly...This happended to me but I didn't adjust it and I didn't catch it in time..Poor DP died..
I'm soooo glad you caught it!!..The ick ought to be gone..lol..

Amanda

Man..I bet the ich didn't survive that. rofl.

capekate

Ohh Kate.. glad to hear your fish made it through that high a temp!
That happened to me once on the day I brought home 17 Cardinal Tetras. Then I went out to dinner and came back to a sky high water temp...
I lost over half of my cardinals in the same day/night I brought them home.

MissMTS

Thanks ladies I am so glad that I caught it too. I think I would have been beside myself if I lost any more of my fishies at this point Some of them obviously looked really stressed out, but I don't think there was any lasting harm. I guess I need to look for a new heater...

agabr123

so glad you caught it early enough! what kind of heater?

MissMTS

Thanks Alex. I think it was a Theo Hydor.... I want to get a stealth to replace it.

Lucy

Glad your fishies are ok. Whew.
Petmountain has the best price on the stealths, even with shipping.
The link is at the top of the page.

MissMTS

Thanks Lucy I actually looked at the site earlier. I can't decide though....They have one that is rated up to 75 gallons and I am wondering if it would be okay in my 80 gallon. I am not sure if I should go with that or two smaller ones....

Angela_96

Stealth heaters rock! Im glad your fish lived through it. I need to replace a couple more of mine with stealths, I can say temp problems aren't an issue in my tanks that have them.

Lucy

You might want to go with 2 since it's only rated for up to 75g's

prairielilly

At 5wpg for 80g = 400W...if you have a bit MORE wattage than necessary, they won't need to run as often and so may last longer. If you don't have enough wattage however, they will have to run more frequently, may not last as long and may not be able to keep the tank warm or stable. Plus if you have 2 in a nice big tank, you can put one on either side and you'll have a much more even temperature throughout

Did your Theo work well for you beforehand? I don't really like mine (25W) - it's always either too warm or too cold, doesn't keep it stable like my Stealths do (I've been thoroughly converted...)

MissMTS

Nope. I've always hated this dang heater! It really doesn't keep the tank stable at all, and the temp that I set mine on never really dictated how much it heated the tank. I kind of just had to turn it until the heater came on and then wait until it turned off, and then see if the temp was good or if it needed to be adjusted more. This heater was such a pain...

prairielilly

'Every cloud has a silver lining...' yay! you get to get a heater that WORKS!

My theo is currently turned down as far as it will go (below 70) and my betta is sittin' at 79...what I'm gonna do in August I wonder....hmm, retail therapy!

agabr123

i dont like my hydor theos at all, i have one on my ten gallon set to 72 that still keeps the tank at 82. i wouldn't think about changing the setting if i couldn't watch it for several hours