Halibut

Hi all, I just recently bought 2 aqarium kits from pet smart 1 10 gallon and 1 55 gallon. The heater on the 10 gallon is flucuating wildly sometimes greater than 10 degrees and last night was having trouble reaching even 76 degrees. We had an amonia spike in that tank so we did a 50% water change on it maybe the night before we started seeing this issue. The heater is verticle in the tank and is made by All-Glass. TC(Temp probe) is in far corner

Also my 55gal tank's heater(All-Glass) fluctuates about 3 degrees over the course of the day(as low as 76.0 up to 78.9), is this normal?

Happy Easter to all not working today

Dino

Welcome to the site!!!!

Sorry to hear you are having problems.

As you can probably guess, properly working heaters should not jump around like that.

Saddly, the equipment that gets put into kits is not always the top of the line products.

I would replace the heaters with ones from Visitherm.

susitna-flower

Hi, Halibut, WELCOME TO FISHLORE! I just love your name!

Sounds like you are off to a good start, Dino has the answer....Maybe your LFS would give you some kind of reimbursement on those....doesn't sound right that they wouldn't work, so soon....

A good heater is a must, you can fry your fish, which is worse than a little cool.....and it can happen fast if you aren't watching.. Glad you found us, and post often, lots of fishy folks here and we always like new ones.

COBettaCouple

Welcome to Fishlore.

That really stinks about those heaters and I'm not sure if that's normal since i've not have that brand of heater, but I'd think it's not and those are defective heaters than petsmart should replace.

Halibut

Thanks all for the replies, I'm going to go ahead and get a couple visitherms which are way cheap on drfostersmith right now and I need frontline anyways with flea season upon us. As far as getting reimbursment from petsmart I wont hold my breath but I suppose it's possible so I'll try later this week when I'm off.

I had my name for dinner last night and that was all I could think of for a username not mustang related, see you around the forum

COBettaCouple

I guess it's a good thing you didn't have poopoo platter for dinner.

Yea, i hear you on getting a fair shake from a big chain store, but I guess it's worth a shot.. maybe the local manager will surprise you.

susitna-flower

CBC you kill me !

Halibut

Went ahead and installed my stealth today along with a 2nd TC. I have a little less than 2 degree difference between the 2 sides of the tank but that should even out some as things stabalize since I also did a 30% water change. I have it horizontal about 8" above the bottom this time but have to move the heater over a couple inches to have it centered in the tank. Havnt installed the one for the 10 gallon tank yet.

Halibut

Not real happy with the visitherm. Got up this morning and saw the widest temp swing my tank has had yet. I set it for 76 put it in the tank let it settle in the water with filers running for about 30 min turned it on and now this morning Im at 72 degrees. Thinking about putting the "cheap" heater back in since it never swung like this.

COBettaCouple

Which tank and what wattage is the Visitherm? I have a 100W in a 30g tall that stays constant.

Halibut

250W in my 55G, was surprised to see it drop so low. I wonder if its because of the large water change at the same time. I raised the temp dial to just below 77 and it seemed to control today between 75-76 constant today. I also raised it in the tank and moved it over some as well as moving the filters in closer to the center of the tank. Hopefully that'll help some. I dont mind so much what temp the thermometer reads so long as it's fairly constant. Would 2 heaters give me a more stable temp?

COBettaCouple

Yea, I think in longer tanks, 2 heaters, each placed about 1/3rd from an end give you the best heat distribution.

Halibut

Well 1 temp probe read 74 the other dropped to 72.9 with the heater set betwen about 76.5 and 77. Could be the digital thermometers are wrong, though thats a 2 degree drop on both. With my old 200watt heater set at 75 my temp probe read between 75-77.9 now it doesnt hit 75. I'm not convinced this heater is working right.

Halibut

With 2 250W stealth's I'm running at about 77 with a 1-1.5 degree difference over night. I think my heating issue's are past.

COBettaCouple

Sounds good.