What Am I Doing Wrong?!

Paper Spiders
  • #1
I just added my latest impulse buy from my LFS (clown pleco) last night an I noticed that he and some of my pygmy cories were not looking so hot. I tried not to worry about it, but later I glanced at my thermometer and saw that it had no temperature reading. None. I stuck my hand in the tank and noticed how warm it was. Panicking now, I started doing water changes, dripping cold conditioned water to lower the temperature.

When the temp started showing up on the thermometer, it was 88 degrees!

Completely flipping out now, I ripped the heater out of the tank and kept doing the slow water changes. I thought maybe, maybe somehow the heater just needed to be reset or something, so I adjusted the temperature (no, I don't know what it was at before) and stuck it back in the tank. It didnt turn on. Even as the water cooled to 76*, it didnt turn on. It was set to 78*. When I turned the thermometer up to 80*, it suddenly turned on. Huh.

Convinced that my heater was haunted, I rushed to Petco at 8:55 PM, and bought an Aqueon Pro 100 W Heater. The water had chilled to 74* and when I put the new heater in the water...nothing. It eventually turned on and I went to bed.

I checked on it in the middle of the night, 6 hours later it had stayed at 74*. Another 2 hours later it is almost at 76*.

What the heck?! I have a 20 gallon long, and I guess I can put the heater in a better place, but WHY IS IT SO SLOW? Should I return it? Buy a better brand?
 
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AquaticJ
  • #2
Convinced that my heater was haunted, I rushed to Petco at 8:55 PM, and bought an Aqueon
This part made me laugh out loud hahaha.

What did you set the new heater to?
 
Paper Spiders
  • Thread Starter
  • #3
Whoops, forgot to mention that! The new heater is set to 80*, just because it seems to turn off at 78*. I want it to stay at 78*.
 
AquaticJ
  • #4
Well, I think it’s much better to underheat than overheat, so just adjust as necessary. Maybe setting it to 82 gets it to 78, its trial and error. I’ve tried so many brands of heaters and almost never have a heater actually heat it where I set it. Aqueon pro is a good heater.
 
Paper Spiders
  • Thread Starter
  • #5
OK, That makes me feel much, much better.

I feel so irresponsible, leaving my tank overnight with a possible faulty heater. I'm happy my fish were strong enough to handle 88*

Hopefully none die with this 12 degree fluctuation in under 12 hours
 

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