[dmiles7]

All,

I woke up this morning and noticed that the RED light on my heater was on...I thought that is weird because I never see that on...so I went over and put my hand in the water to check out the water temp...SMOKING Hot....so I unplugged it and did about a 10 gallon water change and added some cooler water back in.

Well last night we had a thunderstorm and had a couple episodes of power surgers due to the storm

Do you think that could have mad the heater malfunction....all my stuff is plugged into a power strip.

anyway I hope the fish will be ok....I did not see any dead ones when I left for work

Thoughts?????

Thanks

Dave

 

[prov356]

Possible, but heaters fail all the time. I'd replace it with a smaller wattage heater. Don't use anything that can take the temp above 85 or so. More power is not good when it comes to heaters.

 

[dmiles7]

OK...so if my house temp is pretty normal and will keep the tank at 76ish then you are saying just get a small one as a security measure...

Mine was only set on 76 but the temp was 90ish...

 

[prov356]

People commonly oversize heaters. All it does is increase the risk of a tank wipeout. If a heater fails by not coming on, the fish generally won't be affected unless it's a very cold room. But, if it sticks on, it'll kill fish pretty quick. What size tank and what is the wattage of the current heater?

 

[dmiles7]

75 gallon....not at home to look but i think 300....wife just said it is at 92 degress

 

[prov356]

Borderline dangerous for the fish. I'd drop the temp with a water change.

I use a 300w on my 180. If it were me, I'd try a 150w on a 75.

 

[dmiles7]

Thanks for the advice...will be able to do a water change in an hour...thanks

 

[PfunMo]

I find for the fairly moderate temperatures we normally have even a 100 W will carry the load for a 75. If we get down in the freezing temps, the furnace will keep the room warm ( we hope). When you look at heaters it really is more likely to make them fail by getting oversized ones. What normally causes failures is the contacts and the spring gizmo that it rides on. If you have a glass that you can see through, you may be able to see the tiny little contacts. They are like a large grain of sand but each time the heater cycles on/off they pass an electrical arc. This arcing tends to weld the contacts together and the heater stays on. The other option is they get too burned and the heater doesn't heat. This sets up a situation where a small heater coming on and staying on for a longer time means fewer cycles for the contacts and they last much longer.

 

[prov356]

I suspect a 100w will do also, but part of this is trial and error. I hate to spend someone else's money, but that's really the best way. Try a 100, but maybe with the understanding that you can return it if it's too small. Of course the guy at the LFS will probably go by the old 5W/gallon rule.

 

[PfunMo]

Part of my thinking on the small heater size is due to his location. When it gets down to cold around this part of the country, we're talking 30. It can do wild things but getting enough heat to the tank is an entirely different question here than lots of places. We have to pay more to cool than to heat!

 

[dmiles7]

well...i did a couple water changes and have it down to 82 degrees....and of course the heater is not plugged in....

it does get a little cold here in the winter....

so would a 100W heater be ok?

Thanks

Dave

 

[prov356]

so would a 100W heater be ok?

Comes down to room temp. I'd probably go 150, but if it's always over 70 in the room, then a 100 could be fine. Neither will cook your fish, or at least quickly. I wish there was a reliable calculator out there. I've seen this one, but not sure of it's accuracy. It suggests a 150 for your tank if room temp doesn't go below 70 and you want a max temp of 84. I'm assuming .5 glass.

 

[PfunMo]

A 100 watt works for me here in the Austin area for a 75 gallon. We got to 10 degrees this winter but it is for such a short time that the room temperature never drops much. It takes quite a long time for that much water to change temperature more than a few degrees. The smaller the tank, the quicker it can change but 100 or 150 would be good.

 

[prov356]

So, you folks in Texas don't have whole house heating? Am I understanding that right? Is that why winter temps matter?

 

[PfunMo]

We have whole house heating but the builders like to build really cheap and sometimes it seems as if they forgot to put insulation and windows in the barn! I'm from farther North and it just boggles my mind trying to figure building codes here. The "standard answer" for how to keep pipes from freezing is to leave them running when it's cold!

 

[dmiles7]

Just another update since the tank has had a chance to sit overnight

House Temp is 75 degrees

Tank Temp 79.6 with a digital thermometer

So it all looks well

Thanks

 

[the blur]

2) 100 watt heaters would be perfect. opposite sides of the tank.
if 1 fails, you won;t cook your fish.
on a cold night, both will come on.

 

[prov356]

Adding another heater isn't necessary. There's nothing to be gained IMHO. These heaters are not designed to work in tandem unless they're on a single controller.

 

[the blur]

2 heaters are not working in tandem. they are totally independant of each other; operating totally indepent of each other. That is what makes the reliability factor so much higher.

Take it a step further & plug them into 2 different outlets, that are on 2 different circuit breakers.

 

[prov356]

I don't to debate this with you again. Two heaters aren't needed and add no safety factor IMHO. They only increase the risk if oversized as most do. That's all I've got to say about it. Take the last word.