I recently set up a 55 gal tank as some of you may remember. Well the heater malfunctioned and even on its lowest setting sent the temp in my tank over 100. Needless to say I lost all but 2 of my fish . I removed the heater, let the tank sit for a couple of days to cool back down. Well I restocked it with fish last night and am very happy. NO I did not replace the heater and I am not going to at this time. I am researching different heaters.

So has anyone else ever had this happen with a heater in a fishtank?

when my sis had a community freshwater with guppies and shrimp...they all got literally cooked and i think only one survived, and it seemed to be brain damaged. the fish i have now are comfortable at 83 degrees and actually may survive a 15 degree spike in temp, but they're hearty fish. my mom's saltwater tank used to be so beautiful...until she lost interest in it and let it go to crap. what kind of tank do you have? fresh or salt? what kinds of fish did you lose?

I had it happen once and it devastated me! I lost some almost priceless (rare) tropical fish. But you need a heater for sure if you plan on keeping tropical fish.

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Originally posted by Kitsune:
when my sis had a community freshwater with guppies and shrimp...they all got literally cooked and i think only one survived, and it seemed to be brain damaged. the fish i have now are comfortable at 83 degrees and actually may survive a 15 degree spike in temp, but they're hearty fish. my mom's saltwater tank used to be so beautiful...until she lost interest in it and let it go to crap. what kind of tank do you have? fresh or salt? what kinds of fish did you lose?

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I have a fresh water tank. I lost several very large angel fish, all the neons, balloon mollies, swordtails, and my cory's.

I had a salt water tank years ago, with just seahorses and sea anenomies. It was wonderful. But yes alot of work. Someday I will do it again.

i finally got my piranha to eat some meat ^_^ it's so much better for them...tho i think i'll have to graduate up from chicken liver to something more healthy like beef heart or salmon. they stopped eating each other, lol...i wanted to start a seahorse tank, but since i'm in a rental and i don't know if i'll have to move in a hurry for one reason or another, i decided to wait to get a fragile setup until i have a stable address. i have a beautiful hexagonal 65 gallon with a stand, it would make a gorgeous reef tank or seahorse tank...it would just take years to build it up to what i'd want. and i'm a little heartbroken that i can't have a reef tank with a humahuma....they're my favorites, they're fantastic!
for now it's piranha...and i love them. Porthos, Athos and Aramis.
i used to have a pair of albino oscars, Gus and Harriet...they were great. just like a dog. i put some colored pebbles in their tank once and they separated them into piles by color...it was really something. the male was huge, 11 inches, and very agressive to anyone that would walk in the room. he'd come up to the glass and puff his gills up and bite at you, like "i'm gonna getcha...i'ma gonna getcha..." and forget about putting your hand in the tank, i found out about his teeth the hard way. still have a scar on my thumb

Pape, did you get the right size for the tank? I boiled my fish one time, by having the wrong size heater for the tank. It wasn't a malfuntioning heater it was the malfuntion of the user. I went to a bigger tank, and heater. I pretty much cooked my fishes. I was soo mad at myself. The one good thing was they were not expensive fish, but I did have some babies . Learned my lesson on that one.
Kit thats cute about the oscars, funny how they will do things like that.

Dals,

I havent replaced the heater yet as the tank has been maintaining a temp of 76 with out one and the fish are doing fine. I am suppose to go shopping today, so will look at them while I am out.

Oh yea, the one that malfunctioned was for a 55 gal tank which is what I have. I plan on adding one soon but as long as the fish are active and thriving am not super concerned at this point.

PaP,

I've had fish tanks for years, both fresh and salt water. Many times during the summer months I didn't use a heater at all. Sometimes even in the winter. It depends on the temp that your fish require, but if your house stays at a fairly even temp year round, many times there is no need to even use a heater. But, as I said it depends on your fish. Some fish thrive at 75 degrees, while others (saltwater mostly) need the temp to be higher but in my case, I used compact flourescent lighting and/or metal halide lighting and that alone put out enough heat that an additional heater wasn't needed. BUT, if you do feel you need a heater I recommend the kind that are totally submersible vs. the kind that hang over the tank. I've found that they seem to keep the tank at a more even temp.......

I have several aquariums 3/30s, 2/40s, 1/38hex,l/48bow, l0/l0s, I breed rare type goodieds and guppies and my bow is salt, Have had this happen to the hang type heaters, I now strickly use submersable heaters, more expensive but well worth the money just set temp and all set, with a 50 you will need a heater or you will eventually have parisite problems. hope this helps

have you ever heard of killi fish? if you like to breed fish, i would suggest breeding them. they're pretty easy to breed, and they're an endangered species. i know a few people in my area that are breeding them like crazy and giving them away just to keep the species alive...they're really pretty too, kind of a cross between a fancy guppy and a neon. they go for around $6-$7 at the local pet stores...but i've only seen them in places these people have donated them to.

here's a few sites with some pics of them...they come in a lot of different colors.

http://community.webshots.com/album/11984820yvBffPpiew

http://www.pldaniels.com/fish/200303161721/0325_002.jpg

http://images.killi.net/o/OCC/00-0-Copr_1997_Anthony_C_Terceira-196x81x24_5268.jpg

http://viewimages.killi.net/

When you buy a heater the knob is not always adjusted to the right range of temperatures to go in the fish tank. So... put the heater in the tank(Unplugged)for 20 minutes....Turn it to the lowest setting...plug it in....every five minutes turn up the heater one knotch/line/degree...in 5 minutes...do the same thing until the light goes on...then, back off until light goes off. Tank water is good between 72-82 degrees. Make sure you have a thermometer that has been in the tank for atleast an hour.