Holy Cow, my waters cold

[BigMac]

I went to SanFrancisco Saturday for a Christmas party with my wife and daughter. Since we were going away over night, my wife turned off the heaters in the house.
We were gone just shy of 24 hours. When we got home the house was down to 58 deg in the middle of the day. (I know you guys in the midwest and east coasts are giggling at the toasty temps)
I peeked into my big panted tank and the cories are happy but my angelfish was wearing mittens and a hat an all my loaches are sporting sweaters..
My heater somehow got turned all the way down. It is so far behind my plants I have to push stuff out of the way to see if it some on. And, my house is normally no colder than about 65 at night so it's never been an issue.
I guess I Should be glad I had my lights to keep the ware from getting too warm. My tank was down to 68 deg!

I just checked and 12 hours later I have them up to a tropical 76..


I think its time to upgrade my heater..

[Deleted User]

Phew, good thing you were not gone longer! I'm happy the fish are doing good.

[BigMac]

Agreed!
And to think, I was worried about my dog being cold.. he forgave me already ;)

[rich311k]

Glad no harm was done. If the heater is working now that it is back on, why replace it?

Dogs like it cold. He probably enjoyed it.

[BigMac]

I know it isn't in my profile, but I'm into control. I automate buildings for energy managment as a regular day job.
I like things to work like my PH controller. I set a setpoint to activate a circuit and I expect things to come on.
What I want is a heater with a controller.. I want to montor and report a water temp and use the temp as a control point to activate an electrical circuit to turn on the heater. Then I can monitor the temp, trend the temp ( historical data to plan for the future) I can even report the temp to a PC based interface..and then I can check it from anywhere I have internet access.

[jay2487]

That sounds like something that $500 filter we were looking at the other day should do lol.

[tetra]

thats the good thing about dogs... give him a treat and hes your best friend again. I think you are very lucky with the heater. If i ever turned the heat off in the house the tank would freeze over lol

[Lady Hobbs]

If the heater moved the temp from 68-76 in 12 hours, it's working fine. It can't work turned off, however.

[Red]

I would never turn off a heater, unless if its to hot outside for the heater to work, and you dont need it for extended peroids of time. I would think twice before turning it off during the winter.

[dragoonwoman]

I'm still trying to figure out where the fish got their sweaters and mittens!

:hmm3grin2orange:

Glad you got back in time to set things straight!

[Scrup]

I've seen corries survive in a bucket that had 1/2" of ice on top. They are stubborn little fish. I think catfish are the Irish of the fish world. Glad you caught it before the others took a dive.

[Lady Hobbs]

I would never turn off a heater, unless if its to hot outside for the heater to work, and you dont need it for extended peroids of time. I would think twice before turning it off during the winter.

Me neither. I see no reason to ever remove them from the tank or unplug them.

[Deleted User]

We unplug ours when we do PWC's, but I may lower them and put them in the tanks horizontally. There have been a few times where I forgot to plug them back in... once it was the next morning before I remembered.

[Aeonflame]

This is one of the reasons I'm happy to live in a tropical climate. I never ever have to use a heater.. or even worry about temperature fluctuations.

[Deleted User]

Business trips to Florida in the summer make me happy I need heaters for my aquariums [Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

[jay2487]

Yes Jill most times here it is more of a worry that my tanks overheat than the few days of the winter I need heaters for. Sometimes I wish they made a tank a/c for the same price as a heater lol.

[Rue]

Glad your fish are okay...thumbs2:

I never unplug heaters either...unless it's for water changes and the heater gets exposed...but I've angled them so I don't even have to do that...

I have my SW tank (with the hot lights) in the basement because the house can overheat during the summer heat spells...I figured it was easier to just run a heater in the basement, than to worry about a heater AND a chiller upstairs...

[BigMac]

The heater was neither unplugged nor turned off. The heaters that were turned off were th the natural gas wall heaters we use at night. The little lever that adjusts the temp setting, for the aquarium heater, was bumped or otherwise moved.

Most of the time, its so warm here I think more about a chiller. So I think very little about checking my heaters operation or setting. Unlike my PH which I look at all the time to make sure the CO2 injection is working.

[Lady Hobbs]

Sorry. Appears many of us were shooting up the wrong alley.

Glad your fish are comfy and happy again.