# All my fish dead!!!!!



## geckoface (Mar 12, 2007)

I had been out all day and came home about 6pm to find all of my tropical fish in my 4ft tank stone-cold dead or unfortunately in this case, red hot dead. There was obviously a major fault with me tank heater as it had risen from 80f to 105f which obviously cooked all of my fish.

I have had these fish a good few years and i am absolutely devastated.I hadnt even contemplated that a heater could malfunction this drastically.the heater is only just over a year old.

Has this happened to anyone else?:devil:


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## cmullins (Feb 20, 2008)

sorry to hear that mate, luckly my heater cant get any hotter than 29c so that only fish that it might catch out short term will probs be my neons


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## connor 1213 (Apr 6, 2009)

complain!


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## Trillian (Jul 14, 2008)

Oh that is just awful...:gasp:

Unfortunately, yes I do know of it happening to someone else. I'd definitely take the heater back and complain. At the very least, they could replace some of the stock for you. I'm paranoid about heater malfunction and check the tank thermometers every morning just in case. I've had two heaters break on me but in those cases, they stopped working so the temperature dropped as opposed to getting stuck on, as in your case..:devil:


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## Heart4Darts (Oct 10, 2009)

Make sure before going back to complain, you take photo's of your tank with the dead fish inside, and and take a photo of the temp gauge on your tank so they can see what temp it reached after breaking, otherwise they will try and give your a load of crap about it wasnt the heater.
sorry to hear about your loss.


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## purpleskyes (Oct 15, 2007)

Best thing to do to avoid this happening is to get 2 lower wattage heaters instead of 1 of the recommended tank size wattage. If one breaks "on" the other will turn off and that tank will take much longer to heat up to dangerous levels so more chance of noticing. If it breaks in the off position then the other is there as back-up.


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## Tyrant (Feb 19, 2009)

I've had a similar thermostat failure killing fish I'd kept for years. 
When I set up another tank I'll be looking for some kind of fail safe thermostat.


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## Stan193 (May 27, 2009)

I've had it happen to me severa timesL heaters are really crap. 
I had a pair of convict cichlids given that I didnt want and the heater overheated and killed them, had the same thing happen with a polypterous that was kept on its own, it killed it. I also had it happen to a marine tank and killed everything. My brother had some fish of mine in his attic and the heater stopped working and they all died from the cold. I've had heaters conk several other times but cought them in time. I think your better off with a seperate stat than heater/stat combined.


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## Grond (Jun 17, 2008)

purpleskyes said:


> Best thing to do to avoid this happening is to get 2 lower wattage heaters instead of 1 of the recommended tank size wattage. If one breaks "on" the other will turn off and that tank will take much longer to heat up to dangerous levels so more chance of noticing. If it breaks in the off position then the other is there as back-up.


Now that is actually a very good idea!

Sorry about your fish!


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## DragonFish66 (Sep 13, 2009)

sorry to hear that mate i have read about heaters and they recon u should be replacing them about every five years or so on average life. I have had one last over ten years before it packed in i agree its a good thing to add a extra stat for the price of them as the heaterstats are not that reliable the quickest one of mine to pack in was 18 months so u never know


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## MJ75 (Feb 5, 2009)

purpleskyes said:


> Best thing to do to avoid this happening is to get 2 lower wattage heaters instead of 1 of the recommended tank size wattage. If one breaks "on" the other will turn off and that tank will take much longer to heat up to dangerous levels so more chance of noticing. If it breaks in the off position then the other is there as back-up.


 
Yep it happens. More often that you might think. The advise I've quoted is actually very good. It also provides some redundancy if one fails to add any heat too. It's especially good if you have a larger tank.

Tetratec heaters are'nt bad.


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## Trillian (Jul 14, 2008)

purpleskyes said:


> Best thing to do to avoid this happening is to get 2 lower wattage heaters instead of 1 of the recommended tank size wattage. If one breaks "on" the other will turn off and that tank will take much longer to heat up to dangerous levels so more chance of noticing. If it breaks in the off position then the other is there as back-up.


That's what I plan on doing when I need to replace the heaters in the larger tanks. : victory:


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## geckoface (Mar 12, 2007)

thanks for your advice everyone.I unfortunately cleaned my tank out before taking a photo and ive disposed of the heater so thats my fault.
I like the idea of two smaller heaters. Can i just clarify though,that would mean that if i need 300w i can use two 150w heaters set to correct temperature?


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## Grond (Jun 17, 2008)

geckoface said:


> thanks for your advice everyone.I unfortunately cleaned my tank out before taking a photo and ive disposed of the heater so thats my fault.
> I like the idea of two smaller heaters. Can i just clarify though,that would mean that if i need 300w i can use two 150w heaters set to correct temperature?


Yes that would be the idea!

Would keep your tank the right temp, but act as insurance each way if one broke.


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## Caz (May 24, 2007)

All i've ever done is ran the in tank heater off a habistat on/off thermostat. If the in tank heater fails and sticks on the habistat - set 2 degrees higher - will turn it off. I've had 3 fish tank heaters stick on over the years in my marine tanks - danger of bi-metal thermostats i'm afraid, but the habistat has saved the tank every time.


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## fishboy (Aug 7, 2007)

MJ75 said:


> Yep it happens. More often that you might think. _*The advise I've quoted is actually very good*_. It also provides some redundancy if one fails to add any heat too. It's especially good if you have a larger tank.
> 
> Tetratec heaters are'nt bad.



That's because it was from me  was on mels laptop


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## fishboy (Aug 7, 2007)

Caz said:


> All i've ever done is ran the in tank heater off a habistat on/off thermostat. If the in tank heater fails and sticks on the habistat - set 2 degrees higher - will turn it off. I've had 3 fish tank heaters stick on over the years in my marine tanks - danger of bi-metal thermostats i'm afraid, but the habistat has saved the tank every time.


Now that is good advice :notworthy:


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## Grond (Jun 17, 2008)

fishboy said:


> That's because it was from me  was on mels laptop


Should have known! Fishboy you are now officially a genius........:2thumb:


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## Caz (May 24, 2007)

Caz said:


> All i've ever done is ran the in tank heater off a habistat on/off thermostat. If the in tank heater fails and sticks on the habistat - set 2 degrees higher - will turn it off. I've had 3 fish tank heaters stick on over the years in my marine tanks - danger of bi-metal thermostats i'm afraid, but the habistat has saved the tank every time.





fishboy said:


> Now that is good advice :notworthy:


Cheers.

I am now trying a heat mat on the outside back of the tank between the glass/polystyrene running off a habistat pulse proportional, with the probe in tank.
It's a 2' cube tank, room temp 19c (night) 21c (day) and the heat mat is 17"/11" 20w.
It's holding a perfect 26c water temperature for the last 5 months. And all for 20watts!


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## AshMashMash (Oct 28, 2007)

fishboy said:


> That's because it was from me  was on mels laptop


I did wonder :whistling2:


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## daz30347 (Aug 30, 2007)

*Heaters*

I had this happen a few years back with a Hagen heater
I contacted them straight away and they were brilliant,replaced the heater,gave me a whole host of freebies and sent me a cheque for the cost of the fish(£300)
Contact the manufacturer direct and not the point of sale :2thumb:


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## Chuckwalla (Nov 6, 2008)

Soory for you loss mate
Had the same happen to me a good few years ago, a ended a tank of pirannah, Went of to Malawi chichlids a few years later and put three low watt thermo's in a big bow fronted tank, never had any issues again.


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## geckoface (Mar 12, 2007)

*fish*

thanks once again for all your advice people.i think im gonna go for the two heaters and see how that goes.thanks again for all your messages


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## jhsnake999 (Apr 12, 2009)

*Dead fish...*

That happened to me, I bought some fish and after a day, my step-dad awoke to find one of my fish floating. So he went out to buy another one. He came back with the other fish, but the fish in the tank was now floating too. This was because we didn't have a filter. So now, we have bought yet again more fish and a filter but the fish have lasted over a month so far.


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## clairethorn (May 2, 2008)

i also had this happen to me a few years ago, killed all the inmates, some of which i'd had for years, so gutted!


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## ReptileJord (Nov 14, 2009)

Sorry thats heartbreaking, complain, or even sue


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## Shell195 (May 31, 2007)

We used to have 3 large Lion fish which we had owned for 2 years. My OH was doing maintenance in the tank and managed to stir up the bottom. Within half an hour they were all dead even though he tried all kinds to save them:devil: It was really upsetting as they were so tame, I was gutted


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