Holy heatwave batfish! (heater gone wacky!) HELP PLEASE!!!!

TravelinGal

TravelinGal

Turbo Snail
M.A.S.C Club Member
#1
#1
Noticed all my skunk cleaner shrimp were dead and my coral were all closed up. Fish are acting skittish. Went to pull out dead shrimp and the water was HOT! I looked at the thermometer and it said 98!!!! :mad3:

Pulled glass tops off right away and pulled heater from sump. It was set at 76. House is on full time A/C so it's not weather related.

Any idea what the heck happened? (glass tops have been there since - almost - day one)

What should I do right now? Just let water circulate with tops off? I angled the jets up to break the surface more - not sure if that's good or bad, but it felt right...
Hubby put a couple handfuls of ice in there (120G tank) and they melted almost immediately.

HELP!!!!!

Edited to add - LED lights - so it's not lights going wonky either...
 
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sethsolomon

sethsolomon

Hammerhead Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#3
#3
Heater probably failed and got stuck on. +1 to ice in ziplocks. Run to a grocery store after pitting all the ice you have in the house to try and cool it and go get more ice.
 
TravelinGal

TravelinGal

Turbo Snail
M.A.S.C Club Member
#5
#5
I didn't know heaters came with separate controllers... Is this something I can find tomorrow at MACNA?


Down to 92 - also put ice packs in (lunch box ones - in bags)
 
TravelinGal

TravelinGal

Turbo Snail
M.A.S.C Club Member
#7
#7
current status - almost down to 90 degrees.
4 (skunk) cleaner shrimp cooked and removed from tank. (no coctail sauce in the house either..... -- don't groan too loud - give me a break - I'm stressed LOL)
1 pink skunk clownfish MIA
Most of the corals (soft) are perking up a little bit
Cannot tell on SPS
LPS still closed tight
Snails are starting their nightly climb (dwarf ceriths) so that's a good sign for them, I assume

BIG GOOD (I think...)
The fish always get a 'bedtime' snack and one time when I was by the tank they all started their 'snack dance' Who ever thought fish could beg....
I put less in than usual and they all gobbled it up. So, I think that's a very positive sign. Even grumpy old Waldo (starlight blenny - Where's Waldo?) came out for a snack. (and it was just pellets to boot!)
 
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Dr.DiSilicate

Dr.DiSilicate

Administrator
Staff member
M.A.S.C Club Member
M.A.S.C. B.O.D.
MASC Vice-President
#11
#11
Your best bet to prevent this from happening again is to get a cheep controller like a reef keeper lite. Also, many people get 2 slightly under sized heaters rather than 1 big heater.
 
fishguy69

fishguy69

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#12
#12
Titanium heater (JBJ will be at MACNA) with separate controller. We have these in all our sumps.
 
F

fiji4118

Tang
M.A.S.C Club Member
#13
#13
I double mine up. I have a controller on the heater and then it's plugged into my controller. Heater controller is set at 78 and the main tank temp is set to 76 on the main controller.
 
FishTV

FishTV

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#14
#14
Yep, it all starts with the heater failure, then it's get a separate heater controller. Wait, for a little more money, I could get a reef keeper lite, and control my lights and stuff. O' but now I want a apex because I hear they are better ( and I personally think they are) and I can make it do this, and this, and bla. bla. bla. And to really make good use of that technology, I need a much bigger tank.

Welcome to the hobby. Gotta love it.

I would try to get a good heater, with a separate controller, and try to win the rest of the stuff (including the bigger tank) in the raffle.
 
TravelinGal

TravelinGal

Turbo Snail
M.A.S.C Club Member
#15
#15
LOL FishTV (Dane, right? - I'm trying to learn names!) Oh, despite the cost, hubby said I needed to get the APEX Gold... but HE isn't paying for it. sigh.

My house can't hold a bigger tank! The 120 is pushing it!

FishTV;324375 said:
Yep, it all starts with the heater failure, then it's get a separate heater controller. Wait, for a little more money, I could get a reef keeper lite, and control my lights and stuff. O' but now I want a apex because I hear they are better ( and I personally think they are) and I can make it do this, and this, and bla. bla. bla. And to really make good use of that technology, I need a much bigger tank.

Welcome to the hobby. Gotta love it.

I would try to get a good heater, with a separate controller, and try to win the rest of the stuff (including the bigger tank) in the raffle.
Click to expand...

I saw the Cobalt Neo-Heaters and fell in love with them. Since I couldn't buy one today at MACNA I just bought the least expensive one I could find and will go see Jeff @ Aquamart on Wednesday. He said he had some and he's been so great to me so, unless someone has a not so good report on Cobalt Neo-heaters, that is what I'll get.

Haven't seen the yellow wrasse but I know they burry in the sand to hide, so he may still be stressed out.
My stylophora (a lovely light purple/pink) is probably gonna kick the bucket. It has a LOT of just pure white spots on it. I'm hoping that it didn't die completely, but it's not looking good. I put everything that looked stressed down on a lower level to get a bit of a break from the light. (again, it felt right - not sure if it is... please correct me if I'm wrong!!! - some SPS and my frogspawn)
 
TravelinGal

TravelinGal

Turbo Snail
M.A.S.C Club Member
#16
#16
fishguy69;324371 said:
Titanium heater (JBJ will be at MACNA) with separate controller. We have these in all our sumps.
Click to expand...
I didn't see them today but I'll look tomorrow. If it looks appealing, I could always go that way instead of the Cobalt Neo
 
H

High Plains Reefer

Bat Fish
M.A.S.C Club Member
Platinum Sponsor
#17
#17
good news with the apex you can run the cheap pet store heaters I run 4 400w heater two on an apex and two on a Mr aqua controller both in separate sumps to help prevent this exact scenario
 
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