Close call delayed my weekend

scooters reef

New member
Before finishing up last night I noticed the water felt unusually warm. Checked it and it was at 86. While they haven't pushed it that high before I assumed it was the lights so I turned them off early and figured I'd check it again this morning. Went down this morning and it had gone UP to just over 90 !!!!!!

Turns out the heater had stuck "on". I tossed it and put another one in, and dropped some small ice bags in the sump to help bring it down a little.

Now, here's the big question: I have an Aqua Controller and only need to pick up more X-10 modules to finish setting some things up, including heat control, yet still haven't and was relying on the cheap internal control of the actual heater. LOL, think this scare will get some modules on the way?
 
Now I'm nervous to leave it. I posted in the reef board to see if there is anything else I should worry about if I go ahead and leave for the weekend.
 
Id just take the heater out during the hot summer months, its not needed, I don't think your temp will drop below 74, or even close, take the heater out while your gone this weekend. My .02
 
Thx.

True, and that part's easy. The basement itself only stays around 72. My concern is if 90 could have caused a problem I'm just not seeing yet at the moment. I don't want to come back after the weekend and discover it caused some die-off in the rock that snowballed on me over the weekend. With the tank so lightly stocked it can probably take a pretty good hit, but....

I hope 90 wasn't bad enough to cause that, but I've never had it that high so have no clue. WITH the heater, it has been hitting a low of 78 at night and 82 near the end of the lighting period. Can 8 degrees cause much of a problem that fast?
 
Oh, and the skimmer is more active than usual. That's what started making me nervous. Could just be a coincidence or the temp difference itself I guess though.
 
Im not sure, at least you caught the problem right away, and not when you got back from vaca.

If it effected your pets I think you would see some bleaching or un-normal behavior by now.
 
I still can't imagine just 8 degrees for a night (well, I am assuming it didn't go above where I found it during the night) would cause any HUGE issues if all at least looks ok. I just went down and checked my skimmer again, and it's working even harder yet. It isn't normal and still has me nervous. Not to the point of thinking it's going to be a crash, but that if I'm not here to keep an eye on it that may come about :(

Not sure if it's better to over-react and risk it, or stay home and monitor it. Kind of a bad thing to wish, but I wish I'd hit 90 before and knew for sure. We lost a lot from our 55 a few years ago from heat, but we weren't home and it was likely well past 90 then as the house AC went out in a power outage and didn't come back on.
 
I had a bad thermometer last year which was reading ten degrees low. This caused me to raise the tank temp to about 92 degrees last year. The temp was up there around two weeks.

Believe it or not, I didnt lose a thing! the open brain I have was bleached and looking ugly, but it made a full recovery and all is well now.

So, I think you might be OK.
 
I'm starting to think so too. The temp is falling, and all looks fine. The skimmer activity just has me worried. Even if over-reacting, if I leave I'm going to worry all weekend anyway, so decided to stay home and keep an eye on it, and test the water frequently until the skimmer returns to normal.

Maybe turn my ozone back on for now too? Has been off waiting until the tank is stocked enough to bother with it.
 
I do know that surface water temps in certain areas of the ocean get to 90 degrees with no adverse affect on many types of corals, so you may have dodged a bullet. As long as the exposure was not prolonged.
You also lucked out not having xenia (I hope). in the past, the quickest way for my xenia colonies to crash was for the temp to get over 80 degrees for anylength of time.
jandlms
Jon
 
Ummm

I HAD xenia (from Kass). Was taking over the tank at one point. However, over the summer the tank had a power outage (sewer backed up in the whole neighborhood, came up the floor drain, dosing pump got wet, GFI tripped. Not sure what happened to trip the others, but all circuits were out EXCEPT the big lights to bake it all). By the time we got it corrected we figured it had been out at least four days, but we have no idea what temp it may have reached. My temp probe is in the overflow, and nothing was flowing, so even the log would be useless info. We lost all of the xenia, some ricordia that was growing and doing well (also from Kass), and both cleaner shrimp. The tank otherwise bounced right back (again, probably due to the super low stocking level).
 
I hate to scare you more but Joe and Barry's tank crashed when it got to 92. They lost almost everything but it was like you had happen before that they were gone and the breaker kicked out and the a/c was off. Dunno how long the tank was up that high.

I think you'll be luckier as you caught it right away.
I wouldnt keep the heater out though (as long as you have a different one) cuz you dont want it to drop real low now either.

I agree about the xenia but my 55 gets over 80 frequently in the summer (usually 84 tops). I have some elongata that did'nt look good for awhile but it did'nt affect my pink pulsing at all. Maybe cuz I've had that strain for 3 yrs I dunno. 90 would prolly kill it though. I'm always afraid when it gets to 84 lol.

Hopefully you saw it in time and everything will be ok.
Good Luck!

kass
 
Well, my skimmer is still cranking along, so I think there had to have been some die off somewhere, but think all is fine since I caught it in time to prevent any crashes. Is hopefully minor and just has to clean out a little dead bacteria :)
 
Temp made it down to 82.2 before the lights came on. Even with the lights it has stayed stable at 82.4 (warmer than usual, but doesn't seem to be rising, and just maintaining).

Turn the lights off, or be happy it's stable, not rising, and wait for lights out to finish falling a little more?
 
My tank got up to 90 once this summer and I lost a good size acropora, a small stylopora (sp?), and my gonipora bleached and died. The corals started bleaching within a day of the incident and died over the next week or so. Everything else was kinda closed up for a couple of days but recovered fine. I gotta get a chiller for next year.

Lisa
 
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