Disaster. Everything is Dead. Help.
- Thread starter Patroklos
- Start date
seapug
Premium Member
There's nothing wrong with keeping a tank in the lower range of temps. Go in a tropical ocean, dive down 30 feet or so and take a temperature reading. It's probably not going to be much over 75 degrees most of the year.
The offending piece of equipment was not the aquarist, it was the heater. It didn't shut off when it was supposed to. There's no reason to assume that the heater wouldn't have malfunctioned if it was set at 80. In that case, that temp could have been over 90, which could be even worse.
I'd recommend setting up a cheap box fan or pedestal fan pointed at the surface of the water as the first step in bringing temps down. Simple evaporative cooling works much faster and better than you might think.
The offending piece of equipment was not the aquarist, it was the heater. It didn't shut off when it was supposed to. There's no reason to assume that the heater wouldn't have malfunctioned if it was set at 80. In that case, that temp could have been over 90, which could be even worse.
I'd recommend setting up a cheap box fan or pedestal fan pointed at the surface of the water as the first step in bringing temps down. Simple evaporative cooling works much faster and better than you might think.
alextheromanian
New member
wow...i seriously felt like slitting my wrists over having a brain die on me recently lol and that was 50$ if this hapenned i dont think i could stay in the hobby always fearing this will happen again. in any case whats done is done and this crappy thing must of hapenned for a reason ...what reason that is...i have no clue. but i was reading and i wanna let you know walmart sells RO/DI water at 37c/G i fill 10G at a time there since i dont have my own means of doing so.
in any case also blowing a fan acrosst the water will make the teperature drop quite alot pretty fast plus if you keep your temp in mood swings (not drastic) like i do since my heaters are so crappy i found that one time i accidentally unplugged the heater making the temp go down to 66 ....everything survived. ofcourse i didnt have the delicate corals you did.
maybe you can start new...rearrange rocks....get new little frags and work your way back
in any case also blowing a fan acrosst the water will make the teperature drop quite alot pretty fast plus if you keep your temp in mood swings (not drastic) like i do since my heaters are so crappy i found that one time i accidentally unplugged the heater making the temp go down to 66 ....everything survived. ofcourse i didnt have the delicate corals you did.
maybe you can start new...rearrange rocks....get new little frags and work your way back
ReefEnabler
Premium Member
I thought your avatar looked emo!!! hahaha j/k
My tank was perfectly happy in the that range. That being the case, it was obviously excessive temperature swing that did the damage.
I have been told many times not to obcess with getting ever parameter perfect (expecially by resorting to chemicals), just get parameters that are stable and somewhere close to normal range and your reef will adapt.
Thats exeactly what I did. I went home for lunch and spend the hour burying the dead and getting my tank in as much order as possible.
Using the fan I got the temp down to 75, and was able to do a quick 5gal water change which though not much I suppose helped some. I should have enough water made by today to do a 10gal additional change by the end of tonight, and then another 10 tomorrow morning.
New casualties:
Sun Coral
Dendros
Brain (on its las legs)
I have been telling myself that at work. Now that all my dead pets or out of the tank I think I might be able to be more optimistic about the future when I get home from work. I am going to miss that hammer, it was gorgous
cham
New member
Heater disaster stories are far too common. Not only them being stuck on but stories of them losing their seal and emitting harful contaminents/electricity into the tank. Think about it, it's pretty scary to intentionally place an electric induction coil in a corrosive salt water bath!!!! That should be the poster child for accident waiting to happen.
That's why I control my heaters with my reef keeper and I also have a temp controller that I plug into the reefkeeper so if my RK fails there is a back up. On top of that I subscribe to the two smaller heater theory and I replace mine every year as part of my regular maintenence. Heaters really aren't terribly expensive and it's good insurance IMO.
When you get your tank back online I'd first check your temp probe. Are you 100% sure your tank stays 72? I couldn't do that if I wanted to unless you keep your house A/C set at 45* (or you live in antartica).
After that, make your tank swing 3 or 4* daily. It's perfectly normal and natural for corals to experience a daily temp swing and will give them more tolerance for events such as this.
That's why I control my heaters with my reef keeper and I also have a temp controller that I plug into the reefkeeper so if my RK fails there is a back up. On top of that I subscribe to the two smaller heater theory and I replace mine every year as part of my regular maintenence. Heaters really aren't terribly expensive and it's good insurance IMO.
When you get your tank back online I'd first check your temp probe. Are you 100% sure your tank stays 72? I couldn't do that if I wanted to unless you keep your house A/C set at 45* (or you live in antartica).
After that, make your tank swing 3 or 4* daily. It's perfectly normal and natural for corals to experience a daily temp swing and will give them more tolerance for events such as this.
ReefEnabler
Premium Member
Yes you are absolutely right: if your heater fails with a Ranco then it still fails!
For this reason it is still advisable to use multiple heaters even with a ranco.
I use two 500w heaters and one 250w, all titanium.
When I first setup I was only using (3) 250w's, but after a REALLY cold winter night, I woke up to find my tank around 68 F!! Really scared me at first but then I realized that absolutely nothing bad happened.
I replaced (2) of the 250s with 500s just because I didn't want to the leave the possibility of an even worse cold event.
Now as previously stated my temp has a daily swing from 77 to ~81 and I never see it outside this range.
(Chiller is 1/2hp tradewinds, also controlled by another standalone ranco).
jus chillin
New member
sorry about you lose.that is horrible!.....
ser_renely
Active member
sorry to hear about that
I use the multi heater approach so I can't roast my tank. So far so good. A heater can still fail but the consequences are not as bad. It just won't get too, too hot norr too too cool.... unless they both go.
I use the multi heater approach so I can't roast my tank. So far so good. A heater can still fail but the consequences are not as bad. It just won't get too, too hot norr too too cool.... unless they both go.
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New member
this is not correct, a ranco doesnt give the heater a chance to fail,
it cuts the power to the heater.
if the Ranco fails then thats another story.
Chris
ReefEnabler
Premium Member
I am not talking about it failing in the on position, I'm talking about it failing in the OFF position. If the heater element is busted, it doesn't matter what the ranco is doing.
and yes a heater can just fail and stop working. Might want to rethink your statement. I will give you that its probably far more rare.
btw when we are talking about element-only heaters, then the term "fail" automatically implies failing in the off position. thats all it can do. How can it fail "on", it doesnt' even have a controller! Its on when it has power.
This is why I suggested multiple elements even with a ranco, the chance that they all fail is extremely low.
and yes a heater can just fail and stop working. Might want to rethink your statement. I will give you that its probably far more rare.
btw when we are talking about element-only heaters, then the term "fail" automatically implies failing in the off position. thats all it can do. How can it fail "on", it doesnt' even have a controller! Its on when it has power.
This is why I suggested multiple elements even with a ranco, the chance that they all fail is extremely low.
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