Heater issue! - can I wait?

[Spar]

I have an Apex and am getting alerts that the temperature is dropping in one of my QT's. Usually is 79, and is down to 76.5 right now.

How low can I let this get before having to go home to fix the situation?

And lets assume it gets down to 73'ish... can the fish stand this for another 6 or 7 hours?

 

[Marshall O]

IMO, yes even down to 73 is fine. You will notice activity slowing down in the tank the colder it gets obviously. My heater stopped working in my QT tank a while ago and got down to 62! Noticed my Possum Wrasse wasn't moving at all, and then looked at the thermometer. Replaced the heater, and the Wrasse is just fine today, 18 months later.

I also recently had an issue with heating in my JBJ 28. Heater was off all night and the tank got down to 71 IIRC. No issues at all with any fish or corals.

 

[Spar]

thanks for the reassurance! i turned on my halides earlier than usual to help heat the room a bit, that should steady it a little.

 

[sandwi54]

Typical tropical fish can withstand temperature as low as 62 before they start dying, so you are fine

 

[Reef Frog]

Good move turning on the MHs. Looks like a cold day in Plano. Can you monitor your room temp remotely? If your house heat is off for some reason, the tank heater off, your QT tank is small and you're working late.....better safe than sorry IMO.

How long did it take to lose those 2.5 degrees? Agreed low 70s won't hurt anything. Happened to me yesterday in a power out during an ice storm. All is well.

 

[MondoBongo]

heh. sounds just like what happened to me last week.

this is what i noticed while in my morning meeting at work, apparently the heather failed the night before, but since apex email alerts don't work on anything that requires ssl, i never found out till i checked my app:

i think that probably speaks for itself.

everyone was just fine. luckily my girlfriend stopped home around lunch time and was able to swap in a backup heater. needless to say i now have two heaters in the tank set for redundancy.

 

[Spar]

Thanks all.

My home heater is still working and have it set at 70 (Nest, so can set remote).

The temp is only down to 75.6 right now (1 degree drop in last 4 hours), so looks to have leveled off with the MH's on. The first 3 degrees dropped within one hour.

Yes, Plano is really cold today (well, in Texas terms anyway)... snow this morning, not too common.

 

[Reef Frog]

A Nest...nice. No worries...you could even stop off for happy hour if you like..

 

[Spar]

A Nest...nice. No worries...you could even stop off for happy hour if you like..

well... wasn't going to add in the reason for why I couldn't make it home... but that was part of it :beer: Icy roads earlier...