Franco724
New member
Let me start off by saying i'm such an idiot. I've kept a pair of CB erectus seahorses for several months now, and with summer finally here I knew I was going to keep a close eye on temperature. Throughout winter and spring, I kept the tank water at a steady 73-74 degrees (or so I thought) no problem - until recently. :hmm5:
I've been using the Marina Aqua-Minder, which features a fancy alarm system to alert you when the aquarium temperature is too hot or too cold, when filter maintenance, water changes, and overall system checks are needed. It all sounds great (and cost me a pretty penny as compared to other thermometers).
We'll with summer upon us the temp has been lingering around 80 degrees, until this morning when I woke up and it registered at 83.5 - and as you all know 80 is wayyyyy to warm for horses, let alone anything higher. So in panic - I turned the house AC all the way up, I turned on all the fans (evaporative cooling) and tossed a baggie with a couple of ice-cubes to gradually cool it down .... - and I've done this several times over the last month -
I went through all the aquarium equipment thinking something wasn't functioning properly, like perhaps a faulty pump producing heat, a faulty thermostat on the heater, etc etc. It got to a point where I was ready to drop the $400-$600 (that I definitely don't have) on a chiller. :eek1:
Well, after todays mishap - it dawned on me ... maybe this fancy high-tech thermometer, the Marina Aqua-Minder, was a piece of **** ... Well to make this already long story shorter - I was right!
After putting two different electronic thermometers in the tank (the cheap $10 black ones from any pet store) and one of the classic mercury filled glass ones - and let them stay put for a good 10 or 15 minutes to register the temperature properly - they all simultaneously read 75.4 degrees. I look at the Marina Aqua-Minder and it reads 83.5. Thats an 8.1 degree difference. :uhoh2::uhoh2:
So, in conclusion, all this time I've been taking drastic measures to cool the water and panicking about the high temps and potential for bacteria diseases ... it was just a faulty thermometer.
This may explain why my male horse keeps aborting the eggs right before the gestation period is up, why I have lost a number of sensitive starfish for unknown reasons, and why the PJ cardinals have been unsuccessfully breeding as well. All along when the temperature were 73-74 degrees they have really been 65-66. That is, unless the thermometer recently decided to malfunction. Perhaps too cold for my pair of erectus, trio of PJ cardinalfish, eviota gobies, peppermint shrimp, and fromia starfish. :eek2:
I just wanted to share this rant ... I feel like such an idiot for all of this. With all of my years of experience - why did I not think to doubt the thermometer?!
I hope my critters will be forgiving and appreciate the steady temperatures around 73-75 degrees, and reward me with a batch of young. I've never been more prepared with brine eggs and hatcheries ready to go along with cultures of live copepods, amphipods, and mysids as well ...
And as for the ol' Marina Aqua-Minder ... does anybody want it? Otherwise it will be, or already has been, annihilated. :angryfire:
I've been using the Marina Aqua-Minder, which features a fancy alarm system to alert you when the aquarium temperature is too hot or too cold, when filter maintenance, water changes, and overall system checks are needed. It all sounds great (and cost me a pretty penny as compared to other thermometers).
We'll with summer upon us the temp has been lingering around 80 degrees, until this morning when I woke up and it registered at 83.5 - and as you all know 80 is wayyyyy to warm for horses, let alone anything higher. So in panic - I turned the house AC all the way up, I turned on all the fans (evaporative cooling) and tossed a baggie with a couple of ice-cubes to gradually cool it down .... - and I've done this several times over the last month -
I went through all the aquarium equipment thinking something wasn't functioning properly, like perhaps a faulty pump producing heat, a faulty thermostat on the heater, etc etc. It got to a point where I was ready to drop the $400-$600 (that I definitely don't have) on a chiller. :eek1:
Well, after todays mishap - it dawned on me ... maybe this fancy high-tech thermometer, the Marina Aqua-Minder, was a piece of **** ... Well to make this already long story shorter - I was right!
After putting two different electronic thermometers in the tank (the cheap $10 black ones from any pet store) and one of the classic mercury filled glass ones - and let them stay put for a good 10 or 15 minutes to register the temperature properly - they all simultaneously read 75.4 degrees. I look at the Marina Aqua-Minder and it reads 83.5. Thats an 8.1 degree difference. :uhoh2::uhoh2:
So, in conclusion, all this time I've been taking drastic measures to cool the water and panicking about the high temps and potential for bacteria diseases ... it was just a faulty thermometer.
This may explain why my male horse keeps aborting the eggs right before the gestation period is up, why I have lost a number of sensitive starfish for unknown reasons, and why the PJ cardinals have been unsuccessfully breeding as well. All along when the temperature were 73-74 degrees they have really been 65-66. That is, unless the thermometer recently decided to malfunction. Perhaps too cold for my pair of erectus, trio of PJ cardinalfish, eviota gobies, peppermint shrimp, and fromia starfish. :eek2:
I just wanted to share this rant ... I feel like such an idiot for all of this. With all of my years of experience - why did I not think to doubt the thermometer?!
I hope my critters will be forgiving and appreciate the steady temperatures around 73-75 degrees, and reward me with a batch of young. I've never been more prepared with brine eggs and hatcheries ready to go along with cultures of live copepods, amphipods, and mysids as well ...
And as for the ol' Marina Aqua-Minder ... does anybody want it? Otherwise it will be, or already has been, annihilated. :angryfire:
.
!
