Saltwater & Reef

JoeyGeeze · 03-14-2012, 09:28 PM

Hi all, I have a Hydor inline heater on my 46 gallon tank and up til this point it's been flawless. The temperature rose in New jersey the last couple days so that means my apartment gets hot. My tank has always been at 78 but this week it went up to 79/80. To combat that I left the glass top cracked open today so it doesn't get the green house effect. I plan on buying a screen mesh to put over the top for the summer time.

Anyway, today I noticed my heater was on when I came home and the tank was reading 79.6. I checked to make sure it was set correctly and then lowered the heater to 77. About 30 minutes later the heater turned on again and my temp was reading 79.2. So now I panic LOL. I have a digital petsmart thermometer which has worked well for me. I just purchased a glass thermometer to double check the temp and was getting 79/80. Lowered the heater to 76 and again it turned on... OK buddy now you're getting unplugged!!

My apartments temperature is warm enough to maintain the temp in the tank, however, I'm more concerned about fluctuation and what that will do to the health of my fish. I have a kribensis, tiger barbs, kuhlis, and a spotted pleco. I don't think the pleco is happy, he's become quite dark colored because he likes a lower temp to begin with. I just emailed Hydor to tell them what's happening.

Anybody have any advice/ suggestions?? Maybe somebody has some experience with the Hydor heater? It's so random, it has been working well the last 2 months. I wonder if it needs to be cleaned? Sorry for the long rant!

Monkey Magic · 03-14-2012, 09:40 PM

Hey i also have a hydor inline heater and havent had any problems with it however i have noticed that sometimes the temperature in the water feels different despite the thermometer saying its 82 maybe i should get another thermometer to check aswell. I have heard great things about hydor when it comes to dealing with warranties on their products like replacement under warranty and also throwing in another one for good measure.

JoeyGeeze · 03-14-2012, 09:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Monkey Magic

Hey i also have a hydor inline heater and havent had any problems with it however i have noticed that sometimes the temperature in the water feels different despite the thermometer saying its 82 maybe i should get another thermometer to check aswell. I have heard great things about hydor when it comes to dealing with warranties on their products like replacement under warranty and also throwing in another one for good measure.

Yea I now have three thermometers LOL. A digital, a glass one, and the heater. I hope they get back to me quickly. I'm definitely happy with the product besides this incident. Hopefully they'll replace it.

JoeyGeeze · 03-15-2012, 08:59 AM

This morning my tank was at 77. I left the heater off because i don't want to risk baking my fish. But now I'm concerned if it drops anymore it could be bad for them. Does anybody know at what point it can be really dangerous for them? For example if my tank drops to 76 today are they going to get a disease or die? I may need to buy a heater today after work temporarily because the outside temperature dropped this morning.. Gotta love new jersey unpredictable weather....

Monkey Magic · 03-15-2012, 09:37 AM

cant hurt to have a back up heater i do. depending on how sensitive your fish are a sudden temperature shock can really stress them out then in turn causing sickness and possibly leading to death but i think thats at the extreme end of the scale they should be able to manage with minor temperature fluctuations. just buy an el cheapo heater that will do the job whilst you sort out the problem with the inline its the safest and most cost effective option as opposed to replacing fish... then if you have any problems with sick fish and you need a hospital tank or the inline messes up again in the future. backup heater to the rescue. Heard anything at all from hydor??

JoeyGeeze · 03-15-2012, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Monkey Magic

cant hurt to have a back up heater i do. depending on how sensitive your fish are a sudden temperature shock can really stress them out then in turn causing sickness and possibly leading to death but i think thats at the extreme end of the scale they should be able to manage with minor temperature fluctuations. just buy an el cheapo heater that will do the job whilst you sort out the problem with the inline its the safest and most cost effective option as opposed to replacing fish... then if you have any problems with sick fish and you need a hospital tank or the inline messes up again in the future. backup heater to the rescue. Heard anything at all from hydor??

Yea i was thinkin about grabbing a cheap heater at petsmart after work today just to maintain temperature. I don't think my fish are too sensitive, a krib and tiger barbs so hopefully they are OK. I'm still waiting on Hydor to respond, they are located in California so they won't be open for another two hours. I'm hoping they can ship me out something fairly quick!

I'm hoping with the light on and lid closed, my tank should maintain at least 76 today by the time I'm home from work to fix it.

Monkey Magic · 03-15-2012, 10:21 AM

if you wanted to go to extremes and keep heat in you could wrap some aluminium foil around the tank ive only ever done this when the power goes out not sure how well the fish would like it with the lights on

JoeyGeeze · 03-15-2012, 01:26 PM

So according to Hydor I'm within the 2 degree margin of error. I dont know how comfortable that makes me feel. They said to turn the heater down to 65 and see how it reacts. After that turn it back up to 77 and watch it.

He said since its not actually sticking on, and it's still cycling on and off It should be fine. If it continues however, to contact them back and we can discuss exchanging the model.

I guess I have some experimenting to do tonight. I really hope the fish end up OK after this i just finished completing my stocking!!

**meegosh** · 03-15-2012, 02:55 PM

I'm interested in seeing how this turns out for you. What model do you have? I just got the 300w version a month or two ago for my 75g, I love it! I am planning on adding an external thermostat that will turn off the power to the heater if something goes wrong though.

JoeyGeeze · 03-15-2012, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meegosh

I'm interested in seeing how this turns out for you. What model do you have? I just got the 300w version a month or two ago for my 75g, I love it! I am planning on adding an external thermostat that will turn off the power to the heater if something goes wrong though.

I have the 200w model. I've had it for about 2 months, maybe 3 now. It has been spot on since I bought it until this week.

An external thermostat is a good idea to be on the safe side. I also asked him if my room temperature could be the cause and he said its doubtful.

I'm just really nervous because today its 50 degrees outside and my tank is running no heater until I get home in 3 hours. it was 77 this morning when I left so I'm hoping that worst case scenario it dropped to 75, anymore than that and I'm going to worry.

Note to self: purchase back up heater!!!