Hydor Heater problem?!

[JoeyGeeze]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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!!!

 

[MDChurch]

I am running three of the 200watt on three tanks and they are all right on where they are set. There is to be expected at least a 2 degree fluctuation mainly due to heat from lights , ambient temp., etc. Mine have all been great. Two of them are on freshwater tanks and one is on a saltwater tank with t5ho lighting. With the stronger lighting on the saltwater tank I get the fluctuation a couple of degrees but the temp has never dropped below what I have it set at which is 78 degrees. I really don't think a couple of degrees difference is going to be a problem because the temp in the wild fluctuates also.

 

[JoeyGeeze]

Ok so when I came home from work today, thankfully, my temperature was at 78.. Very happy!! I plugged my heater in and turned it down to 66 and left it for an hour, it never turned on... I then turned it up to 77 and it hasn't turned on as of yet but that's good since my tank is at 78. Very weird occurrence yesterday I hope it doesn't happen again.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Hey Joey, any updates? I'm about to order the same 200W model and would like to know if yours is still misbehaving.

 

[meegosh]

FWIW, I've been running the 300w model for a couple months now with no issues/fluctuations.

 

[JoeyGeeze]

Hey Joey, any updates? I'm about to order the same 200W model and would like to know if yours is still misbehaving.

Hi Coralline... Sure, since that incident I haven't had any problems. Unfortunately my tank came down with ich two weeks ago so the heater has been holding strong at 87 degrees very well. However, I will add that there is definitely a 1 to possibly 2 degree fluctuation sometimes. For example, now that I have to maintain temperature at 87 degrees, while trying to hit that mark I had some trouble. I would have it set on 87 but I found it dropping down to 85.8 or so before turning on, which was frustrating. It seems to have a bit of a "sweet spot" but once you find it, it works perfectly. I'm set at just about 88 degrees right now and it's been good.

Maybe I'm asking too much lol but I feel like if I set my heater to 87 degrees, it should turn on at anything below that, and turn off at anything above that. Overall, I definitely recommend the heater, no sticking or over heating, it just has a Slight fluctuation of a degree or so.

I hope this helps!!

 

[JoeyGeeze]

Hey Joey, any updates? I'm about to order the same 200W model and would like to know if yours is still misbehaving.

Hi Coralline... I just typed out this long response and the app froze when I sent it... So let's try this again! Lol... So, ever since that incident I haven't had any issues with the Hydor. I unfortunately came down with ich two weeks ago and the heater has been holding my tank at 87 very well. However, I did have some trouble getting it there. It seems to have a bit of a "sweet spot" but once you find it, it works very well. There is definitely a 1 to possibly 2 degree fluctuation. For example, when i set it directly on 87 degrees, I noticed it dropping below 86 before turning back on. I played with it a while and now have it on just about 88, and it sits well on 87.

Maybe I'm asking too much lol but I feel if i put my heater on 87, it should turn off above that and turn on below that. I guess that would cause too much of on/off and wear and tear on the heater.

Overall, I definitely recommend the product, never had over heating or sticking... just don't be surprised by the little fluctuation!

I hope this helps!!

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Overall, I definitely recommend the product, never had over heating or sticking... just don't be surprised by the little fluctuation!

I hope this helps!!

Sure does! Thanks a ton, Joey. I'll order it after all and use my existing one for my water change container. Just hope a 200w won't be overkill on my 20g planted. Ah, the things we do for our aquatic gardens.

 

[meegosh]

Depending on the lights you have and how much heat they put out, that can be the cause of the 1-2 degree fluctuation you are seeing. I know when I had my planted tank set up the temp would climb 2-3 degrees and then drop down after lights went out.

I think most heaters have a 1-2 degree fluctuation and that is to be expected.

 

[JoeyGeeze]

Depending on the lights you have and how much heat they put out, that can be the cause of the 1-2 degree fluctuation you are seeing. I know when I had my planted tank set up the temp would climb 2-3 degrees and then drop down after lights went out.

I think most heaters have a 1-2 degree fluctuation and that is to be expected.

Right now I just have the regular single T8 setup. I think the problem that occurred with mine is how hot my apartment got since we had a quick spring heat wave lol.

I think you're right though with most heaters having a slight fluctuation, the guy from Hydor told me over the phone that's to be expected.

@Coralline, it may be a little overkill for a 20g, but shouldn't be an issue.. I say go for it!

 

[meegosh]

Just be careful, with 10wpg of heat you can fry your fish if the thermostat were to fail. It will quickly heat up that 20g (or less) of water in the tank.