Emergency - aquarium temp. skyrocketed overnight

[i3k]

WOW just WOW...last night the temp. in my tank was 78 degrees. Woke up today and see my rainbows sitting up top not moving too much. My other fish which are two loaches and a red tail shark seem to be normal, swimming around as usual. I was puzzled for a second there...looked at my thermometer and my eyes popped put of my sockets...freakin' 94 degrees...I stuck my finger tips in the water just to make sure and sure enough the water was very warm.

My question is...do I just unplug my heater and let the temp. drop on it's own to about 78? or do I need to do PWC with cooler water? I'm concerned about my rainbows they are sitting up top and breathing very rapidly. They still seem to have their color though. Strangely my loaches and the shark seem to love it this warm

 

[mfdrookie516]

let it gradually go down so you dont shock your fish... 94 shouldnt hurt them if you let it get back down slowly... doing a pwc will drop the temp dramatically and cause alot of stress on the fish... might wanna look at getting a new heater while youre at it... that one probably got stuck in the on position, ive had a couple do that too

 

[i3k]

OK, I went ahead and unplugged the heater. hopefully the temp. will drop slowly enough...my room is warm so it should drop slowly. I'll have to go get a new heater today.

Thanks.

 

[i3k]

Well looks like the high temp. got the best of one of the rainbows. The temperature dropped to 82 degrees over a period of 3-4 hours...4 of the 5 rainbows are doing good but the oldest/biggest one is barely moving and was gasping for air at the surface. I put him in a 10 gal. bucket and added some aquarium salt...he didn't even try to get away from me when I gently scooped him up with my hand to put him in the bucket...must be really bad... don't know if he will survive by the end of the day =(

 

[mgamer20o0]

the higher the temp the less o2 in the water. a little late now but adding a air pump unplugging the heater and doing small water changes would help the most. what kind of heater do you have? how big of tank?

 

[i3k]

it's a 33 gal long tank...it has a 150watt hagen heater. I also have a aquaclear 300 filter running and an air stone disk thingy on the opposite side of the tank.

The fish was doing worse when the temp. finally lowered to 82 degrees. So I transferred him to a 10 gal bucket with an air stone going, and added some salt. He survived overnight...hopefully he fully recovers.