Urgent - heater blown

[Shabslikesfish]

I've been an idiot and forgot switch off the heater during a pwc, there was a big smell of burning, a bit of the plastic suction holder for the heater wand is melted and the heater now doesn't work. I don't have a spare and nowhere is open now for 13 hours.
Please advise, I'll stay up all night if I gave to but need to know what to do.
Thank you
An idiot...

 

[meegosh]

I would unplug and remove the heater ASAP if you haven't already.

You can do a couple things... wrap the tank in a blanket or towels. That will help insulate it and keep the temps stable for longer. I know some guys who top the tank off with warm water to keep the temps up. Just be careful as you don't want the temps to swing that much.

 

[Shabslikesfish]

Thanks- removed the heater and the melted suction holder before putting new water in so that's ok. Been advised to keep their rooms radiator on overnight and similar, to wrap them in a duvet so I'll do that and top them off overnight if it drops. Fingers crossed, it's blinking cold here
Thank you

 

[fadetoblack06]

you should go on Ebay and get a spare one. It would be a temporary fix for your tank but for $10 for a 300 watt heater shipped to your door its good to have a spare.

300W Automatic Adjustable Submersible Aquarium Fish Tank Water Heater w/ US plug | eBay

 

[Shabslikesfish]

Will defo have a spare at all times now! Thanks for the link

 

[stingrays4]

Hi your tank should be ok overnight unless your house is that cold? As already said,wrap the tank in blankets towels or what ever you can. Do you have an external filter? If so wrap this as-well,Are you using an airpump? If so place this inside the lid of the tank to avoid putting in cold air into the tank. I wouldn't add warm water directly into your tank,i would float bags of warm water as you would acclimatising a new fish.how big is the tank? How warm is your house. Also stay calm fish are used to having the odd colder night!!

 

[Shabslikesfish]

The house is warm enough with the heating on, and the tank is holding at 25C currently so it's got a degree or two to okay with, the room temp is 24 so a blanket should keep them going til 9am I guess! Thanks everyone still getting the hang of it all, its like having a newborn baby!

 

[stingrays4]

Hi yes can be abit scary at times. Just leave your heating ticking over overnight tonight and all will be ok Had a similar problem a year ago myself when we had a powercut. My tanks are in a garden shed and it was a cold day so was very panicky! Power was out for nearly 18 hours,so was a very stressful day but the tanks only lost a couple of degrees doing the tank wrapped and filter wrapped bit,also did float a couple of bags of warm water too,but think this wasn't necessary in the end. i use two heaters in all my tanks just in case one packs up Good luck and do please let us know how it all goes.

 

[DragonFish71]

To prevent this from happening I have my heaters and filters on one power strip and lights/timers on another. This way when doing a PWC, since I turn off my filters, the heaters will get turned off too. Just a thought for the future.