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If anyone read my panicked post in The Hospital, you already know what happened.

Long story short, I check the temps in all of my aquariums every night. Monday all was fine (80 degrees in my 65g hex). Tuesday I came home from dinner and noticed a dead tetra, then I looked closer and ALL my tetras were dead. The temp in the tank had soared to nearly 100 degrees. My submersible heater malfunctioned and suffocated my tetras to an agonizing death.

All of my tetras died. My 2 large angelfish and 2 clown loaches survived, thank God.

What would cause this malfunction?? I was so panicked that I am not sure but I believe the actual control was moved to the highest setting on the heater. My fish are not strong enough to have done that. The water level was not too low and the heater was not calcified with lime or other debris.

Could I have prevented this? I am so paranoid now that I am afraid to leave for a weekend.

Help

Could you have prevented it yes/no

Yes if it was a good quality high priced it would be less likly to have happened.

No no cheap quality and poor workmanship.

Some break down very easly unknown causes leak internal or crack causing moisture to get into the heater.

Faulty heater temp control.

Most good quality heaters when purchasing them will have several rules to follow and a gurantee.

Submersable or not, turn off when changing water, a water safety line (always water up to here)

When first installed "dont" turn it on for a specified time to allow the heater to adjust to the tank temp.

Some heaters come with a gurantee my new ones for the 5ft tank both have a two year gurantee.

A fish tank is ideal to releave stress not cause it.

Have a look in [link=My Profile]
http://www.fishprofiles.com/interactive/forums/profile.asp?userid=6741[/link] for my tank info

Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

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rasboramary,

Sorry to hear that, the same happened to a co-worker of mine just 2 days ago.

You might still lose some fish that have survived the initial shock, they might be too stressed to recover (hopefully this will not be the case).

Heaters do malfunction and, as Keith said, better quality heaters are less likely to do so (but no guarantees either). What brand did you have?

The one thing I have never heard off is that the dial actually adjusts itself when malfunctioning. Usually the coil gets stuck in the on position, but no mechanical parts are actually turned. What kind of a dial is it? Like a lever that goes up and down, or one that you have to turn? I this is a turning dial then I would say someone must have done this on purpose (at least the part of turning, maybe not the part of "all the way up" ). In general, did you mess (like clean etc) in the tank maybe a day before the heater malfunctioned?

Ingo

---

Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

What was the make of the heater?.


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The same happend to me the thermestat broke so i had to by a new one.