Bone Headed Mistake - 68degF

[FischAutoTechGarten]

I have all of my Tank heaters on a light switch in my Hobby Hatchery. I always flip the switch off before sticking my hands in the water. Well I finally did what I feared I would do...forget to switch the heaters back on. I did it at night following my daily water change. Next morning just threw a few CBW in the tanks and off to work.

That evening I went to do a water change and noticed the Discus did not eat all of their food. They were mellow and breathing normally, perhaps even a little slower than normal. Went to hit the switch...only to find it was already off and had been for 24 hours. Water was 68degF. Good thing I had insulated those tanks.

Turned the heaters on and did a 75% water change in stages on the tanks. Thankfully, the heaters to my Water Storage Barrels are not on the switch. Brought the Temp upto 80degF over the course of two hours.

This morning we were back up to 84degF. Everyone seems OK. I'm just glad I found it. In the future, I'll replace my switch with a normally open Timer. That way I can dial the number of minutes I want the heat interupted for. That will prevent this from happening.

[DarkDiscus]

Good lesson - if there's something you do in your fish routine that causes the potential for disaster - it will probably happen at some point! Like when I kept telling myself that filling one tank while draining another was a bad idea and that one day I would forget I was filling the other tank...

Well, I did, and poured about 10 gallons of water on the guest bedroom floor...

Glad you caught it in time!

John

[korbi_doc]

:bounce2: :bounce2: Gosh, it seems to be always something doesn't it??? So glad you caught it before disaster happened!! Maybe you'll have lotsa spawning activity now since that's one of the methods used (cold water bath??)
Like John, I have flooded my LR sev'l times, even tho I have installed the alarm & a baby monitor, manage to forget something, like turning the monitor on in the hosp building. My heaters are all separate in the tanks, but I don't worry 'bout this cuz all the tanks are on GFI circuits. Keeps us on our toes I guess, tho wet ones at times. lol, Dottie ;D

[ValorG]

but y do u turn off ur heater when u do ur water changes? afraid that u will get shocked? If so den y dont u just see if the fish are dead or not. If not den u know there is no electric current going through the waters, dats all.

[M0oN]

not true Valor, wild discus live just fine with electric eel, which are constantly putting out an electric current, the fish won't die unless it's extreme voltage...

Ground probe is fine, I think he turns off the heaters so that they don't burn out being out of water?

I just mount mine low to the bottom of the tank sideways so that I don't have to deal with that problem...

[FischAutoTechGarten]

I have the heaters are on a GFCI protected circuit, so shock hazard should be eliminated. But why take the chance?

Sometimes I do 75% water changes. My 29's are 19" high, my 75Watt heaters are only 12" high. I have concern they'll break upon refilling after hanging in the air and superheating.

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Would you believe I did it again? This time noticed 8 hours later. Water only fell to 74.

So this is what dementia is like.

[Scrappi_tt]

You should put a poster up on your door which says "REMEMBER THE HEATERS". So everytime you go to the door to exit the fish room after you do a WC, you will get the message... :D ;)

[discuscartel]

lose the switch and look into a digital timer. i'm sure you can rig something up with one. i know intermatic makes some really nice ones with many different functions.

for instance when you go to do a water change turn the timer off so the heaters go off and set the timer to come back on lets say in 30 minutes or however long it takes you. do your water changes and then leave. just a thought.

good luck, john

[discuscartel]

you could get by with just a mechanical timer - you know the kind with the push pins.

push all the pins in (or out depending on what represents on and off) so the timer is always on, when you do your water changes pull up two or three pins (i think one pin represents 15 minutes depending on the model) and spin the dial so the "off" pins are hit and the heaters go off. if you forget to push them back its really not a big deal as the heaters will be off for only a small amount of time every 24 hours.

the timer replaces the switch in the circuit. you could probably rig something up with standard recepticals because you'll have to break the circuit to get the timer in.

i hope this might help ya.

john

[mikeos]

Get or make a temperature alarm.

[jaydoc]

my pumps and heaters are on the same switch. If the water ain't runnin' then the heater ain't heatin'. It works for me.
Cary the lesser

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Think I'll reuse one of my windup timers and a Normally Open 120 PotterBrumfield Relay. That'll do it.

[Ardan]

I hate it when I forget things or screw up... but it seems to get more frequent every yr....... ;D
Glad you caught it and the fish are ok!