Cali Kid Corals

crap- stupid heaters

phishphood

phishphood

Guest
BARcard
&#$!#@%$&#

Just got home from a 3day trip down to socal. Apparently my heater (titanium WON II I think) decided that it's 140* in my tank so never turned on. I can only assume that it's been off for at least a day, since the water is cold as heck. My heaters have apparently been my mj's and 175W halide.....Great.

Stuff isn't looking too hot, but nothing looks dead. Although my blenny and angel are MIA, but my front panel is covered with diatoms so I can't see much :D. I tossed another 200W heater in there that works, and can do a 5g change on a 40g system w/ 70* water, but I wasn't sure if the shock would be worth it? Maybe I'll start a drip change. blarghhh!!!!!


/rant
 
Oh no! Glad nothing is dead.

That reminds me... I need to set up my ranco controller. Since setting up the new tank I just haven't gotten around to it. I think it's time, though.
 
Oh man, good luck! Hopefully everything recovers!

The last couple weeks a lot of people have had a lot of bad luck with their tanks. I will be leaving to the Bahamas in January for 1 week and reading all this horror stories scares me to dead to come home to some kind of disaster.
 
Aldie- my advice is to just get someone who knows reeftanks to check on it every day/every few days.

Pixel- I'm "hoping" nothing's dead. Maybe I'm just in denial. Where'd you go about getting your controller?
 
You are right. My 16yr old stepdaughter and mother in law will be here so the house won't be empty for a whole week. They don't know anything about reeftanks. I will try to explain them the most important things to look for and maybe I find someone experienced with reef tanks that could come over in case there is a problem.

If your temperature didn't drop under 70degrees I think you will be fine.
 
Heh, ambient temp is 55*. Probably got as low as 50* during the very early morning hours.

Phong- still working to pay off my D40...not sure if I can swing for any nice controller right now heh.

Oh, and the angel is still alive and picking at my brain :) :(
 
Thanks a lot Bryan, appriciate that a lot!

Mitch, 50 degrees is very cold. I am surprised that nothing died. I wouldn't add 70 degree water to it. I don't know how fast the 200W heater will raise the temperature but if it would slowly raise it overnight to over 70 I would just let the heater do the work.
 
[quote author=phishphood link=topic=5695.msg71322#msg71322 date=1230097785]
Pixel- I'm "hoping" nothing's dead. Maybe I'm just in denial. Where'd you go about getting your controller?
[/quote]

I think I got it directly from ranco. (www.rancoetc.com)
 
Yeah, I know 50* is really cold. I'm just letting the heater do the work. SHouldn't be raising it too fast.

Oh, and if Bryan can't make it for some reason, I'd be more than willing to go up. Albeit, I don't know jack about your setup, but if worst comes to worst.

The best way that I've learned to do vacations with someone at home is to make everything as idiot proof as possible. Food gets divided into little sections with the day/time it should be added. Topoff water, if needed, should be marked and they should be shown where and when to add it. Lights should be on a timer, and other than that, all you need is a list of things that should throw up red flags. Bubbles in the tank, no lights on when they should be, etc etc should be on the list along w/ the ph# of the person to call.

Sorry to ramble, I'm a bit buzzed now. Happy holidays everyone.
 
What is done is done man.. Suck to lose livestock but thing happen.. Enjoy the holiday.. I'm sure we can help you restock if needed :) ..
 
Heh, the funny thing is I brought back a bunch of misc corals from a buddy's fuge in SD. The water in the bags was warmer than the water in the tank.....there goes the premise of floating them. Nothing looks really dead except my frag of zoas that got flipped off the rocks and landed upside down in the sand. I'm debating buying a new glass heater or buying a controller for the TI one, so that issue will get fixed soon.
 
Your heater is busted.. Get a new one and get a controller while you're at it.. I have a lot of heaters but I think they are too big for your tank..
 
Nah, the heater itself I'm pretty sure is just fine. It's one of those TI heaters that have their own external controller and probe. If worse comes to worse, I can probably retro the heater onto a ranco controller.
 
controller wouldn't have helped anything since the onboard controller for the titanium heater thought it was too hot as it is and would have stayed off even if you had a controller to say "power this plug".

I had a probe on a controller get partially disconnected as a result it didn't do anything with the temp not too long ago, tank got down to 70 degrees over night, luckily it was a large body of water so would take a while to cool off.
 
I'd either set the built in controller to the max temp (it's pretty hot, not sure why that setting is there...) or disconnect the heater and wire it directly to the ranco.
 
[quote author=phishphood link=topic=5695.msg71350#msg71350 date=1230134257]
I'd either set the built in controller to the max temp (it's pretty hot, not sure why that setting is there...) or disconnect the heater and wire it directly to the ranco.
[/quote]

Careful there! If the ranco probe were to come out of the water, the heater would stay on and cook the tank. The internal controller is a great backup. I usually set mine to like 82. (ranco is set to 78)

I'm thinking I might add a second low wattage heater set for like 74 as a backup on the low end. Hopefully if it's low enough wattage it won't cook the tank even if it gets stuck on.
 
Well the problem was that the temperature controller of the heater thought it was 140, so even setting it to "max" would not have helped. IMO using a temperature controller in conjunction with heaters are two safeguards from things getting too hot, however for too cold they don't help, which is why you should always have 2 heaters ;)

With a controller (whether it be a "complex" one like an AC jr or a simply temperature controller) you simply set one a few degrees above the other so that if one fails (due to probe coming out of the water) the other picks up and it might make the tank slightly warmer than usual but not too bad. With glass heaters I like to save on the mechanics of the heater itself by letting the controller turn them off rather than the heater (plus you typically get more accurate with a controller), with my titanium one, unfortunately if the power goes out to it, when power is restored it gives a loud shriek, then resets the thermostat to 81, so for that I had it set the other way where the thermometer turns itself on and off but in that case the mechanics are similar to that of a controller so it's not a big deal. The way I have it setup the glass thermometer is the failsafe and is hardly ever on unless the temp drops below 76.5°F, which it has on these colder nights we've been having.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top