Neptune Aquatics

Mini tank crash due to heater not keeping up

I have a ten gallon nano with a 50 watt heater and it looks like the heater hasn’t been able to keep with the cold temperatures at night lately. I lost most of my sps corals. This is my first winter in the Bay Area and I thought 50 watts would be enough. Anyone had similar issues with a 50 watt heater in a ten gallon?
 
I have a ten gallon nano with a 50 watt heater and it looks like the heater hasn’t been able to keep with the cold temperatures at night lately. I lost most of my sps corals. This is my first winter in the Bay Area and I thought 50 watts would be enough. Anyone had similar issues with a 50 watt heater in a ten gallon?
How low did temp dip?
Sps will not die that fast with temp drop.
When you say lost what do you mean exactly? Ant pictures? Some informeyions about your system would help u understand what might have happened.

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The heater is set to 78 and was around 72 when I checked earlier this morning. It must’ve dropped even lower at night. I haven’t made any changes to the tank so not sure what else it could be. All the parameters are fairly stable. The tank is a ten gallon nano with an ai prime.

Here are pics of some of the corals, they didn’t completely die.
88097d67a89e8ea82d0c05d31ae821c7.jpg
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From top to bottom: montipora cap, psammacora, birdsnest.
 
The heater is set to 78 and was around 72 when I checked earlier this morning. It must’ve dropped even lower at night. I haven’t made any changes to the tank so not sure what else it could be. All the parameters are fairly stable.

Here are pics of some of the corals, they didn’t completely die.
88097d67a89e8ea82d0c05d31ae821c7.jpg
8f38fecce73ccd64cca240b4450a373d.jpg
5b31bc64cd58771e19e46b45ddad9030.jpg
Not sure this is the reason. I run my system in winter at 74 72....
Unless its the sudden 6 degrees drop that caused such fast rtn...
Just to be in the safe side did you check parameters? Did your heater broke by any chance?
Did you have a large bioload from something died
All am saying is, just make sure you are not dealing with something else.

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Well rule of thumb I always go by is 1 watt per 1 gallon per 5 degrees below tank. So what that means is if you have a 10g tank and want to keep the tank at 80F, a 50watt heater is useful if the average temperature is 55 degrees. Now there are other issues involved here, as too much water movement leads to more evaporation which is heat loss. But 55 degrees is really fricking cold for a house, usually you see these issues with garage sumps and the like. I'd suspect your heater may not be living up to what it can do... or you do keep your house that cold.
 
My tanks have hit 71 degrees being in the garage. Unless your hitting under 70 degrees for a period time you should have been ok. That has been my experience
 
Had my heater offline during summer and just found out yesterday that my tank has been running at 68F. Shouldn’t be the issue you’re dealing with.

Going to see about running MH this winter
 
Well rule of thumb I always go by is 1 watt per 1 gallon per 5 degrees below tank. So what that means is if you have a 10g tank and want to keep the tank at 80F, a 50watt heater is useful if the average temperature is 55 degrees. Now there are other issues involved here, as too much water movement leads to more evaporation which is heat loss. But 55 degrees is really fricking cold for a house, usually you see these issues with garage sumps and the like. I'd suspect your heater may not be living up to what it can do... or you do keep your house that cold.
I keep the tank in a room that opens directly to an atrium that’s exposed to the elements. It’s very possible that room has been reaching sub 50 temperatures with the door open. I may have to move it to the living room or the a more powerful heater.
 
Had my heater offline during summer and just found out yesterday that my tank has been running at 68F. Shouldn’t be the issue you’re dealing with.

Going to see about running MH this winter
Do you keep sps corals? how big is your tank?


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Also it depends on the type/design of the heater. Many inexpensive heaters with integrated temp sensors when they turn on will increase the temp at the sensor quickly and shut off too early when they tank temp remains cold. They do this over and over, essentially making it so that you get the benefit of maybe half the rated wattage.

You can partially compensate for this by making sure it is in a very high flow area.
 
If the heater has a light you can see this happen by watching it. If it turns off and on every few min even though the tank is below temp, this is happening.
 
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