Disaster :(

[Gem400]

I've just lost an entire tank of fish thanks to the elite heater sticking on and cooking the fish. I've lost my corydoras longipinnis, scleromystax prionotos and my whole breeding stock of black moscow guppies and most of my breeding assassin snails. Amazingly a few snails have survived, god knows how.
Is there any chance the filter bacteria could have survived so I could use the tank without cycling it again? I wil be keeping an eye on levels before adding any more fish.

Gemma

 

[scatz]

ewww. saw the title and didn't want to look!
gutted Gem, some nice fish there gone, when are they going to invent a foolproof heater????????

hard to say about the bacteria, do you know how warm the water got?, i guess you normally run it low for the cories?, if it had risen to say 30-32c, it should be ok still, but as you say, test it first and if possible, add some "canary" fish

 

[hullfishman]

ouch i feel for you, my heater stuck on my shrimp tank the other week and i lost the lot.
dave

 

[Joby]

Oh dear not nice :cry:

Hope the filter has some bacteria in there still :yes:

I lost a fantastic copper crowntail breeding pair of bettas a few years back when a heater stuck on and cooked them :wb:

 

[smart]

sorry for your loss, you must me gutted :cry:

 

[Doodles]

:cry::cry:Sorry Gemma

As said how high was the temp?

 

[macvsog23]

when are they going to invent a foolproof heater????????

Eheim Thermo filters never had one jam on had one explode once blew the filter across the fish house looked like a claymore had hit it.

 

[Gem400]

:cry::cry:Sorry Gemma

As said how high was the temp?

It got way above 30, my dad was the one who found them and said he could only just put his hand in the water it was that hot, all the corys had turned white and woud have been the first to go. I'm utterly gutted and I know it sounds bad but I'm just glad it didn't happen to one of my other tanks with loads of expensive plecs in. I'm just worried as I have another tank running with an elite heater in but that one is under 12 months old. I'll just be careful re-stocking just in case the filter bacteria has also been cooked.

Thanks for the kind words

Cheers
Gemma

 

[smart]

you can get digital thermometers with high and low temp alarms, if your worried about it happening again it could be the peace of mind you need

 

[GrubbyGirl]

The Rena smart heater has some kind of special thermostat thingie (can't remember the name) which means that if it fails it will always be in the off position.......I can't remember where I read it, but that's why I bought one for my Zebra tank

 

[SmithRC]

Never a nice thing to happen.... I lost a whole tank of fish like that last year...

My only saving grace was that they belonged to a very understanding guy.... and his breeding adults were/are prolific breeders.

I've got a couple of digital controllers that I intend to use on more critical tanks when the fish room gets going again...

I have also made a standalone thermostat for a guy with a planted tank - it used an old heater whos element had died, stripped down and a plug socket wired in - including something like that means that both thermostats would have to fail before the heater would jam on....