So what is your broken heater story? Please I can't be the only one.

[Tedrock]

 

Here I am ready ready for blissful sleep just a quick gaze through out the basement fishroom.  Bam. . .stop right there. The scaped 10 gallon lemon eyed long fin pleco fry grow out tank has no action.  Where are all the pre teen pleco fry?  Feel the water. . . wooo that water is cold.   Check the heater aghh, just put this in two days ago, piece of garbage.  The agony, the loss of life, months of work poof gone. 

I saved the hardiest but not before losing 80%.  Funny thing is up till a week ago I had two 25 watt heaters in the 10 gallon.  I just switched to a 50 watt two days ago.  Two heater in a special tank like this from now on.

So what is your heater story?   Please I can't be the only one.

 

Many thanks 

Ted K from Massachusetts basement fishroom.

[Levi_Aquatics]

I had a cheap heater in a 20L with a pair of kribensis and it cracked/exploded and I was afraid it had killed the kribs but they were fine and I ended up getting a higher quality heater for the aquarium. Not a great story but just thought i'd share my experience with broken heaters.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Bought 2 Cobalt 200 w heaters on Black Friday, placed them both in my killifish breeding tub, I reached into a tank to adjust a breeding mop and got a shock. I looked and 1 of the heaters had essentially exploded and a live wire was exposed. 
Had a great deal on tetra preset heaters and bought a couple and all of them have failed luckily didn’t kill any fish. 
Hopefully the heaters the coop is developing will be better.  
So yes heaters suck. Look forward to the day I can heat a room or use heat tape to manage temp. 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Before getting back into the hobby did the research. Saw Cory's videos on how some people do NOT need heaters! Because of stories like this and potential failures planned specifically NOT to have heaters and be low tech. I know not everyone can do it so I totally get it- but I am so glad I am one of the lucky ones not to! @Tedrock such a bummer! Sorry to hear about your loss. 😔 What a terrible thing to walk into!

[sairving]

My job at the airport requires me to work weird hours sometimes. So I have to be at the FBO at 8 pm.  Sir Nippy Fins the betta wasn't very active. I check the heater and it's not heating the water. It's 7:30 pm and the tank is 72 degrees (it's also February). I stick an under powered 20 watt preset in the tank, hope for the best, and go to work.  

Why can't heaters fail at a convenient time? The next day, I drag myself out of bed and go to Petco as soon as they open. Now I keep a spare 50 watt heater.

@TedrockSorry to hear about your loss.

[gardenman]

Heaters have become less reliable over time. I've been keeping fish for over fifty years and older heaters were better. Modern heaters just don't work well or last long. Most of my tanks are now unheated and when I need to use a heater, I opt for two smaller ones instead of one "properly sized" one. If a smaller heater gets stuck on, it's less likely to cook the fish before I realize it. If one fails, the other heater should keep things close to where I need them until I can replace the failed one. 

I said this in another post, but I think the commercial, stainless steel sous vide cookers might be an interesting thing for an aquarium product supplier to look at. They combine a heater with a circulator pump to distribute the warmed water. (Handy for an aquarium.) A dual thermostat system could prevent fish cooking. One to turn on the heater when it's too cool and another to shut it off if it gets too hot and the first one doesn't shut it off. Redundancy in the design makes a certain amount of sense. Follow the lead of NASA where you always have redundancies built into the systems. A circulator pump built into the heater could keep the temps more stable in the tank also. 

[Odd Duck]

Since I’ve been keeping fish for many decades I have had multiple episodes of heater failures but I can’t can’t remember any where they killed fish that I know for sure was the heater’s fault.  I think I’ve been incredibly lucky that way.

I’ve mostly had heaters that just quit working but I’ve not deliberately bred fish in the past and had the heater quit working in the tank with the fry.  I’ve had a few heaters that didn’t keep the temp accurate but still cycled off and on.  I’ve only had a very few that started to keep the tank warmer than they were supposed to.  They didn’t stick on, just cycled at a higher temp than I wanted even turned all the way down - that was a weird one.

I’ve been very lucky that I haven’t had a heater truly stick full on in decades.  I was incredibly lucky that I caught it quickly.  I had only a single tank back then (this was waaaaaaaaay back) and noticed right away, unplugged it and took it out.  Didn’t have a back up, so I had to go buy one ASAP.

I’ve also had a few get hairline cracks and not noticed it and got shocked the next time I put my hand in the tank, fortunately only mild tingles.  Other failures have been operator error.  I absolutely toasted one with a plastic shroud a few weeks ago by dropping the water lower than usually during a water change and forgetting to unplug the heater.  🤦🏻‍♀️ I have all my heaters set as low as practical in the tank so I don’t have to worry about them unless I do a more than 50% water change.

Looking back, I’m kind of shocked that I haven’t had more heater failures that caused losses.  Maybe I’m just old and can’t remember!

[Tedrock]

On 1/4/2022 at 8:25 AM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

Before getting back into the hobby did the research. Saw Cory's videos on how some people do NOT need heaters! Because of stories like this and potential failures planned specifically NOT to have heaters and be low tech. I know not everyone can do it so I totally get it- but I am so glad I am one of the lucky ones not to! @Tedrock such a bummer! Sorry to hear about your loss. 😔 What a terrible thing to walk into!

I so tried the same thing going low tech it worked for the summer.  I switched to cool water fish to breed guppies, rice fish.  Yet my basement gets into the up 50's and the guppies just can't take it and breeding slows down to a crawl.  So I needed to introduce heaters again.  Still the tanks are lower than "normal" I like more resilient fish to sell to my LFS.  I just can't heat my whole basement yet.  When I build the true insulated fishroom I will cut most cords.

On 1/4/2022 at 2:10 AM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

Bought 2 Cobalt 200 w heaters on Black Friday, placed them both in my killifish breeding tub, I reached into a tank to adjust a breeding mop and got a shock. I looked and 1 of the heaters had essentially exploded and a live wire was exposed. 
Had a great deal on tetra preset heaters and bought a couple and all of them have failed luckily didn’t kill any fish. 
Hopefully the heaters the coop is developing will be better.  
So yes heaters suck. Look forward to the day I can heat a room or use heat tape to manage temp. 

The ones that failed for me have been the preset heaters as well.  I guess you get what you pay for.

[Tanked]

I've broken a heater or two over the decades, so I upgraded to a shatterproof Eheim heater in my 75.  I came home one night to find the barbs slowly swimming along the bottom of the tank.  That wasn't that unusual so I ignored it.  Returning from work, the following evening, I noticed that they didn't come up for food, and I did not feel the usual warm air rising from the water.  The pilot light on the heater was on, but the heater was cold.  The water and room temp were the same 60 degrees, and I was off to Petsmart.  Now, I always keep a backup heater on standby.  The heater was only "stuck", and I still use it today for preheating water change water.  I figure if it can get stuck in the off position it could just as well get stuck in the on position.

[Jennifer V]

Oh no! This is one of my nightmares, as I've already had one heater poop out on me. I see ACO sells a Fluval Nano Aquarium Heater 25watt but I have a 10g tank. Do I just buy two of those for that tank? 

[sairving]

On 1/4/2022 at 1:41 PM, Jennifer V said:

Oh no! This is one of my nightmares, as I've already had one heater poop out on me. I see ACO sells a Fluval Nano Aquarium Heater 25watt but I have a 10g tank. Do I just buy two of those for that tank? 

I would say it depends on where you live.  25 watt preset heaters won't work in the winter where I live.  I use an adjustable 50 watt heater in my 10 gallon.  Adjustable heaters let you tweak things if the thermostat is off a few degrees. 

[Jennifer V]

On 1/4/2022 at 1:12 PM, sairving said:

I would say it depends on where you live.  25 watt preset heaters won't work in the winter where I live.  I use an adjustable 50 watt heater in my 10 gallon.  Adjustable heaters let you tweak things if the thermostat is off a few degrees. 

Good to know. I live in Denver, which is surprising mild compared to other places I've lived. I guess I'm on the hunt for a new heater or two. 

[sairving]

On 1/4/2022 at 2:18 PM, Jennifer V said:

Good to know. I live in Denver, which is surprising mild compared to other places I've lived. I guess I'm on the hunt for a new heater or two. 

I'm in Wisconsin and a 25 watt preset didn't even keep my 3 gallon the correct temperature. 

[binkysmom]

I had a heater not turn off before and I noticed the fish at the surface gasping for air. Water got up to 92!

turned off and removed the heater, added and airstone right away. Luckily it was summer and I replaced it a few days later.

i now keep a close eye on my heaters. I haven't had one break though.

 

[zelibeli]

I recently switched to some Hygger oval heaters. I liked the design. They show the temp reading very clearly on the front and there's a control on the wire to adjust the temperature. I thought it was better than the classic tube design, because I can easily see and adjust the temp. I ordered 4 of them. Well 1 of them started making a weird buzzing noise and the coil in the oval under the plastic was heating up so hot that it was glowing under the casing. The other 3 don't do that so I think it's a defective one. Luckily my old heaters were still fine, and I just plopped an old one in to replace the weird glowing one. No harm done, except eating the cost of 1 heater. I'm way too lazy to return things and it wasn't expensive. Keeping an eye on the others, just in case. 

[Streetwise]

I detected stray current by getting a shock, and discovered a heater with corrosion. I removed all my heaters, except for a betta tank. I am out of the betta club, so no heaters.

[eatyourpeas]

I have not had a heater fail on me yet. I do keep dual heaters in my large tanks, and always have a backup just in case.

[Streetwise]

@eatyourpeas, I think the primary concern is cooking fish, and I like the strategy of two under-powered heaters.

My failure mode is less-common, but can happen with water-ingress.

Edit: I broke my fair-share of glass heaters when I was younger.

[eatyourpeas]

On 1/4/2022 at 6:20 PM, Streetwise said:

@eatyourpeas, I think the primary concern is cooking fish, and I like the strategy of two under-powered heaters.

My failure mode is less-common, but can happen with water-ingress.

Edit: I broke my fair-share of glass heaters when I was younger.

I agree. Given that my biggest tank is 12 gallons, two 25W heaters seem like a cautious choice.

[Tedrock]

Two low powered heaters is the way to go if you have the outlet space.  That is a whole other thread.

Have you ever burnt down your fishroom? (Said with humor, but recognize that electrical fires are a caused by over demand of the outlet available.)

[GardenStateGoldfish]

I had multiple heaters fail on me in my saltwater days, I also broke countless during water changes and forgetting to unplug them (my fault) worst was one time I shocked myself and my fish, luckily a small shock and we were all fine, but it got to the point I don’t use heaters, if they fish can’t tolerate it without heaters it’s not the fish for me 🤷🏻

[Jennifer V]

On 1/4/2022 at 8:07 PM, eatyourpeas said:

I agree. Given that my biggest tank is 12 gallons, two 25W heaters seem like a cautious choice.

Should I get two 25W for my 10g? 

[Kiefer]

Broken heater horror stories are the main reason I decided to go as low-tech as possible getting into the hobby. All of my tanks run sponge filters and lights, that's it. The less things that can go wrong, the easier I sleep. I got a 5 gallon for Christmas though so I'm going to need one to put a betta in there.

I will say though, during the crazy NW heat wave last summer this no-AC house ended up getting to over 106 inside. I only had one tank running at that time and it was fortunately still cycling with just snails, water hit 102 and was getting into the upper 90s every day for a week. Snails and plants all survived, though the pink ramshorns were starting to turn white. You know it's bad when the snails are stressed.

[eatyourpeas]

On 1/5/2022 at 12:10 AM, Jennifer V said:

Should I get two 25W for my 10g? 

They have worked great for me. These are the ones I use in all of my tanks. I like that the temperature controller is outside the tank, it is easy to see the operating lights, and as long as you have water movement near them they are hard to beat.

[PineSong]

I would like to know what heaters Germans and Japanese fishkeepers use, or what heaters are available when price is not a factor--for example, if laboratories or zoos or researchers of some kind are using them? 

I understand cost and ready availability are real factors for most of us, but it's also true that I and probably lots of other folks would be willing to pay a lot more for a heater that performs accurately, will last a long time, and has zero risk of cooking fish. Are they out there and they are just a specialized market?

Other than my betta, I don't keep any heater-dependent fish but I still have heaters in every tank because I feel bad thinking about them getting down to room temp (69 f in my house). That heater is probably why I still only have 5 white clouds after six months!