180 Gal Tank Fried!!! Thanks to BlueLine Biothern 1000k heater~!!!

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Gambusia
MFK Member
Aug 28, 2008
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So my BlueLine Biotherm 1000 heater and controller malfunctioned last night while I was asleep. I woke up to an 80 degree room. All my fishes were all pretty much gone. The temp controller read 120 degrees, but amazingly, my 11" Silver aro and my 12" Black aro and a 5-6" Flagtail made it.

I lost
3x 3" NTT
2x 7" IT
1x 6-7" Motoro
1x 8" Bala
1x 8" Ocell
4x 3-4" silver dollars

This may sound silly, but people have suggested me trying to get a hold of BlueLine Biotherm and see if they will do anything

So here is my question:
question 1:What can I do as far as my heater malfuctioning?
question 2:Are there any suggestions on getting a hold of the heater company and having them re-imbursting my lost?
question 3:What would you try to do if you were in my situation?

And will they even take responsibility for this?

Sad sad morning!! Here are my losses..

lost1.jpg

lost2.jpg
 
1. Dont think there is a lot to do. I did see once a diy temperature alarm i think on reefcentral. I imagine there are commercial ones as well?

2. Other than possibly an exchange/refund on your purchase price I cant imagine you are going to have any luck in terms of reimbursement for fish. A refund is probably a long shot too.

3. I would use 2 or more much smaller heaters. One of them going nuts is not going to fry the tank (certainly not so quickly). I use 2 heaters in my standalone large tanks and 3 heaters in my sump systems that have multiple tanks hooked up to it. I learned the hard way several years ago that having a single heater sized "properly" sucks really bad when the heater malfunctions and stays stuck "on".
 
so sorry about your losses :(

I agree that using two smaller heaters (say two 250w) is best.

it eliminates the possiblity of a problem.

if one heater sticks on, the other won't come on and your fish are okay.

if one heater fails, the other will kick in and your fish will be okay.

the only way you would have problems in the future using this method is if BOTH heaters either got stuck on or failed to come on, the chances of both failing at the same time are remote.
 
I just went throught this man, I didnt lose nearly as many fish but I know how you feel....I took my dead fish packed them up with the heater and mailed it back to hagen. Now I just dont use a heater...tank stays at 74 and I get the re-assurance of not having a 95F tank in the AM. Even a 250W heater will rock the temp up quite high over the course of a several hrs.
 
LD50;3880654; said:
I just went throught this man, I didnt lose nearly as many fish but I know how you feel....I took my dead fish packed them up with the heater and mailed it back to hagen. Now I just dont use a heater...tank stays at 74 and I get the re-assurance of not having a 95F tank in the AM. Even a 250W heater will rock the temp up quite high over the course of a several hrs.
Click to expand...

Of course it depends on the situation, but it would be very rare for a 250w heater being capable of overheating a 180 gallon tank more than several degrees especially in a short time period. Maybe if the tank was insulated, sealed top or little airflow, room temperature was ridiculously hot and he had metal halide lights on it then it may be reasonable to think that 250 watts is going to overheat it quickly.

Of course a tank in the mid 80's is not great either, but that is the whole point of having two small heaters. It gives you time to notice the problem rather than a 1000 watt heater within an evening everything can be dead. The majority of tropical fish can survive well into the 80's and even 90's for periods of time.
 
mailing the to the company is a friggin great idea... thats funny as hell
 
chesterthehero;3880911; said:
mailing the to the company is a friggin great idea... thats funny as hell
Click to expand...

lol it would be funny...


sorry for your lost. thats like more than $200+ lost in fish.
 
I'm getting some kind of temp alarm on all my tanks! Thanks for posting, very sorry about your loss.
 
if you are super worried about your self thermostatic heater boiling your tank you can safe gard the posibility of it sticking on you can use thermostat that is pluged in before the heater and set to a slightly higher temperature than the heater.
Explanation: The Thermostat will be on before the heater even thinks about turning on.
if the heater gets stuck on the thermostat will turn it off.
It will still work the heater but at a higher temp.
http://images.google.com.au/imgres?...ostat&hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1R2GGIT_en&sa=N&um=1

Aquarium_thermostat.jpg
 
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