Came home to an ice cold tank!

[krichardson]

I was wondering why my catfish looked so lethargic and it occured to me to touch the tank glass and boy was it cold.My next move was to check the heater for faultiness,the light on the heater was not lit and then I noticed that the thing wasn't even plugged in...Good Lord,sixty degrees!
It turns out that I had done a water change a few days prior and had forgotten to replug the heater and the temps had been gradually decreasing.

 

[TwoHedWlf]

That's a bit chilly. One reason I never unplug my heaters.

 

[krichardson]

That's a bit chilly. One reason I never unplug my heaters.

I have to in this sumpless tank.The heater is in a vertical position.

 

[markstrimaran]

My house is always set at tropical. Lol, my basement sump drums, chilled my tanks down to 60 last winter before I insulated them.
African cichilds can take a little abuse al least.

 

[krichardson]

My house is always set at tropical. Lol, my basement sump drums, chilled my tanks down to 60 last winter before I insulated them.
African cichilds can take a little abuse al least.

Cichlids are tough....a lot of them anyhow.I had a Dempsey years ago that I rescued from an unheated tank in the dead of winter.

 

[tlindsey]

I was wondering why my catfish looked so lethargic and it occured to me to touch the tank glass and boy was it cold.My next move was to check the heater for faultiness,the light on the heater was not lit and then I noticed that the thing wasn't even plugged in...Good Lord,sixty degrees!
It turns out that I had done a water change a few days prior and had forgotten to replug the heater and the temps had been gradually decreasing.

Good thing you can recognize fish behavior and realized something was wrong.

 

[markstrimaran]

Cichlids are tough....a lot of them anyhow.I had a Dempsey years ago that I rescued from an unheated tank in the dead of winter.

My lake Malwai, cichilds have been down to 55'F for a month, and have recovered. So some day when the north wind knocks out power, for a week. They will do much better than my old salt water tank.

 

[krichardson]

Good thing you can recognize fish behavior and realized something was wrong.

Yeah they definitely did not look their normal selves and good thing I came home when I did.If I'd stayed out a liitte longer they might not have made it.

 

[robham777]

Good catch man. I have had so many issues with forgetting to unplug or plug back in heaters, I finally set everything up on power strips. It is harder to forget when the lights and filters are also off.

 

[TwoHedWlf]

Good catch man. I have had so many issues with forgetting to unplug or plug back in heaters, I finally set everything up on power strips. It is harder to forget when the lights and filters are also off.

All my power strips have individual switches. So that won't work.