Cats, Power Boards and a Whole Lot of Worry

[Kittiee Katt]

A warning for people with cats and fish, and a question down the bottom, feel free to skip the story and go straight to the question if you'd like, but the story has a bit of info regarding the question as well.

This morning when I woke up all of my tetras were washed out and my silver dollars swimming funny (one almost dead on the bottom of the tank!) because of my cats... When I was in bed last night I heard a "thump" but ignored it as thumps and bumps are commonplace in my house what with four cats running around.. Boy do I wish I'd checked it now..

The cats had somehow knocked one of the heater plugs (the 300watt one) out of the power board, leaving a tiny 100watt heater to try and heat a 400ltr tank in a cold room.. My tank was at 14°c!!! I plugged the heater back in and done a 25% WC with slightly warmer (20ish°c) water which seemed to perk the dollars up almost instantly (even Change the almost dead one perked up very quick) and they all seem to be getting better as the water has warmed up.

I will be monitoring the ammonia and nitrite very closely over the next week as I'm not sure if being so cold all night has affected my cycle. But overall I'm just relieved that my fish seem okay.

If I had of lost any of my fish from this I would be devastated and probably would of killed a cat or two (<this is a JOKE), my oldest fish is in that tank!

A warning to anyone with cats and fish, if you hear bumps coming from an area of the house with fish tanks, please, check them no matter how harmless they sound! It could save your fish's lives.


Now, my question.. When I plugged the heater back in I adjusted the dial on the 300watt to 20 (approx 20°c) because I wasn't sure if a quick jump back up to 24°c would of shocked them to death. The tank is on 21°c now (the 100watt heater has been on 24 the whole time) after a few hours and I'm contemplating when to turn the dial back up to 24.
Should I turn the heater up to 22 in roughly an hour (4ish hours after the wc), then up to 24 a few hours after that's adjusted? Should I increase it slower than that?

Species in the tank are
Silver dollars
Black widow tetras
Bloodfin tetras
Glowlight tetras (not glowfish)
Silvertip tetras
Assorted corydoras
As horrible as it may sound, I'm mostly concerned about my SD's. They were in the worst shape this morning.

Anyways if someone can please offer some advice would be great. Thanks in advance.

 

[skjl47]

Should I turn the heater up

Hello; Unless the heaters are somehow different then turning them up to a higher temperature setting does not get them to heat cold water faster.
I say unless they are different because I have not used many modern heaters. The older heaters worked so that once "on" they were heating at full power. The temperature control (also known as the thermostat) is just an on/off switch. You set it at 24 C and it will keep the heater turned on until the temperature reaches 24 C.
A 300 watt heater runs at 300 watts any time it is on. A 100 watt runs at 100 watts any time it is on.

I got a new submersible heater last year because I can not find the older style that hang on the side of a tank any more. I do not like the submersible sort because this seems like a guarantee for eventual failure. Also because to adjust them your hand is in the water which seems more risky. The one I bought seemed to work like my older types in terms of the thermostat being an on/off switch. I have not had one of the submersible type apart yet so cannot say if they have a bimetal strip style thermostat or some newer type.

The answer is to set the heater to the temp you want and it will run at 100% power until it reaches that temp. To warm the water up in stages you are already doing the correct procedure.

I forget sometimes you are in late winter still while I am in late summer.

Good luck. I have had a number of tanks get cold and did not lose fish due to it.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; One more thing. Heaters tend to turn on and then off every few moments. This is because a volume of water near the heater gets warmed up to the set temperature and the thermostat turns it off. That warmed water sets up a convection current and gets mixed with cooler water which a few moments later triggers the thermostat to turn on the heater. This cycle repeats.
While it is sluggish movement a heater can set up water circulation in a tank by itself.

Having power filters to keep the water moving and mixed helps prevent temperature zones in a tank. In tanks without power filters I have noted that some fish would stay closer to the heaters than others. I always figured they preferred the slightly warmer water. This was back when I ran filters on air bubbles only for a decade or two.

 

[Kittiee Katt]

Hello; Unless the heaters are somehow different then turning them up to a higher temperature setting does not get them to heat cold water faster.
I say unless they are different because I have not used many modern heaters. The older heaters worked so that once "on" they were heating at full power. The temperature control (also known as the thermostat) is just an on/off switch. You set it at 24 C and it will keep the heater turned on until the temperature reaches 24 C.
A 300 watt heater runs at 300 watts any time it is on. A 100 watt runs at 100 watts any time it is on.

I got a new submersible heater last year because I can not find the older style that hang on the side of a tank any more. I do not like the submersible sort because this seems like a guarantee for eventual failure. Also because to adjust them your hand is in the water which seems more risky. The one I bought seemed to work like my older types in terms of the thermostat being an on/off switch. I have not had one of the submersible type apart yet so cannot say if they have a bimetal strip style thermostat or some newer type.

The answer is to set the heater to the temp you want and it will run at 100% power until it reaches that temp. To warm the water up in stages you are already doing the correct procedure.

I forget sometimes you are in late winter still while I am in late summer.

Good luck. I have had a number of tanks get cold and did not lose fish due to it.

I realize that turning them up higher won't heat the water quicker. I'm just not sure how quickly the water in the tank will reach 24°c if I turn the heater back up to 24, or if a 3°c jump up in temp would be too much for them to handle right now after this morning's ordeal.

I've only just turned the heater up to 22 and I'm waiting for the tank to adjust before deciding whether to just turn it up completely or not. I really don't want to lose my big dollar. We lost her husband to an unknown accident (woke up and he was dead on the tank floor, I assume he hit the tank wall a little to hard and didn't come right ), I don't want to lose her too.

So far the fish all seem to be coping really well. Although my little male dollar has been hiding in the plants all day so I haven't been able to get a good look at him. I can see his gills moving normally through the plants and he swims around in them but I'd still like to see him so I can assess how he's doing now that everything's calmed down.

Edit: S skjl47 , my heaters in all of my tanks sit right in front of the filter out takes, which all have spray bars or jet nozzle things to direct the flow one way.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; Well you could have pretended that my long and laborious post was answering the right question. Now I will not be able to go back to sleep for many hours.

(that it is 6:25 in the AM here and I just got out of bed should not be taken into account. You should feel guilty anyway. )

My guess is the heaters will not heat the water too fast regardless, setting the heaters up to higher temperature in stages will work also. I think the key is to not change the temps real quick (like minutes). Over a few hours should not cause a shock.

 

[Kittiee Katt]

Hello; Well you could have pretended that my long and laborious post was answering the right question. Now I will not be able to go back to sleep for many hours.

(that it is 6:25 in the AM here and I just got out of bed should not be taken into account. You should feel guilty anyway. )

I'm sorry, let me try again.
Thank you for taking the time out to answer my question in such detail. Please feel free to go back to bed. No need to help me anymore, my problems have been solved.

(Friendly sarcasm above for those who can't tell)

My guess is the heaters will not heat the water too fast regardless, setting the heaters up to higher temperature in stages will work also. I think the key is to not change the temps real quick (like minutes). Over a few hours should not cause a shock.

Its good to know that if I turn it up to 24 before I go to bed (in a few hours) that shouldn't shock my poor fish as it adjusts.
I think they've had enough shock for one week the poor buggers.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; Not only are you in a different season but a different time of day. I am just getting started with my Friday and you are about finished with your day.

 

[Kittiee Katt]

Hello; Not only are you in a different season but a different time of day. I am just getting started with my Friday and you are about finished with your day.

Yep. Its 9:10pm Friday night here. And spring started a week ago.. If you could call it spring

 

[Kittiee Katt]

Well I have some sad news...

Change (male SD) wasn't doing to well on the Saturday after the incident. Then on Monday when he finally came out of hiding (he was in the plants for DAYS just sitting there, he'd move around in them but wouldn't leave the security of the plants) I noticed what looked like some of his slime coat peeling, so I moved him to a little 150ltr qt tank in case it was actually something contagious to my other fish, and so I could keep a close eye on him instead of having him hide in the plants all day, every day where I could barely see him (before someone lectures me, the qt tank had fake plants for him to feel secure, however they were arranged in such a way that I could actually see him unlike those in the main tank).

He didn't get worse but didn't improve either, and unfortunately this morning he was deceased

I'm not sure exactly what caused it, I doubt it was the stress from the heater being off because he was alive for almost a week afterwards and I'm wondering if I maybe made it worse by moving him to another tank? Maybe the added stress of being moved and alone in a tank with a heavy WC schedule was too much for him after the ordeal on Saturday.. I'm not sure. But one thing I am sure of is that every bump I hear near a fish tank from now on with be thoroughly inspected regardless of the time or how cold it is outside the bed!