heater tried to cook my fish

[Wailua Boy]

I had the same thing happens a few years back. I had just got home and immediately noticed a fishy smell coming from a 120g, luckily it was stocked with breeding pair of tilapia and they do seem to love heat(not that much lol), They were both at surface gulping air but they recovered just fine.

 

[thacarter546]

I refuse to use in tank heaters for this reason. I have been lucky so far. All of mine have stuck in the off position.

 

[duanes]

I always like to use 2 very under sized heaters to a tank, that way if one fails in the "on" position(very common, had it happen many times over 50 years) the other should shut down, less chance of the tank being over heated..
It is also advisable to put heaters in a more horizontal position when hanging in the tank, it is theorized that in that way the thermostat goes on an off less. Because heat rises from the element in the lower part of the heater, if the heater is vertical , heat rises past the thermostat causing in to stop, but moments later go on again.
With the heater horizontal the thermostat is more likely to receive a more constant ambient temp.

 

[alecrromine]

I always like to use 2 very under sized heaters to a tank, that way if one fails in the "on" position(very common, had it happen many times over 50 years) the other should shut down, less chance of the tank being over heated..
It is also advisable to put heaters in a more horizontal position when hanging in the tank, it is theorized that in that way the thermostat goes on an off less. Because heat rises from the element in the lower part of the heater, if the heater is vertical , heat rises past the thermostat causing in to stop, but moments later go on again.
With the heater horizontal the thermostat is more likely to receive a more constant ambient temp.

it normally hung in the horizontal position. i grabbed it by the power cord to pull it out and the suction cups came off . right now it doesnt have a heater, i think im going to hook up 2x150w or 3x100w heaters to hopefully heat more evenly throughout the tank

 

[Def Leppard Hysteria]

That has only happened to me once, with an ebo jaeger no less. I lost half a tank of African Cichlids.

It certainly makes one consider a secondary thermostat for all heaters.

It only happened to me once, in 16 years of fish keeping. The culprit was an Ebo Jaeger, too. Cooked an entire 45 gallon cube tank of Paracyprichromis nigripinnis and some fancy plecos. After that, all my heaters are connected to a heater controller.