All my tanks are in my garage and i run multiple heaters during the winter and more then once I have lost some of my best fish when my tanks got above 100 degrees
Heaters sticking on
- Thread starter slvaquero82
- Start date
Either get a reef controller that will manage it for you and turn it off if needed. Or also they have other controllers also that will work. I plan to get a reef keeper controllers to add to my setup at some point. Be able to manage everything super well and run everything off of it.
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These are nice. The good ones can also be run remotely if need be. A good reasonable controller is a ranco. This can power the heaters and turn them off at a desired temp
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OR! You could just use less heaters. Then you wouldnt have to worry about it! If the tanks are getting that warm you shouldnt need as many heaters.
Hello; First a suggestion and then a story. The suggestion is to run two (or more) smaller power heaters in place of a single powerful heater. This makes the failure of one likely to be less of an issue to eirher too hot or too cold.
Next is what I have done with stuck heaters. This works for the heaters that use a mechanical bi-metal strip type thermostat with contact points. Over time as the contact points arc when they open and close, they tend to build up a projection on one of the points. The projection is a bit of one point deposited on the other. When the projection grows long enough it can keep the heater on all the time. I have carefully removed the electrical components fro mthe glass tube and cleaned off the small projection. I use a thin flat file. (a points file used on auto distributiors points.)(Auto points would have the same type build up on the points back when cars still used points) I file the points back to having flat surfaces. This restores the small gap when the bi-metal strip opens the points. I have been able to continue using such heaters this way.
I have not opened up any heaters with electronic thermostats as yet so cannot comment on them.
Good luck
Next is what I have done with stuck heaters. This works for the heaters that use a mechanical bi-metal strip type thermostat with contact points. Over time as the contact points arc when they open and close, they tend to build up a projection on one of the points. The projection is a bit of one point deposited on the other. When the projection grows long enough it can keep the heater on all the time. I have carefully removed the electrical components fro mthe glass tube and cleaned off the small projection. I use a thin flat file. (a points file used on auto distributiors points.)(Auto points would have the same type build up on the points back when cars still used points) I file the points back to having flat surfaces. This restores the small gap when the bi-metal strip opens the points. I have been able to continue using such heaters this way.
I have not opened up any heaters with electronic thermostats as yet so cannot comment on them.
Good luck
What size are the tanks and what wattage are you running on them? In the winter in Antioch, I would imagine that on a cold night your garage can get into the low to mid 40s, maybe even into the 30s on really cold nights. My guess is that on these very cold nights, your heaters are being overworked, resulting in your problems.
It sounds like the internal thermostats on his heaters are going bad.
I think running less heaters will make the problem worse; running fewer heaters is going to result in them having to work a lot harder to maintain temperatures and the liklihood of an internal thermostat going bad goes up when heaters are running 24/7. Running more heaters on a controller (as others have mentioned) should resolve the issue. Heaters are not designed to run 24/7. They should be powerful enough to relatively quickly heat the water to the desired temperature, then cycle off.
If you don't have lids/covers on your tank, you will probably have to run 5 to 6 watts per gallon in order to keep up with the heat loss. If you have tight covers, you might be able to get away with 3 or 4 watts per gallon.
Here's where I got my Ranco controller: http://www.jehmco.com/html/temperature_controller.html
If you are tired of losing fish to heater malfunctions, these controllers are the way to go.
Hello; A point of running more than one heater is to try to avoid either an extreme overheating issue if a thermostat sticks on or a tank becoming too cold if a heater fails. It would seem that even with some sort of additional controller the potential of a single powerful heater to cause the tank to overheat if it stuck on or the reverse if the heater failed would still remain.
If the needs of a tank are determined to be 300 watts of heater, then two 150 watt heaters will do the same job. If one 150 watt heater stuck on it should be less likely to overheat the tank. Also even if it would eventually heat up the tank, it should take a much longer time to do so and perhaps give a fish keeper more of a chance to catch the problem. At least it has worked this way for me on a few occasions. I have experienced both types of failure with heaters and have caught the problem when using two heaters well before things either got too hot or too cool. So far I have not had both heaters in the same tank fail at the same time; I suppose that it can happen.
I have used a single very strong heater as well as a two heater setup. The serious issues related to a heater problem with such a setup came about fairly quickly when one stuck on and of course if the only heater in a tank fails in cold weather the tank gets cold soon. I use to have several tanks in a cool basement that required some fairly strong heater wattage.
It may be that the controllers mentioned by others are fool proof. I cannot comment on this as I have not as yet tried them. I can say that in 50+ years of running tanks I have found that eventually most everything fails. I do have some gravel in use from the 1960's.
In the end we each get to run our tanks any way we wish.
Good luck
If the needs of a tank are determined to be 300 watts of heater, then two 150 watt heaters will do the same job. If one 150 watt heater stuck on it should be less likely to overheat the tank. Also even if it would eventually heat up the tank, it should take a much longer time to do so and perhaps give a fish keeper more of a chance to catch the problem. At least it has worked this way for me on a few occasions. I have experienced both types of failure with heaters and have caught the problem when using two heaters well before things either got too hot or too cool. So far I have not had both heaters in the same tank fail at the same time; I suppose that it can happen.
I have used a single very strong heater as well as a two heater setup. The serious issues related to a heater problem with such a setup came about fairly quickly when one stuck on and of course if the only heater in a tank fails in cold weather the tank gets cold soon. I use to have several tanks in a cool basement that required some fairly strong heater wattage.
It may be that the controllers mentioned by others are fool proof. I cannot comment on this as I have not as yet tried them. I can say that in 50+ years of running tanks I have found that eventually most everything fails. I do have some gravel in use from the 1960's.
In the end we each get to run our tanks any way we wish.
Good luck