Another brand heater not just stuck on, but overheat!
I am confused. The stealth 200w is rated for up to 55G. That is what I had it in. I do weekly 50% water changes and daily feedings. The tank normally ran between 82 - 84 degrees F, to house warm species fish. There were a school of four clown loaches (~ 3 - 4"), a silver dollar @ 3", a black ghost knife @ 5" and a baby Jaguar cichlid @ 3" (growout).
I fed my fish one evening, and all was fine. The next evening was the water change day. When I stuck my hand with the gravel vacume in the tank, it was extremely hot. I couldn't believe that the fish could live in there. When I looked closely THEY WERE NOT! I have a B.S. stick on digital thermometer that maxes around 100F and the temp was off that scale. The dial on the heater does not go into triple digits!
In the past, when I have had (numerous) other brand heaters that stuck on, I just put them in tanks WAY bigger then they were capable of heating along with a fully functional heater. That would keep the functional heater to have to work less often and have not had issues to date.
Three questions.
1. How can a 200W heater raise the temperature of a tank that is of it's maximum possible function to such an extremely high temperature (especially within 24 hours)?
2. Considering some malfunction occured rather then a simple "stuck on" condition, it appears that lower wattages are able (and higher wattages NOT required) to heat tanks. Why is the technology not going in this direction? (It sure would be nice to heat your 22G tanks with a 50W heater!)
3. Is the usage of stuck heaters in tanks WAY bigger then they are rated for bordering on retardation on my part? 19 tanks with less then a handful of cool water native tanks is costly to replace the extremely common occurance of the "stuck" phenomenon!
I am confused. The stealth 200w is rated for up to 55G. That is what I had it in. I do weekly 50% water changes and daily feedings. The tank normally ran between 82 - 84 degrees F, to house warm species fish. There were a school of four clown loaches (~ 3 - 4"), a silver dollar @ 3", a black ghost knife @ 5" and a baby Jaguar cichlid @ 3" (growout).
I fed my fish one evening, and all was fine. The next evening was the water change day. When I stuck my hand with the gravel vacume in the tank, it was extremely hot. I couldn't believe that the fish could live in there. When I looked closely THEY WERE NOT! I have a B.S. stick on digital thermometer that maxes around 100F and the temp was off that scale. The dial on the heater does not go into triple digits!
In the past, when I have had (numerous) other brand heaters that stuck on, I just put them in tanks WAY bigger then they were capable of heating along with a fully functional heater. That would keep the functional heater to have to work less often and have not had issues to date.
Three questions.
1. How can a 200W heater raise the temperature of a tank that is of it's maximum possible function to such an extremely high temperature (especially within 24 hours)?
2. Considering some malfunction occured rather then a simple "stuck on" condition, it appears that lower wattages are able (and higher wattages NOT required) to heat tanks. Why is the technology not going in this direction? (It sure would be nice to heat your 22G tanks with a 50W heater!)
3. Is the usage of stuck heaters in tanks WAY bigger then they are rated for bordering on retardation on my part? 19 tanks with less then a handful of cool water native tanks is costly to replace the extremely common occurance of the "stuck" phenomenon!
