Trouble with heater

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T

Trevor Robinson

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 3, 2011
29
1
0
Colorado
i have the rena smartheater set up in my tank now and just last week my 5 year old peacock eel decided to swim in the top opening and managed to get stuck after hours of trying to coax him out he died:(. now tonight i noticed that one of my plecos was mising i looked in his normal hiding spots but he was now where to be found looking in the opening in the heater i found he was stuck but was already dead. this heater i really starting to frustrate me and when you go to call the comapny to ask questions they dont answer and tell you to leave a message they will get back to you as soon as possible, well ive been waiting a week to hear back. has anyone else had this kind of trouble? any ideas of what i could do?
 
I have no idea what the stuff is called but some one here might there is this plastic grid like stuff that's usually put in ceiling lights to help keep the panels from drooping down you could make a box of sorts outta that and keep it together with zip ties and ad some suction cups and place it around the heater? or a screen of some sort I'm not sure how safe window screen is in a fish tank and hold it in place around the heater with suction cups or a net like material like the kind used for fish nets again held in place around it with suction cups? Just a few ideas off the top of my head
 
I've never had that happen to my fish. Are you 100% sure that they died from getting stuck in a heater? Never heard of that happening before unless your eel wrapped itself around it and got burned(but that won't happen with the pleco).

Anyways you could try an inline heater. Hydor manufactures them or you can do a search, some people here have threads on DIY inline heaters made from PVC.
 
The smart heaters have a hole in the top of them so you can plumb them as the intake of your filter (they fit out of the box to Rena canisters). The heater has a plastic grid on the bottom to allow water to flow through it for this. I have mine hooked up to my XP3 intake, so no hole on top.

Can you plumb your filter like that?
 
The stuff Zari was refering to is plastic eggcrates.

IMO, i nvr really found rena smart filter to be of any uses unless you have a rena XP filter
which you can add the heater onto the inlet.

Spare yourself the trouble (and death of fishes) and just get an Eheim jager :)
 
Yes the fish are dying by getting stuck in the heater i know that for sure the eel i know when he got stuck he cut his side pretty bad when he was trying to get out.
I finally did get a hold of the company but every thing that i told the guy he argued saying i never should have used this kind of heater in a tank with any type of fish that will swim into it and get stuck. To be honest i think this will be the last time i will buy equipment from this company.
 
If its only a small hole could you find a piece of pvc to fit into it and put and end cap on the pvc? or maybe use a small amount of silicone and a small flat rock and just cover it up?
 
Ok but since the heater is hollow on the inside the water inside is also being heated. if i plug up the top hole will it mess up the heating?
 
put it on ebay for 10 bucks spend another 10 or 20 and get a standard heater. However if you wanted you could mount the heater upside down with hole on the bottom of the tank; or sideways with the whole on the side wall this way no fish can get to it.
 
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