I made a stupid mistake....

[D'sreef]

So yesterday was water change day, and I forgot to turn the heater back on. So got home from work, about 2:30cst wondering why all my zoas look like crap. Start to go through everything and notice my temperature gauge which is part of the heater was not on. Turned it on and it's reading a toasty 65.6 F. So not heat for 28 hours or so. But before I notice that I removed all the ceramic skulls and tombstones I put in the tank thinking they might be leaching something......

 

[rowenaad]

Hope they recover but how could you not noticing having your hand in there when you remove those deco

 

[D'sreef]

Hope they recover but how could you not noticing having your hand in there when you remove those deco

Well I have some nerve damage and don't always detect temperature, pain, or other things with the arm I used. I have burnt myself several times in the kitchen picking up pans off the stove not knowing they are still hot.

 

[JoJosReef]

So yesterday was water change day, and I forgot to turn the heater back on. So got home from work, about 2:30cst wondering why all my zoas look like crap. Start to go through everything and notice my temperature gauge which is part of the heater was not on. Turned it on and it's reading a toasty 65.6 F. So not heat for 28 hours or so. But before I notice that I removed all the ceramic skulls and tombstones I put in the tank thinking they might be leaching something......

Mostly zoas, softies and a nem, right?

They hit those temps during shipment. I expect they will be fine. Maybe pouty for a couple of days.

 

[D'sreef]

So yesterday was water change day, and I forgot to turn the heater back on. So got home from work, about 2:30cst wondering why all my zoas look like crap. Start to go through everything and notice my temperature gauge which is part of the heater was not on. Turned it on and it's reading a toasty 65.6 F. So not heat for 28 hours or so. But before I notice that I removed all the ceramic skulls and tombstones I put in the tank thinking they might be leaching something......

Mostly zoas, softies and a nem, right?

They hit those temps during shipment. I expect they will be fine. Maybe pouty for a couple of days.

Yeah only one SPS and one LPs, everything else are softy's. I really just needed to vent my stupidity more than anything. I was rushed when I was doing maintenance, and apparently forgot to press the button on my cellphone to turn it on..... All I had to do was open my app ......

 

[rowenaad]

Well I have some nerve damage and don't always detect temperature, pain, or other things with the arm I used. I have burnt myself several times in the kitchen picking up pans off the stove not knowing they are still hot.

Sorry about that but it might be time to invest in some wifi thermometers to alarm on low temp. Last time I detected a heater failure by hand and freaked me out

 

[JoJosReef]

Yeah only one SPS and one LPs, everything else are softy's. I really just needed to vent my stupidity more than anything. I was rushed when I was doing maintenance, and apparently forgot to press the button on my cellphone to turn it on..... All I had to do was open my app ......

This is why I like controllers. The temp probe on my inkbird rose out of the water in the AIO of my nano and left the heater running nonstop. Dumb luck is that my heater needs to be replaced so it couldn't get the temp higher than 80F over the weekend. No idea how long it was sticking out of the water.

 

[D'sreef]

Yeah only one SPS and one LPs, everything else are softy's. I really just needed to vent my stupidity more than anything. I was rushed when I was doing maintenance, and apparently forgot to press the button on my cellphone to turn it on..... All I had to do was open my app ......

This is why I like controllers. The temp probe on my inkbird rose out of the water in the AIO of my nano and left the heater running nonstop. Dumb luck is that my heater needs to be replaced so it couldn't get the temp higher than 80F over the weekend. No idea how long it was sticking out of the water.

I think this should work what's your thoughts?

 

[JoJosReef]

I think this should work what's your thoughts?

What is your heater? If it is an uncontrolled heater, then I understand this will make it run even if the tank hits 85F. If the heater is a Helio or something like that that will automatically turn off at a certain temp, not a problem.

 

[D'sreef]

I can't remember the name but the heater has a built-in digital temp probe and thermostat in a ceramic housing. So it cuts on and off on its own, the screen shot was a command I programmed so if the heater is turned off or looses power it will automatically turn itself back on in 30 minutes regardless of if it was me or some other reason it went off

 

[D'sreef]

I have several commands like that for the pumps, ato, and lights and ect.

 

[Paul B]

Dumb luck is that my heater needs to be replaced so it couldn't get the temp higher than 80F over the weekend.

65.5 should not affect your tank as long as it isn't for days at a time. My tank wen lower than that quite a few times and no problems.

Why do you want your tank higher than 80 degrees. Even 80 is a little too high.
I feel about 78 is perfect.

 

[JoJosReef]

65.5 should not affect your tank as long as it isn't for days at a time. My tank wen lower than that quite a few times and no problems.

Why do you want your tank higher than 80 degrees. Even 80 is a little too high.
I feel about 78 is perfect.

Sorry, 80F was when I hadn't realized the inkbird temp probe was sticking out of the water, thus reading as if the water was colder and keeping the heater running nonstop. I keep the tank set to 78F +/- 1 when I'm not being an ignoramus.

 

[BryanM]

I suspect most, if not all, will come back just fine. They're just annoyed because they got chilly..

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I think they will be annoyed for a few days but should bounce back just fine!

 

[Biokabe]

Just be glad it went that way (heater off) and not the other way (heater stuck on).

Obviously they don't like being in the cooler temperatures, but they can tolerate it for a while without incident - like others have mentioned, they regularly hit temps like that while shipping.

On the other hand - if your heater gets stuck on, it doesn't take long at all to kill everything in your tank. My very first tank crash happened exactly that way - thermostat on my heater broke while I was on vacation, got stuck on and held on for hours. By the time I noticed, the temperature in the tank was around 99 degrees and everything except for a flametail blenny was dead.

That's why I run with three layers of redundancy on my heater control: The thermostat for the heater, a heater controller with its own temperature probe, and then my Apex.

Does your heater get exposed to air when you do your maintenance? If not, you don't actually need to turn the heaters off while doing a water change.

 

[Kooma]

So yesterday was water change day, and I forgot to turn the heater back on. So got home from work, about 2:30cst wondering why all my zoas look like crap. Start to go through everything and notice my temperature gauge which is part of the heater was not on. Turned it on and it's reading a toasty 65.6 F. So not heat for 28 hours or so. But before I notice that I removed all the ceramic skulls and tombstones I put in the tank thinking they might be leaching something......

Check out an inkbird temp controller. You can get temp notifications on your phone and it will also give you device offline warnings if it isn’t seen on for a set time.

 

[D'sreef]

Just be glad it went that way (heater off) and not the other way (heater stuck on).

Obviously they don't like being in the cooler temperatures, but they can tolerate it for a while without incident - like others have mentioned, they regularly hit temps like that while shipping.

On the other hand - if your heater gets stuck on, it doesn't take long at all to kill everything in your tank. My very first tank crash happened exactly that way - thermostat on my heater broke while I was on vacation, got stuck on and held on for hours. By the time I noticed, the temperature in the tank was around 99 degrees and everything except for a flametail blenny was dead.

That's why I run with three layers of redundancy on my heater control: The thermostat for the heater, a heater controller with its own temperature probe, and then my Apex.

Does your heater get exposed to air when you do your maintenance? If not, you don't actually need to turn the heaters off while doing a water change.

It does sometimes even though only partially. I just feel more comfortable with cutting everything off since it's an AIO tank. I have been bit by something that has a short several times in the past.

 

[Biokabe]

It does sometimes even though only partially. I just feel more comfortable with cutting everything off since it's an AIO tank. I have been bit by something that has a short several times in the past.

Yeah, if even part of it is exposed to air during the water change, you're doing the right thing by turning it off. If the probe reads air temperature instead of water temperature it could easily overheat.

 

[Freenow54]

This is why I like controllers. The temp probe on my inkbird rose out of the water in the AIO of my nano and left the heater running nonstop. Dumb luck is that my heater needs to be replaced so it couldn't get the temp higher than 80F over the weekend. No idea how long it was sticking out of the water.

lucky you I lost 8 fish when I was away for 2 lousy days. Boiled cichlids ugly