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 Library > Miscellaneous > Member Spotlight > Halloween Spotlight Special |
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Halloween Spotlight Special | |
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Page 7 of 10 | Pages: 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 . 9 . 10 | |
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JOHN (Trick): I have to say that I have had really good luck so far with my discus, knock on wood, but then again I have only had 3 or 4 tanks running for a while and it is a lot easier to handle that kind of volume than the 10 or so tanks of other cichlids I used to keep. I actually had a nice story planned regarding my need for a water storage unit and several floods I had, but I had an even more interesting experience this past weekend. To start off, I keep my fish in the spare bedroom in our apartment - since there is also a bed and a computer in there, I am pretty limited in space and have to choose my fish wisely. I have 2 45 gallon tanks, a 46 bowfront, a 25 and a 20 running at the moment. I have a dozen discus and also a tank with my 10 year old Nicaraguan cichlid and his target dummies. Well, one major concern of mine has always been heater failure. In most tanks, you really only have to worry about the heater getting stuck on - as a drop to room temperature of 68 degrees or so is no big deal. Discus, on the other hand, you have to worry about boiling them and freezing them, so I am always checking my tanks and I replace heaters on any sign on a problem. I always kept a 150 watt heater (Visi-therm and very old) in my Nicaraguan tank, 2 100 watters in my other 45 and the 46 bow and one 100 watter in my 25 and 20 respectively. The 20 is the Q-tank, so that heater is also a possible back-up and I also always keep 2 heaters on hand for emergencies. Due to my really bad success rate with Ebos, about 50% failure within one month, my 2 backups are always pre tested to make sure they are reliable. I also recently bought a few Visi-therms (I used to use these exclusively and had very good luck, but I stopped when they "upgraded" them) and a couple of ProHeats. So, I was feeling pretty happy about my heater situation... On Saturday morning I do my big clean for the week - wipedowns, filter maintenance, the whole deal. My first tank, I stick my arm in and wow, is the water warm. I checked the thermometer. 92 degrees! I checked the 2 heaters - the Visitherm is off, the Ebo is on and HOT! I unplugged it and pulled it out of the tank. I gave tremendous thanks that I only had a 100 watt heater in the tank, any more and the fish might have been boiled already! Whew! I left the tank alone and figured I'd let the temp slowly drop back to normal so as not to stress the fish out. I moved on to my next tank, the 25. I started to siphon and began thinking, hmm, this water feels cold. Maybe it's just because I recently scalded my arm in 92 degree water... Nope. The thermometer reads 74 degrees. This Ebo is stuck OFF! I quickly replaced it with my back-up Visitherm. At that point I was getting annoyed. I decided to check my other tanks. Okay. Everything looks good. Let me check the heater in the storage bin. It's fine. Let me check the q-tank, I never think to check that one as there are no fish in it. The water is cold. Third Ebo malfunction. All 100 watt heaters... All I can say is it could have been a LOT worse! No casualties and all my remaining heaters are running properly. Time to buy some new backups! Happy Halloween! Check your heaters! more... |
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