Heater Failure Dropped Tank Temp to 74 Degrees

[James Macaluso]

Hello all.
This morning I woke up and went to check the tank. It was rather cold so I checked the thermometer. It read 74 degrees F rather than the usual 80 F. I have no idea for how long this must have happened but I doubt it was longer than 2 days. Im going to get to the store and buy a new heater now. 74 degrees F is what I keep my house at. With the lights off I see the corals still with their polyps open and the fish seem like nothing happened.

When something like this happens, what is the safest point of action? How fast do I bring up the temps? Im very worried. I have mostly Zoas and 1 toadstool and an open brain. Will they make it alright? I live in south Florida and we get temp fluctuations like this on our reefs during the winter. Could this crash my tank or damage my corals?

Thanks

 

[Tahoe61]

You should be fine. Just install the new heater, it's not going to raise the temp too suddenly.

A temp of 74 is not going to kill the corals, just slow down their metabolism which is not a biggie.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Hello all.
This morning I woke up and went to check the tank. It was rather cold so I checked the thermometer. It read 74 degrees F rather than the usual 80 F. I have no idea for how long this must have happened but I doubt it was longer than 2 days. Im going to get to the store and buy a new heater now. 74 degrees F is what I keep my house at. With the lights off I see the corals still with their polyps open and the fish seem like nothing happened.

When something like this happens, what is the safest point of action? How fast do I bring up the temps? Im very worried. I have mostly Zoas and 1 toadstool and an open brain. Will they make it alright? I live in south Florida and we get temp fluctuations like this on our reefs during the winter. Could this crash my tank or damage my corals?

Thanks

Corals are tough and can handle slow changes, slow changes.

Your lucky it didn't fail "on"!

They should be fine. Adding the new heater and letting the temp rise back to your normal operating temp on its own should be fine.

Running two smaller watt heaters is better than one larger watt heater.

I would suggest a temp controller to keep your heaters in check. Such as a Ink bird controller (I use one and it's been flawless)

 

[mfinn]

If it happened to me, I would put the new heater in and set it to 77-78 and leave it.
I get corals shipped to me all the time and I would love it if the water temp was as high as 74.
The corals are usually brought up to temp in less than a half hour.

 

[._Z_.]

I think you’re fine. I came home to my gfci outlet tripped once and my heater had been off long enough for the tank to drop to 69. Everything survived I was very surprised.

 

[tthouston]

Even my heater has set the temperature that I want, but it still plugs into APEX control outlet. That is a safety if my heater start fails "ON" the APEX control will shut down power if it over the limit. I agreed with 2 heater but I want 2 big heaters in case one die the tank still has a back up.

 

[James Macaluso]

Thanks everyone for the quick replies!
I first bought an Aqueon 100W and came home only to find it was bricked. Did not want to turn on at all. I went back to the store and returned it and got the Eheim Jager 100 W and it seems to be doing fine. I set it to 78 Degrees and monitoring the temps.
The corals seems unfazed by the ordeal. I might have been more worried than they

 

[sfin52]

Agree my tank heater failed temp dropped to 69. Everything survived. 74 is just a touch of no biggie.

 

[The new fish on the block]

I use the inkbird temp monitor and it lets me know if the tank gets too hot or too cold and it’s not that expensive

 

[ca1ore]

Years ago many of us kept reef tanks at 74 plus or minus. No biggie at all.

 

[kecked]

We had a three day power outage and it dropped to mid 50s. Nothing died except my Derasa clam and I got a Dino outbreak shortly after. If anything I’d add some bacteria like Tim’s but 74 isn’t that far off normal to really matter. Plus I lost flow, light, and oxygen at the same time.

 

[lion king]

As New fish stated, add a temp controller. That inkbird works good, is inexpensive, and has some cool bells and whistles. You can mount it to easily see the temp display as well it has audible alarms to alert you when temp is out of range, and you custom set all the parameters. Allow the temp to rise slowly, there's no need to panic.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015E2UFGM/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[JaimeAdams]

Yeah, until just recently I ran my home tank at 74. The coral won't care about the temp drop or you raising the temp rather quickly. It is the fish that will be shocked. I would just raise it slowly over a few days.