Heater failure -- how to quickly and safely raise temperature?

SnailQueen · Mar 15, 2015

I've been a member for awhile now and appreciate all of the wonderful information available on reef2reef. I've finally run into a problem that I haven't found a clear answer for in the previous posts and was hoping someone might be able to offer some advice....
I was out of town for the weekend, and sometime between when I left on Thursday night and got back tonight (Sunday), the heater went out on my 20 gallon. The water temperature was around 79-80 when I left and it was 62-63 when I got back tonight. I could tell something was off because everything looked unhappy. The filter and lights were on, so the tank did have circulation all weekend. No ammonia or nitrite, nitrate is 20, no change in SG from my last reading earlier last week. I think I would be considered understocked, as the only livestock are a pair of clowns, an urchin, and a variety of snails. Coral are all softies (mushrooms, toadstools, xenia, leathers), and three rock flower anemones.
I fortunately have two extra heaters on hand, and hooked both of them up asap. Should I set the thermostats to 79-80 (desired temp), or something lower to ease the possibility of temperature shock? I'm not certain how quickly two 50W heaters will warm up a 20 gallon, but any thoughts anyone would have as to how to safely go about raising the temperature back up would be appreciated. Additionally, if anyone has any idea what the chances are that all my tank inhabitants will survive, feel free to weigh in on that as well. Thanks in advance for any input!

redfishbluefish · Mar 15, 2015

I'm the sloth of aquarium adjustments and believe the best approach to raising your temperature is to do it slowly. I'd start with a single 50W and let it slowly bring it back up. Not sure if a single 50 could bring it up all the way, so on day 2 I'd turn on the second heater to get it back all the way, if necessary.

I am a bit curious why the temp got down to 62....what is the room temperature? I think the lowest I've seen unheated water in my 70 F house is about 68F.

SnailQueen · Mar 15, 2015

Thanks for the response! Room temp was at 60 F. We had the coldest February on record here (average daily high was around 13 F), so 60 feels pretty balmy compared to that lol. I bumped up the room temp to 65 when I got home. With both heaters going I've gotten it back up to 68 F over the course the last hour and a half. The fish are looking better already and the anemones have unfurled themselves more, some extension on the leathers, and the urchin is on the move again.
I just turned off one of the heaters. So you think it will be better for the animal life (particularly the urchin) to slowly keep raising it as opposed to trying to get back to the ideal temperature as soon as possible? I was picturing a situation like when I get new livestock shipped in and the water temps aren't as warm as they should be, but I slowly bring them up over the course of an hour or so.

redfishbluefish · Mar 16, 2015

With ambient temperature that cold, you might be better off running both 50 W heaters.

chris82079 · Mar 16, 2015

i had the same situation except i had a total power outage while i was away. vortechs stayed on most of the 24 hours the power was out because of my battery backup so i had circulation. returned home to a 62 degree tank. i raised it over a day and everything survived

SnailQueen · Mar 16, 2015

It was back up to its usual temperature by 9AM, so a rise of around 15 degrees or so over the course of 14 hours. Clowns are acting normal, as are the snails, urchin, and anemones. The mushrooms all look pretty unhappy but I think they will probably recover. One leather looks fine (not open but upright and healthy), the other bigger leather looks oozy, droopy and a bit smelly. I moved it into my quarantine and gave a good shake which resulted in bunch of slime and brown goo coming off it. Any chance it can be saved?

pickupman66 · Mar 16, 2015

I had a controller failure a week or so ago. tank dropped to 68 from the normal 78. everythign was actually happy looking. I let it raise for about 3 hours. lost nothing.

Big Dog · Mar 17, 2015

I've had numerous temperature excursions over the years and never had an issue with just replacing the heater(s) after losing one or forgetting to close the garage door in the winter ........ :neutral:. Yeah my tanks are in the man cave.

SnailQueen · Mar 18, 2015

Glad to see I'm not the only one whose had some issues with this. Your man cave and my whole house are probably the same temperature!

Everything is pretty much back to normal now. The only casualty seems to be a several year old toadstool leather who blew its cap into an oozy mess. I put it in quarantine to see if it might recover and keep from causing an ammonia spike, but I've never seen one lose the whole cap area and still recover. It's stalk is still attached to a rock fragment but it is starting to get a hole in it, so who knows.