tank soared to 92 degrees

NS Mike D · Dec 12, 2018

Adamantium said:
Would a temp controller help in a situation like this, though? This is one of my biggest fears, honestly. As Aquavaj (lol) mentioned, with the probe out of the water, it would read a much lower temp, and continue heating the water.

Correct, the air temp would be giving the controller a false reading and thus continue to send power to the heater.

lesson here for those reading: Sensors do get knocked out of their tanks. Set the heater for an upper limit in an acceptable range and on the max/always on leaving only the controller to turn it off in the case of a malfunction. Secure your probes/sensors or least secure the cords so they keep the probes/sensors in the water in case they get bumped. There are acrylic probe holders. Sometimes I use small plastic clamps fromn the check out impulse buying display at the big box hardware store . If a sensor/probe does get knocked out of the tank, not only will the heater not turn off (unless tripped by it's own thermostat) but you will not get an alarm.

Sorry to the OP and hoping for the BTA to recover.

Aquavaj · Dec 12, 2018

Adamantium said:
Would a temp controller help in a situation like this, though? This is one of my biggest fears, honestly. As Aquavaj (lol) mentioned, with the probe out of the water, it would read a much lower temp, and continue heating the water.

I recommend a good heater with a built in thermostat set 1 degree above your desired temp. If the controller or its sensor fails then the heater's thermostat will shut it off. Can both fail at the same time? Yes, but the chances of that is a lot less.

MnFish1 · Dec 12, 2018

Aquavaj said:
I recommend a good heater with a built in thermostat set 1 degree above your desired temp. If the controller or its sensor fails then the heater's thermostat will shut it off. Can both fail at the same time? Yes, but the chances of that is a lot less.

SO what you really mean is have a controller set to a certain level - and a heater set a degree higher - such that if the controller failed, the heater would shut off (hopefully). You're message - the way you wrote it isnt clear

MnFish1 · Dec 12, 2018

Adamantium said:
Would a temp controller help in a situation like this, though? This is one of my biggest fears, honestly. As Aquavaj (lol) mentioned, with the probe out of the water, it would read a much lower temp, and continue heating the water.

ummmm - a controller probe out of the water wouldn't help this - but why would anyone leave a controller probe out of the water>

rkpetersen · Dec 12, 2018

Adamantium said:
Would a temp controller help in a situation like this, though? This is one of my biggest fears, honestly. As Aquavaj (lol) mentioned, with the probe out of the water, it would read a much lower temp, and continue heating the water.

Use heaters with internal thermostats and set them to slightly higher than the normal operating temperature range. Sets a maximum upper limit on system temperature even if the external controller or temperature probe fails.

burning2nd · Dec 13, 2018

run the controller at like say 77.5 to 80.0 on off.. then set the heater heater to 82

if the controller fails or the probe falls out like you had happen.. then the heater should turn off around 82

Im sure you know all this already.. The important part right now is to not do anything.. its a waiting game now.. DONT try to force the temp down.. dont add ice, dont add any extra cool water, Nothing..

you cant force it down.. it has to come down on its own.. continue to maintain level with Top off BUT dont try to cool

Its probably going to take every bit of a day or 2 to come back down

Rc1989 · Dec 13, 2018

This happened to me once. I forgot to turn on my chiller and temp rose to 92. I turned it in immediately. I had some acros bleach. They recovered. I lost a hammer and a midas blenny. Then after a couple months, everything was normal. Hang in therr