I'm so MAD! Somehow the probe for my temp controller was pulled up out of the water in my sump. Since the windows are open the room temp is about 70 and the probe, dangling a couple inches above the water, is reading 76. Of course the heater is on trying to raise the temp and my tank is actually 88! I've got the probe back in the water, turned the lights out and the chiller running. I think I'll leave the chiller run until I go to bed and then turn it off and allow the temp to fall the rest of the way by itself. What do you think?

sorry to hear about your mishap. i've been just as unfortunate on a few occasions. i'm not sure about the PROPER method, but i had the best survival rate when i brought the temp down as fast as possible.

Take your time bringing the temperature down. you don't want it to drop too quickly or everything will suffer. A good rule of thumb is about 5 decrees per day, from what i have read.

Sorry to hear about yoru problems.

Of course the heater is on trying to raise the temp and my tank is actually 88!

This reminds me of a question I was going to ask...

Since heaters have been known to malfunction, is there any product that can cut the power to a heater if it detects an excessive temp reading?

alot of the better heaters I've seen "fail in off position" tho I have not had one fail yet to test that theory, this is also why I use multiple smaller heaters instead of 1 big one.... if one does fail in the "on" position the others will shut down and that one will not do too much.

what is the status of your overheating tank? what brand of heater was it that failed?

This wasn't really a heater problem. I have my heater & chiller plugged into a temperature controller. Unfortunately the probe for the temp controller got pulled out of the water and was reading the air temp above the sump.

I ran the chiller for a couple of hours and dropped the temp to 85 before I went to bed. It had fallen to 83 this morning and is 81 now. Everyone looks OK. The polyps are out on my zoos and I can't tell about the frag.

glad to hear everything is working out. any signs of bleaching?

I think that bleaching is just want it sounds like. Right now nothing has changed color and everything is out. How soon would you see bleaching if it was going to happen?

What kinda corals do u have? I think you will be ok since u caught it fast and the corals should recover nicely. If you are seeing polyps then you don't have to worry about bleaching. I think you would have seen bleaching by now if it was gonna happen.

I have a few 'shrooms, what I think is an mushroom anemone, a zoo rock and an orange digitata frag.

if your zoos look good, you are probably home free. they would usually show the first sign of distress by shedding excessive mucus and even showing signs of distachment. the digitata would be the last to show signs of stress by slowly whitening over the next day.

strange things happen with heaters. i have some of the top of the line tronics, meant to fail off, but sometimes for no reason, they fail on from time to time. i even still use a failed heater in the mangrove tank, theres nothing wrong with it externally except it stays on. i use it for when i do water changes, & unplug it when im done.

u could proberly build a DIY temp pwer pack with x-10 technolgies, at least materials are cheap if your handy, if not ask your radio shack techs for some help. im not sure on a temp circuit thats for sale though, but i thought u could set temp perameters on the controllers anyways. unless u are refering to a heater with a probe attached.?
sorry, i cant remember what your heating looks like

is your probe weighed down in the sump so it doesn't come lose again. even a plastic cleaning magnet could be use higher up on the cord to hold it down if u dont have a perminant placement

oh man Veriann...I think I need to convert my husband into a DIY guy! You sound like you just tinker all the time with all kind of stuff! http://www.world-of-smilies.com/html/images/smilies/schilder/00000720.gif

The way I have mine setup is the AquaController temp probe monitors temp. Then if below the setpoint, it turns the heater on, above it turns it off. As a safety, I set the temperature on the heater at 84, so if I fail, I will never go higher than 84. I also have a second heater plugged straight into the wall and it is set at 77. Of the first heater fail all together the temp will not go below 77.

The Aquacontroller was about $350, but I look at it as an insurance policy. In the end I will have 10 times that amount invested in my system, I sure wouldn't want to have a crash!

Mine is an Aquatronics controller, and like Wildeone's, it has set points. I had the controller set at 70 and the thermometer set at 80 and can't say why it got that hot, perhaps the thermostat in it is off. The probe from my controller was not weighted down.

I had a discussion a few weeks ago about installing sleeves on the inside of my sump to hold the probes and heater in place. I guess I really need to tear the sump down and get on it. :)

i'm not trying to be negative about anyone's equipment, but i had a aquacontroller that failed. i now use MEDUSA dual phase temperature controller. it only controls the heater and chiller. it is acccurate to one tenth degree. i have 6, the oldest 6 years, and all still working like a charm.

Yeah, mine is just a temp controller too. And the brand is Aquanetics the same as my chiller. (Not Aquatronics)

how old is your controller? aquanetics went out of business 4 years ago. did it come with your chiller? i think their controllers were made by NEMA

It is 5 years old. I bought it second hand and the guy told me they came as a package. I've not had any issues with it (this was not a controller problem, just a dumb thing that happened) and it seems to be accurate. It is only measured in 1 degree increments.

those are good controllers. i was just curious about the hardware, brands manufacturers knowledge is one of my obsessions. the TOYS as i call it.

I LOVE toys!

we are talking about toys for the tanks right...? lol;-)

i was thinking of a tempory solution to hold the probe and cable line.
wondering if u could turn a piece of pvc pipe into a peg and peg it to the side of the tank. just have to drop saw the width of the glass vertical in the pvc pipe, run the probe through and peg it to the side of the sump

I love suction......cups

Good idea Veriann.

And I love all kind of toys; fish toys, technology toys, camera toys, remote control car toys, etc, etc

Carmie- did all your corals recover ok?

A couple of my zoo had some mucous shedding but they are all open. I've been using a baster to gently try to blow the mucous off but it hasn't seemed to make a difference. It is starting to recede on its own though. Other than that everything is OK. In fact my orange digitata frag looks better than ever. Of course I'd only had it a couple of days when the temp went up so it was probably not really at home in my tank.

well, this is good news:-)

Oh yeah, I now have the probe for my temp controller woven in the slots for my baffle!

well, this is good news:-)

I am VERY relieved that nothing bad happened to my critters. I would have felt terrible if I had cooked them.

Glad to hear everything was ok!