My tank is getting warm

Road Dog · 12-13-2006, 06:56 PM

My wife and I are new to fish. We were entrusted with 6 2 yr old gold fish and 2 sucker fish since I don't know how to spell their name. They were in a 30 gallon tank and we knew at the time it was to small. We bought a 55 gal. tank that came with the filter, heater, and lights. We set sverything up and transfered the fish. They seem to be happy now that they have a little room to move in. The problem is the water temp. I set the heat at 72 when we filled the tank. I thought the outside of the tank felt warm today and checked the thermometer. It didn't have anything regestering. I used a digital thermometer that you normally use in your mouth and it shows the temp at 91.5. I immediatly unplugged the heater and am letting the tank cool on its own. The 30 gal. now has 3 bala sharks and 2 tiger barbs, they seem happy and care free. I tend to have the lights on in both tanks at night till we go to bed. Both tanks use floresent lights. Will leaveing these lights on have an impact on the weter temp. I am going to test the heater in a bucket of water to see if the problem lays with it. Hopefully I don't sound too much like an idiot, just want to give these new additions to the family the best care I can. Thanks. Jim

RubberFrog · 12-13-2006, 07:29 PM

Hi Jim, I am assuming that you have the standard flourescent hood that came with your tank? If so, there is no way that caused the over heating.

Tell me more about this heater. Was it new? How did you set the thermostat on it?

My money is on the heater.

Tommy Gun · 12-13-2006, 07:40 PM

Jim,

First, Welcome to the forum! You have certainly come to the right place for answers to questions like yours above!

Second, the 'sucker fish' sounds to me like you dont want to spell Plecostomus, which is ok becasue we usually call them plecos around here!

I think that your heater is probrably to blame and I bet you find that out with the test you are conducting. It is a somewhat common problem and is why I always use two thermometers in my tanks, one at each end, just to be sure I dont miss it when and if it happens. 91 degrees is pretty hot and so it is good that you found that before you had a fish fry on your hands. I also agree with RubberFrog that the heat generated by the normal type of hood lights on a freshwater tank is not going to elevate the temperature of the water in your tank.

With the plecos, most of them are going to get really really really big, up to two feet in some cases. I would try to figure out an exact type that you have so you can be sure a 55 gallon tank is going to be enough as far as tank size. In this case, gallonage is NOT the best guage as far as tank size is concerned, but rather tank dimensions are going to be key here. With the larger plecos, which tend to stay smaller in aquariums than in nature, a tank that is four feet long or longer is best, as well as one that is at least two feet from the front glass to the back glass so they can turn around is needed. Hopefully you have a smaller variety. They are also very big waste producers, so you should test your water parameters, which are ammonia, nitrIte, and nitrAte levels often so that you can be sure the first two stay at 0 ppm (parts per million) and the last one, nitrAtes, stays relatively low (my tanks never go above 40 ppm of nitrates). To take out nitrates, a water change is needed.

You are also in somewhat of a pickle here in two ways, first the goldfish are a coldwater fish and will want to be in water around 70 degrees-ish. Keeping them in water that is tropical (75 to 80-ish) can actually stress them and will over time do harm to the fish. However, plecos are usually kept at a tropical temp and so I would try to keep your tank temp at or around 70 to 72 degrees in order to maintain a happy medium. For most people, goldfish can live without a heater completely because the ambient temperatures in the normal house are around 65 to 70 so that transfers to the water as well and fits the goldfish's needs. For you, I would put a heater in the tank anyways, just to be sure (and especially if you live in the northern areas were winter can affect a room's temp).

The other pickle is that you moved plecos from a 30 gallon tank because they would get too big and restocked with Bala Sharks, which too, will get too big. They can reach a length of a foot long and should be in a group of four to six I believe, which means most people do not have a tank large enough for them. I dont know if your LFS or where ever you bought the balas from pointed this out to you or not, but I really suggest taking them back to the store and getting fish that will grow to only 4 or 5 inches in total ADULT length (capitalized for emphasis, not yelling). The tiger barbs fit the bill for that standard, and also make a nice schooling type fish for your tank, but are considered semi-aggressive because they nip on the fins of other fish so putting long finned fish or slow fish in the tank with them is not always advised.

I hope this helps a little bit. I am sorry to point out so many negative things but I feel that it is better for you to know now, than later when everything becomes a problem. I also know that many people feel a fish will simply become 'stunted' in growth if kept in a tank that is too small for them. I would just like to point out that this is true in two ways: #1. The fish will stop growing but its internal organs will not, which a relatively safe assumption would be that this causes pain and distress to the fish and #2. Dead fish will not get any longer and thus can be kept in a tank that is too small :-(

Sniperelite8243 · 12-13-2006, 07:56 PM

Most heaters are guess and check. i just recently bought two visitherm heaters to replace my wisper heaters and set them to 79 degrees. They have a thermomiter on them so you can get it on one shot. and are gurenteed to get within one degree . My tank is 79 degrees perfect.

I highly recomend getting a visitherm heater. and also just like TommyGun I use two themomiters one on each end to make sure my tank is equally heated.

Good luck with your tank and welcome to the forums

Road Dog · 12-18-2006, 05:24 PM

I want to thank everyone for the helpful posts. I have found that we have a Trinadad Pleco or I should say two of them. I found that the problem with the heater was operator error. I had read the #'s wrong and it was set way too high. I turned it down to 70 and it seems to be working great now. We have figured, hopefully this is realistic

, thatwe are good on tank size for about a year. we have a major plan for the future that should be beutiful if it doesn't break us first. We plan on taking out one wall and replacing it with a fish tank that will measure 9' long, 6' wide, and 6' tall. We think this will accomidate any and all the fish of our future. We plan to place this tank between the livingroom and kitchen areas. I am designing the house now and we plan to start construction in early sping. The fun part is going to be figuring all the filtration and plumbing issues with a tank of this size. I am retired and this may give me a fulltime job just with the mantinance of this project. Again thanks for your help and you will see cries for help in the future Jim

Tommy Gun · 12-18-2006, 06:03 PM

Holy Cow! That would be so sweet if you can pull it off, which I am sure you will be able to. I saw this once, but was only a 900 gallon tank, I think it was three feet wide-ish, by five feet tall-ish and seperated the kitchen from the dining area. The guy had simply plumbed all the filters and pumps through the bottom of the tank and into the basement, which he had made a sort of closet looking room full of the mechanicals. I remember thinking that his filters were huge since they were about the size of a medium size shop-vac and he had 3 of them, if I remember right. If I can get ahold of him again, I know that he has a website of his house, including the house. He is an architect that was the dad of a friend of mine when I was in the Army.

dlee9707 · 12-18-2006, 07:19 PM

if i had to filter that i would make my own filters. the only part that will really cost you money is the pump. you just have to take water out (i guess through the bottom) and pump it though several closed off media containers linked together with pipes, and then back up, you can make it like a DIY canister filter or a simpler sump setup. you could have the whole system underneath the tank in a cabinet possibly. i did the math... i think its right... 3.5 thousand gallons? you could keep a saltwater shark in that thing. i guess you plan on building it out of glass?

it sounds like an incredible project, take pictures of its progress and post them. if i were doing this i'd also setup a walk in closet type room with several 30 gallon tanks for quarentine, hospital and fry tanks. it would be a needed investment almost, if you introduce 1 fish with ich into a tank like that you'll be devistated.

anyway, good luck.

BJP · 12-21-2006, 06:41 PM

Quote:

I am designing the house now and we plan to start construction in early sping. The fun part is going to be figuring all the filtration and plumbing issues with a tank of this size.

I took advantage of having decent quality well water (drilled the well myself) and plumbed my indoor 75 as well as the outdoor ponds and 125 gallon seasonal tank for continual flow eliminating the need for filtration entirely outdoors and for aesthetics only indoor with a closed loop setup using standard whole house filters. I'm seriously considering adding a second goldfish tank setup for continual flow or maybe converting the 20gallon once I transfer the angelfish and clown loaches out. The water temperature from my well is consistent year round eliminating concerns for overheating in summer and outdoors it actually holds my temperatures up in winter allowing for year round growth while keeping the ponds from icing over also.

A more common solution to your original problem is to half size your desired heaters in larger aquariums. If you think you need 300 watts get two 150's. Spread out in the aquarium they tend to heat a little more efficiently while giving you more margin of error. If one malfunctions and tries to overheat the tank, the other should shut off and make it take a lot longer being half sized. If one fails in the off position, the tank should cool down slower with a second heater there working giving you more time to notice.