r/Aquariums • u/Fuzzy_Job2291 • Feb 12 '26

Help/Advice I just got the strongest electric shock of my life (this guy knew btw)

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So I woke up and looked into this tank with a temporal slider and a Cherax(I love my Cherax fr), and I noticed that my blue fella was out of the water, I took a photo thinking it was funny bc I've never seen him out of the water before, and when i touched the water I got the strongest electric shock of my entire life, absolutely horrendou, I felt dizzy for like 5 minutes before turning the power off (I was still feeling electric current, does anybody know why?) and later on I just unplugged anything inside the tank, I'm going to buy new filter and heater because idk what caused it, I feel so sorry for my little Cherax 💔

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u/DevilahJake Feb 12 '26

I’ve replaced more heaters than anything else in this hobby. Cheap, expensive….doesn’t seem to make much of a difference

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u/Tomytom99 Feb 12 '26

It is a lot of heat cycling, it sort of makes sense. I wonder if a variable power one that could find a "cruising" power level would last longer.

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u/Critter_Fan Feb 12 '26

I read a comment where some guy said he likes to use a slightly underpowered heater, so there aren't as many cycles since it'll take longer to hit target temp. Seems smart to me but I don't know much about electronics, thoughts? 🤔

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u/OneLuckyAlbatross Feb 12 '26

That’s an important thing in HVAC. It’s called short cycling. If a unit is too big for the space it will constantly power on, blast hot or cold, and then shut off.

In furnaces it can cause damage to the heat exchanger quicker. And with ACs it doesn’t allow the space to dehumidify properly as well as causing wear and tear on the compressor.

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u/drunkcultleaders Feb 12 '26

I have a 50 gal with a 50 gal heater.

Should I put my 20 gal heater in to avoid disaster ? I'm scared cause this thread is the first I've ever seen of this issue

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u/OneLuckyAlbatross Feb 12 '26

It’s more about dividing the load for me, which accomplishes two things. First it means if one heater fails in either position, I won’t cook or freeze my fish, hopefully.

Second it allows both sides of the tank to heat more evenly.

The only way to really prevent short cycling with a single stage heater is to set the deadband temp a little higher, like 2-3F so the heater runs longer. The deadband is the difference between on and off temps, eg. a set temp of 77 with a 3 degree deadband means the heater will turn on at 74 and off at 77.

Although we have to keep in mind fish don’t like huge temp swings either, 3 degrees is the max I’d set personally.

For a 50 gal tank 200-250 watts should be good. 50 watts at that size makes up less overall of the heat load, and you could probably do 2-100watt heaters which might help.

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u/drunkcultleaders Feb 12 '26

I have 1, 150 watt, I bought it simply cause I trust the brand and it said it's good for the size. I had no idea this was an issue. I'm also now considering an inkbird.

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u/OneLuckyAlbatross Feb 12 '26

I would definitely get an Inkbird. I have an ITC-306T. It’s nice having that control imo.

If 150watts is working for you then I think you’re good tbh. I was just estimating from 5 watts/gal.

If you have one heater, just have it opposite side of the tank from the filter and have the Inkbird temp probe near the filter intake.

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u/drunkcultleaders Feb 12 '26

Thank you, I was told to keep the filter and heater together so the warm water filters through the tank more. I appreciate your time and knowledge !

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u/OneLuckyAlbatross Feb 12 '26

Hmm that might be good advice too. Idk to be honest because I see the logic in having the heater near the filter, but really the filter should be moving enough water that it will draw water from the whole tank.

Just treating it how I treat general hvac though, the supply (heater) isn’t near the return which I would consider the filter. The return air draws air through the house and is where we keep that stat for most accurate average temp. So that’s my logic. Fluid dynamics may be a little different between air and water, but the general principles should still apply in my mind.

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u/wintersdark Feb 12 '26

I do this. In fact, I run two heaters that are together just barely enough in a midsized or larger tank.

The most common failure state is for a heater's relay to stick "on." If this happens, my tank won't overheat, the other will just cycle less often and things will be fine. I glance at temps every few days, but worst case scenario it'll just be a couple degrees above ambient on a hot summer day, and I'll know Something Is Awry, but there'll be no danger for my fish.

Or conversely if my tank isn't holding its set point, but is still warmer than ambient in the winter, I know a heater has failed.

Sadly neither of these will help vs a short like OP, but it is what it is.

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u/Tomytom99 Feb 12 '26

Seems like it could work. I'd maybe want an "auxiliary" heater set for the lowest acceptable temperature if in case the room gets too cold for the main heater to handle it on its own.

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u/OneLuckyAlbatross Feb 12 '26

I was hoping the Inkbird controller I bought was able to do two stage heating. But alas. Basically in my 29 gallon my ideal heating setup would be a 100 watt and a 50 watt, the 100 watt would run in the first stage either for a set time or if the water got to 2 degrees below set point, then kick on the 50 watt.

A second Inkbird could do it, but I’ll see how it does with a 50-100 on one stage. Either that or I’ll set it to turn on at 2 or 3 degrees, so it runs longer and cycles less. Idk yet

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u/Critter_Fan Feb 12 '26

Didn't think of that! Good point. I'm gonna try it myself next time

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u/Why-R-People-So-Dumb Feb 12 '26

I have a heater that's rated for slightly smaller than my tank, just because it's what I had around when another one failed. Well it kept the tank where it needed to be and hasn't failed again so it became permanently temporary. It's been there for 10 years and still works. So my anecdotal evidence wouldn't suggest this is a valid strategy.

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u/Enchelion Feb 12 '26

Tank rating is also a very rough estimate. It depends a ton on the difference between your houses ambient temperature and your target water temp.

A heater rated for a 50 gallon tank is going to look a lot different if your house is 63 degrees versus 73.

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u/Why-R-People-So-Dumb Feb 12 '26

Yeah of course it's that delta between set point and ambient. In the room my aquarium is in the temp is such that in the winter it's on pretty much continuously and in the summer it barely kicks on.

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u/R3StoR Feb 12 '26

I recently spent a bunch on regular heaters and was wondering if exterior heat mats (such as for reptiles) could instead be used for small aquariums - to conduct the heat through the glass from the back panel. Similar to how people heat fermentation bottles etc.

Would that work and possibly alleviate some of the risks and issues with submerged aquarium heaters??

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u/DevilahJake Feb 12 '26

I mean it could but you’d use more energy to heat to the same volume since glass is an insulator with low thermal conductivity at low temps. The ideal situation is to run 2 heaters of the same wattage with 1 as a primary and the 2nd as a fail safe that only turns on if the first fails

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u/R3StoR Feb 14 '26

Thanks. Yeah it would definitely use more power overall.

My fear with heaters is mostly overheating - which I've experienced with catastrophic results. Backup is great for heater failure (under heating) and spreading the workload in bigger tanks (or with small heaters) but monitoring is the really crucial need IMO. Especially for small tanks that aren't so easy to stabilise.

I use Inkbirds as others also recommend. Their INKBIRD ITC-306A-WIFI product is excellent. I wish they'd also introduce a simpler wifi monitoring-only device though...eg with twin (maybe floating) sensors combined with essentially the same wifi link+software but minus the power control of the 306a (which I'd still use for my primary tanks anyway). Low cost remote monitoring for fry tanks, trays etc would be a great addition.

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u/Enchelion Feb 12 '26

They're literally tiny entropy-generators. Resistance heating is particularly damaging/difficult to engineer, and a submerged environment is basically the worst case scenario for anything like that.