tank heater
By pawindso33
@pawindso33 (44)
United States
April 27, 2007 10:12pm CST
my brother keeps a marine aquarium at our house. 55 gallons. he's got a fuzzy dwarf lion fish, nasau tang, niger trigger fish, brown moray eel, and a corran angel fish. he came from school one day and his new tank heater just cooked all of his fish. he wrote the company. do companies take responsible for lost livestock due to product default? he's worked so hard to find all these fish for his aquarium. he's about to go off to school and can't afford to replace his fish. any ideas?
1 response
@CritterKeeper (519)
• United States
28 Apr 07
Not normally. Companies just can't cover some of the crazy things people ignorantly do to their tanks but who knows? If he can convince him that he did nothing wrong maybe they'll work with him. What was the company's reply?
I hate to tell you but it sounds to me like this tank was doomed to crash eventually anyway. 55 gallons is too small for what he had in there.
@copperkitten (3473)
• United States
28 Apr 07
I agree. I dont think they will do anything for him. Im sorry for your brother!
@pawindso33 (44)
• United States
29 Apr 07
Is 55 gallons too small? It's a pretty big aquarium. I'm sure there are over 55 gallons of water circulating through the pumps and in the tank. I don't think he's heard back from the company, but he did get some new fish. It was aquarium appreciation day at the fish store he usually goes to. 50% off!!!
@CritterKeeper (519)
• United States
30 Apr 07
I've got a 130 gallon saltwater tank with a 55 gallon sump for a total capacity of 185 gallons and that would about max out MY tank! Because I'm adding corals as I can in my whole huge tank I've only got one yellow tang, two clakii clowns, a neon velvet damsel, and a cleaner goby and will only end up adding a few more smaller fish or one larger fish before I'm done with the fish! With saltwater tanks the safest rule of thumb to follow is add up how many inches the fish will grow to full size then allow about 3 gallons or so of water per inch of fish. And that's only if he doesn't want to add in the more delicate creatures such as corals and anemones! Because they need their water more pristine than fish you try to allow more like 5 gallons or so of water per inch of fish.
Those are just VERY general guidelines to help people figure out what will be safe for their fish over the long term. Obviously a very thin fish such as the tang which can get about 10-12 inches or so isn't *actually* as large a fish as a lionfish of about 10-12 inches that is much "thicker" or "fatter". I'm sure the fish would've been fine barring the heater complication for awhile as they were likely not full grown but yes, with the fish he had in there I predict that he would've had some major problems as they grew larger, especially since the lionfish and eel are fairly "messy" or "high waste producing" kinds of fish.
I'd seriously advise him to go to safer stocking limits to avoid getting frustrated with the hobby when he loses those very pricey fish! And please, let us know what happens with the company over the loss of his fish and feel free to post asking for advice or help! I'm a fish geek and love talking about them LOL
