heater failed

hey guys,

i had a heater failure yesterday on my little fluval edge. i had all softies in there. everything died except a tiny flasher wrasse, and one of my mushrooms looks like its going to make it. i lost a kenya tree, various mushrooms, and a sexy shrimp. i have a couple of toadstools in there (small frags) i don't know if they are dead or not. i do know that they are not disintergrating or anything yet. i also have another neon green leather in there that is starting to disintergrate alittle in the middle at the base where it is attached to the rock. i can still see the green polyps but they are fully retracted. when i touch it, it becomes rigid. the tank probably got to about 88degrees before i caught it. i have one of those stick on temp gauges. the ones that only read up to 86 degrees, and you could see the 86 still had a little color to it. so i don't really know how hot it got, because i immediately took action to reduce temps. i know you guys are gonna tell me i should have a controller, but this is a nano with no sump. besides with all the money i have spent on my main tank i just don't have the money to spend on a controller for it as well. i think that the kenya is lost b/c all that is left is the base the rest of it started to disintergrate so i removed what would come off. my question is should i remove the neon green leather, whats left of the kenya tree's base, and toadstool frags. i'm afraid that they could poison my wrasse. are my fears warranted? what should i do? how do i know if the leathers are dead or do i just have to wait to see if it disintergrates to know for sure. i have done several water changes already, b/c nitrates were alittle high. i also changed my carbon and gfo as well. any advice would be appreciated.

 

Keep doing what you are doing that should protect the fish fine.

 

so if you were me you would leave the leathers in there. i was wondering if there are any signs i should look for to know if those leathers are dead or gonna die.

 

Not too sure on that as I do not have leathers in my tank. I think they just disintegrate away.

 

Just run a ton of carbon. give them a few days to polyp out. if they dont, then dump them. watch your ammonia levels too. a dying leather will create ammonia.

 

I would leave them there. My tank cooked a while ago and all the softies recoverd. Oddly the only stony that survied was a gonipora.

 

Leathers are hardy, let them be and monitor the situation and continue with your current actions. You may see the leather’s slime over and even shed – I suspect you caught it in time and did the right things, good job.

 

I use this for my temperature controller. way better than any thermostat on the heaters.
Medusa Dual Stage Digital Temperature Controller

there are less expensive models too.