As some of you know, I've had some problems with heating my fifty-five gallon tank that holds my discus. My first wal-mart heater that came with the setup had the thermostat way off, and to heat it to 82 you had to keep it at 75--and even then it fluctuated and liked to climb upward, or downward, depending on its mood. (However, if I knew back then the woes that were to come, I would have kept the bloody thing since it has served me better than the two replacements.)
I scrapped it and bought a Marineland Visi-therm, rated for the sixty gallon tank. Its thermostat too was off, but way off. On the colder days, turning it all the way to ninety could barely keep it at 79 degrees, and on warm days, when it was turned to 86 I could barely get 81.
I purchased a Tetra Whisper 30-60 heater to back up this piece of junk. It sufficed for a while, keeping the heat at 82-83. However, when I got back from Florida a few days ago, I discovered it had totally failed... no longer turned on to heat at all.
Side note: I had contacted Marineland earlier about the faulty heater, relayed my dilemma with the discus, and they said they would send me a new heater, no questions asked. I haven't gotten it yet, but it's nice to know a company actually stands behind their products, tardiness aside.
I contacted Tetra and told them the situation. Basically, they said I could mail them the crap heater with receipt they would replace it. But since I lost the receipt, as I did with the marineland heater, they told me I would have to go back to wal-mart and try to get a replacement or a refund there.
Today I took the heater out of the tank and this is what I found...
And if you want a closer look at the peeling black mesh and corrosion, check this out...
This thing was in my tank for only a little over a MONTH and it degraded like that... when I touched the thing, the black mesh just peeled away. So far, the fish in the tank are showing no ill signs, but I'm still outraged by the faultiness of this product and the inherent danger to the fish.
I have a Whisper 10 and a Whisper 5 in my two other tanks, and they show no signs of this decay and function perfectly. I've written the company back and emailed them those two pictures.
I'll keep this thread updated when I hear back from Tetra.
I scrapped it and bought a Marineland Visi-therm, rated for the sixty gallon tank. Its thermostat too was off, but way off. On the colder days, turning it all the way to ninety could barely keep it at 79 degrees, and on warm days, when it was turned to 86 I could barely get 81.
I purchased a Tetra Whisper 30-60 heater to back up this piece of junk. It sufficed for a while, keeping the heat at 82-83. However, when I got back from Florida a few days ago, I discovered it had totally failed... no longer turned on to heat at all.
Side note: I had contacted Marineland earlier about the faulty heater, relayed my dilemma with the discus, and they said they would send me a new heater, no questions asked. I haven't gotten it yet, but it's nice to know a company actually stands behind their products, tardiness aside.
I contacted Tetra and told them the situation. Basically, they said I could mail them the crap heater with receipt they would replace it. But since I lost the receipt, as I did with the marineland heater, they told me I would have to go back to wal-mart and try to get a replacement or a refund there.
Today I took the heater out of the tank and this is what I found...
And if you want a closer look at the peeling black mesh and corrosion, check this out...
This thing was in my tank for only a little over a MONTH and it degraded like that... when I touched the thing, the black mesh just peeled away. So far, the fish in the tank are showing no ill signs, but I'm still outraged by the faultiness of this product and the inherent danger to the fish.
I have a Whisper 10 and a Whisper 5 in my two other tanks, and they show no signs of this decay and function perfectly. I've written the company back and emailed them those two pictures.
I'll keep this thread updated when I hear back from Tetra.
I just went through something similar with two piece-of-junk heaters from a company called Aquarium Gardens. Luckily I had the receipt.