Heater Blues

[Kiyi]

My very first fish tank, and heater, and it malfunction the first day! Urg. How lucky am I, huh? The heater is a Marineland Visitherm, I thought I made the right choice by reviews, but I guess not. xD I even ordered two! One for me, and one for my brother, and his works just fine.

My heater is now stuck in the on position, but at a low setting. Thank god. So now, I'm relying on the light to heat the tank (with the heater), and when I turn the light off at night, I layer blankets over the tank to keep the heat in. It's working pretty good so far. I'm only seeing 2-3 degree drops in the morning.

But whenever I lift the corner off the blanket to check temp, I try not to disturb my little betta, usually because it's midnight (when I get home from work) but without fail, he rushes to the corner I lift up and is always right there to see what I'm doing, makes me smile. :)

I've already ordered TWO new heaters. A Hydor Theo, and an Eheim Jager True Temp. They were on sale, so I figured hey, might as well have a back up this time. Won't be getting a Visitherm again. They're great when they work, but like I said, mine malfunctioned on the first day!

Anyone else have this experience with Visitherms?

[DragonFish]

Ugh, how frustrating....I hate it when things like that happen. xP

It sounds like you just ended up with a bad heater though, which sadly sometimes just happens. I have a Marineland Visitherm in my 5 gallon, I've had it for over three years now along with the tank and have had absolutely no troubles with it at all.
However, I did also end up with a bad one that I bought at another not so great pet store in my 20 a few years ago. But all of the others I've ever had were wonderful. Sometimes you just end up with a bad one.

Any chance you could send it back? Maybe get a refund?

[Kiyi]

Yeah, I was planning on sending the site I got it from an email about returning it, since they don't have any info on returns on their site. They were great when I was ordering, shipped my items the day after ordering them, so hopefully they'll take it. xD Though I've never had to mail a return before, so this will be new.

[DragonFish]

Yeah, hopefully they will let you return it and give you at least something back for it! Heaters are certainly not cheap, thats for sure.
Good luck with the return and the new heater! I've heard nothing but good things about Theos. :)

[happypappy]

I have the adjustable visitherm with no problems. I would contact the manufacturer by email with your concerns. they may replace. I also have the hydro with NO problems. I prefer adjustable NOT preset.

[aemaki09]

I absolutely love my hydor theo!! I dont have any experience with the eheim jager yet but I've heard nothing but good about them either.
Never heard of the visitherm though.

Hopefully you dont have any more issues with heaters. I've had nothing but bad luck with mine either. Once in a while I forget to unplug them when I do a big water change so i've ran through a lot. The theo is best for people like me because it can be run dry as well as wet, although I wouldnt suggest it.

Hopefully they'll let you return the busted one!!

[Kiyi]

I just emailed them, so I'll guess we'll find out. They have been good in the past though.

I didn't even consider preset, figured I'd skip that headache waiting to happen altogether. Haha.

I would have gotten two Hydor Theos, but I really wanted to try out the Jager too. xD If I get the Visitherm replaced (by another visitherm, or refunded) I might just say heck with it and buy another tank and get the Harlequin rasboras I've always wanted. A nice 15g maybe, or another 10g.

[aemaki09]

Haha well, hopefully they send you another one then!

[AyalaCookiejar]

It's never a bad idea to get more heaters because generally the tanks build up, too :p I started out with one Hydor Theo and now I have four as well as four tanks :p two of them are still empty, though.