wow heater went crazy

So About three days ago I slept at my buddies place and I came home the next day and my corals weren't looking so good. I pull out the testing supply and immediately go for the PH because I've had some swings in the past. Then my finger touches the water and its hot, like really hot. I look at the thermometer and its reading 92!!! I unplug everything not knowing what is the source, but I assumed it was the heater. I slowly did the some water changes to get it back down so I wouldn't shock everything. Well the next day I experiment to see if its the heater. Unfortunately I didn't have a spare heater so my tank drops to around 73 during the night. I plug the heater back in which is set to 76 mind you. And I come back in an hr or two to check it. The thermometer reads 82 and the heater is still on....grrr needless to say I won't be using equipment from them again. I don't want to mention the name specifically but it rhymes with Maureen-rand.....haha. And now I'm pretty sure I lost the torch I just bought, a hammer, maybe a cheaper chalice. Acans, gonipora, and frogspawn still not looking that great everyone else seems to be doing ok. I'm just glad they I didn't have scooter blenny soup because that would have been upsetting. Anyone have any suggestions to ease their recovery?

 

Nothing to ease the recovery except maybe feed them to make sure they have enough energy to stay healthy, just keep water params good.

Unfortunately this is all too common with most hobby heaters, the ones I've come across anyway. I've heard of 2 other tanks having this happen in the last couple months. The thermostats in them seem to be very cheap. I would recommend looking into at least a low end controller like a Reefkeeper Lite or Aquacontroller Jr, they come with a temp probe and are much more reliable, on top of that you get all the other benefits of having a nice timer system, maybe a pH probe etc.
I think the $100 or so it costs can easily be justified after you lose your first couple hundred dollars in livestock, unfortunately sometimes people don't realize how poor most heaters are until they've lost a bunch of livestock.

 

Is it a Stealth? I have only ever used Stealth and never had an issue, I'm currently using the 300w model in my 55g reef and never had a problem. I set it once and never touched it again. Look into the 300w model, I love the fact that it now has a monitor light, completely worth the $30 http://www.bigalsonline.com/StoreCa...y=stealth heaters&queryType=0&hits=12&offset=

 

If it was a stealth call them and they will replace it with the new ones for free.

 

no it was one of the visi therms. Im going to the store in about ten minutes I'll have to look into the stealths when I get there. Thanks

 

FWIW I had a stealth fail on me, would still highly recommend a controller, replacing a heater is cheap compared to livestock usually.

 

how old was your visi therm?