Tank got up to 81 degrees

Normally my tank is 78 and my house shows 70 but my tank climbed up to 81. I double checked it with another thermometer. I am gettting a new heater in case its that. I cant think of anything it could be.
Adam

 

Well sometimes the heater shorts out its happened to me one to many times and has killed all my fish before take that heater out of there pronto before it kills any of ur fish

 

The scales on thermometers are often wrong. Turn it down a bit and see if that helps. Also make sure that your thermometer is on the other side of the tank from the heater.

 

I unplugged the heater for now. I am going to get a new one in an hour. I have alwasy had the digital thermometer near the heater. I can move it though

 

Having them next to each other will give you a false reading. Your thermometer will read higher than the AVERAGE TEMPERATURE of your tank really is.

 

I agree I would move it see what it reads and if it's still that high get a new heater

 

You do want to look into the heater if this is something that is not normal, but 81 degrees isn't bad at all IMO. During the summer, my tank was at about 82-84 degrees during the day and I had no bad side affects.

 

I concur with this. My tank is about 78-80 degrees, everything is doing just fine. If these temperature changes aren't gradual though, you'll need to be worried.

 

I've learn over the summer in FL that my tank pretty much stays around 81º. So this is where I keep it in the cooler months just for consistency. I see no issues with temps in the low 80s as long as there are no drastic swings.

 

Yeah, hopefully it's just a glitch with your heater, which is easy enough to fix. Another possibility is that your lights and pumps are adding heat to the water. I would start by fixing or turning down your heater, and see where that takes you. If it is the lights and pumps, you may consider getting a small fan to cool the top of the water.