This event upset me so much it has taken me nearly a week to be able to tell you about it...

On Sunday night the thermostat on the heater in my 100 liter aquarium failed and stuck in the on position. The first thing I knew about it was when I woke to a strange smell on Monday morning.

The tank was up to almost 98F and all the fish were dead.

I lost all my breeding Swordtail Platy, Female Bettas, Rainbow Goby, Panda Cory, Striata Loaches etc etc. The worst was the male Bristlenose plec who had burst, literally.

I turned off all the power and went to work, got the afternoon off and started removing corpses. That was not a good experience to say the least.....

So now I have a tank that I either shut down and sell or start up as a Bristlenose Plec breeding tank. (Will find a suitable place to ask about setting up a Plec Breeding tank in a moment)...

I guess the purpose of this post is simply to say.. Consider buying a digital thermometer with an audible "over temperature" alarm for every aquarium you have, not just the main one! I wish I had bought 2 when I bought one for my main tank.

Sorry for your loss. One thing I do is always put 2 smaller heaters in my tanks that way if one does that it don't get to hot. Being your going to make a bristlenose breeding tank, if its in an area where it don't get to cold you can leave the heaters out of the picture. My breeding tanks for the bns don't have heaters, but it don't get below 74 in the room that they are in and the bns can handle that kind of room temp.

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Susan beat me to it, I use more smaller heaters.

Very sorry for your loss.