Broken heater - are my fish condemned?

[ADL]

Hi all,

In any other forum, this would be a ridiculous question...it still might be but I need advice.

I've not long bought a fish tank and I've spent a month "cycling" it without fish and doing everything properly. I finally invested in ten fish last night and was made up.

Cut to tonight where I've come to do a water change and STUPIDLY drained the water so the heater has run "dry". Now I've filled the tank back up, the heater's cracked and you can quite clearly see water bubbling away inside it.

My question is, what do I do? If I leave it on, I'm assuming it will probably explode and charge the water thus killing the fish. If I turn it off, I could get one by 9am tomorrow but would the water cool down too much? I've tried pretty much everywhere within a 20 mile radius but unsurprisingly, they're all shut.

For what it's worth, the fish are Tetras.

Please help!

Thanks,

Adam

 

[ADL]

Thank you both very much for your suggestions. I'll nip to Tesco now and pray that they have something I can use. (I'll also make some urgent pleas to fishkeepers in my area!)

Thanks again,

Adam

 

[ADL]

Hi everyone,

Well, just a quick post to say thanks for all your helpful advice which I took note of! Ended up buying a massive quilt from Asda and wrapping the tank. Miraculously, the temperature stayed exactly the same overnight!

Anyway, I bought two heaters this morning and everything seems ok. Quick (potentially stupid) question though...given the last heater exploded, do I have to worry about mercury in the water? Would a thermostat in a heater even still use mercury? The fish haven't grown legs or anything so I'm assuming I'm ok!

Once again, thank you very much for all your help.

Thanks,

Adam