discretekarma March 9, 2008 Share March 9, 2008 (edited) Two nights ago I woke up to find that the breaker on my tank had blown. I wasn't sure why but everything was off. I smelled something burning so I opened the doors to under my tank where the sump is and started looking around. I reached behind my skimmer and found my heater had blown up in to two pieces. I'm not sure how that happened but it did. I unplugged it and took out the pieces and then reset the breaker. A few hours later when my lights came on I realized that all my Xenia is dead (not too big of a deal) and that all my SPS didn't look good. I did all the tests I had (salinity 1.024, Nitrate 0, PH 8.2, Calcium 350, Alk 10, Amonia 0, temp 79). A few looked really pale (mostly my Monti Caps) and the rest just didn't look good. I did a 20% water change and left it alone. I didn't want to do further damage by freaking out. All the fish are fine. This morning I woke up and around half of my SPS are totally white and dead. I fragged the ones that were partially white. All the polyps are closed up so I'm not sure what'll happen to them. What can/should I do? Should I just wait it out and see what's left or should I do something? Thanks Edited March 9, 2008 by discretekarma Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamal March 9, 2008 Share March 9, 2008 the heater coil probably touched the water and got some metals in the tank. i would continue doing water changes and if you arent running carbon now is a good time to start. there something called poly filter i believe which you can run as a filter and it will tell you what you have in your water. called to the lfs's and see if someone has it. good luck and sorry about the disaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gadgets March 9, 2008 Share March 9, 2008 That sucks!!! Sorry to hear this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewB March 9, 2008 Share March 9, 2008 Run Cuprisorb (Seachem product) to remove metals that may have dissolved into the water. Carbon, Polyfilter and or Purigen probably wouldn't hurt either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bk_market March 9, 2008 Share March 9, 2008 I think you did good thing by fragging them but u put them bank in ur tank or do u have seperate system for them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discretekarma March 9, 2008 Author Share March 9, 2008 I only have the one system so tyat's where I put the frags. I got carbon and the SeaChem product you recommended at the LFS near my house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highland Reefer March 9, 2008 Share March 9, 2008 There's been a lot of heater problems lately. Sorry to hear about your loss. :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discretekarma March 9, 2008 Author Share March 9, 2008 (edited) I just put the two chemicals in to the sump. We'll see how that goes. I'm suprised that none of my fish have dies (knock on wood). I really am most suprised about my yellow Tang. How does a heater just explode in to two parts? Edited March 9, 2008 by discretekarma Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctenophore March 9, 2008 Share March 9, 2008 Change as much water as you can make at once, 100% if possible. New clean saltwater will not hurt anything. 20% won't do much if a lethal toxin is in the water. You need to either get the corals out of that water into a different system, or completely get rid of the water you have. Carbon etc take too long to work unless you have a high flowrate filter that can turn over your tank volume in less than 5 minutes or so (note that this is not the same as moving all your tank water through the filter in 5 minutes) Sorry to hear about this disaster. What brand heater was it, and how old? Good luck with the rescue. If you need a hand with anything let me know, I'll be around all day. Justin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 March 9, 2008 Share March 9, 2008 I would do a 100% water change, as well, and then add the chemicals to pull out whatever else is in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highland Reefer March 9, 2008 Share March 9, 2008 I just put the two chemicals in to the sump. We'll see how that goes. I'm suprised that none of my fish have dies (knock on wood). I really am most suprised about my yellow Tang. How does a heater just explode in to two parts? Most likely, the heater had a leak around the top seal and allowed water to get into where the coils were. When the water touched the coils it immediately vaporized and caused the glass to explode. I like the titanium heaters the best. They are not cheap but hold up from my experience much better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discretekarma March 9, 2008 Author Share March 9, 2008 (edited) My frag tank has shut offs from the main tank so I did a 100% water change in there and shut it off and now I'm going to put my nicer corals that are left in to there. Edited March 9, 2008 by discretekarma Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite March 9, 2008 Share March 9, 2008 Sorry to hear about this disaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak March 9, 2008 Share March 9, 2008 Carbon and water changes. Man I'm sorry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discretekarma March 9, 2008 Author Share March 9, 2008 So far I have 9 colonies that are definitely not coming back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnguyen4007 March 9, 2008 Share March 9, 2008 So far I have 9 colonies that are definitely not coming back. Sorry to hear about your loss. Don't worry. Not much that is loss that cannot be recovered from your friends here on WAMAS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmubeach March 9, 2008 Share March 9, 2008 This sounds kind of like what happend when I eletricuted my tank:( I hope it gets better for you... just remeber to check everything even small eltrical draws... and thats pretty scary that your heater exploded:( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lanman March 9, 2008 Share March 9, 2008 One of the 23 reasons that I try to keep frags of every coral in a separate system. You just never know... Sorry to hear about the results of that heater explosion. I'm beginning to think heaters are one of the major Achilles heels of our hobby. They stick on... they stick off... and now - they explode and shower the water with evil metals. How long was your tank unattended - any chance there was a big temperature spike and you didn't notice it? bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discretekarma March 10, 2008 Author Share March 10, 2008 No chance of a spike. I have an AC3 that shows the temp all night. No spike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteffiePoo March 10, 2008 Share March 10, 2008 I dont have much more advice than what others gave you, but just wanted to tell ya how sorry i am for your losses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawns March 10, 2008 Share March 10, 2008 yea dude, that sucks!!!! is that rust on the bottom half of the heater??? right on the top where the glass broke. it just looked kinda brown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest webshout March 10, 2008 Share March 10, 2008 Sorry for the loss. Good luck on the recovery. William Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bprinehart March 10, 2008 Share March 10, 2008 How does a heater just explode in to two parts? I am wondering this very same thing man. So sorry to hear about this. This is almost the exact same thing that happened to me. Anyone know what the elements are composed of? Or, what that little capacitor type do-dad thingy is filled with? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discretekarma March 10, 2008 Author Share March 10, 2008 This SUCKS. When I posted before I had a few corals/colonies that were dead and about 100 that weren't doing well. Now I have a few that aren't doing well and about 100 corals/colonies that are dead. It's almost all dead. HOW DEVASTATING!!!!! There may be a 180 system for sale soon. We'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnguyen4007 March 10, 2008 Share March 10, 2008 This SUCKS. When I posted before I had a few corals/colonies that were dead and about 100 that weren't doing well. Now I have a few that aren't doing well and about 100 corals/colonies that are dead. It's almost all dead. HOW DEVASTATING!!!!! There may be a 180 system for sale soon. We'll see. Oh man, that really sucks. Sorry to hear that. Here I am feeling bad that couple of my corals got bleached and died. But my pain is no where close to yours. If you enjoy the hobby, then I wouldn't let this tragedy keep you from rebuilding your stock. Think of it as an excuse to do set up something totally different from how you had it before. Most if not all of your collections should be easily replaced. Just a thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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