Heater blow up poison? Any knowledge for help?

[camellia]

My corals have got so much worse today. I'm assuming it's containment from the heater that blew up.
The heater cracked and a chunk of glass was off on the back side that was suctioned to my acrylic sump! Whatever is inside these heaters is now in my water!

I've been making water and I'm running carbon but I don't know what else to do.

If anyone has any experience, ideas or suggestions please let me know.

How depressing!!

 

[sewer urchin]

I'm no expert, but I would think that the corals would react faster to an electrical charge in the tank then they would be a possible contamination from being exposed to a heater.

If I where in your shoes again (please no Caitlyn jokes), I would do a bunch of carbon and some Polypads ( check the color to see what they are adsorbing). But do small water changes, frequent and not large ones.
Oh and take heart, it's not the end of the world. Just going to be a pain for a little while.

 

[myreefclub0070]

your safe,
modern manufactures make these heater with the what if factor in mind, more than likely it a synthetic sand to transfer the heat from the heating coil to the glass tube.
carefully clean up all the glass and as much sand if it looks bad, other than that I wouldn't stress too much about it.

 

[axio]

MYREEFCLUB0070;1067662 wrote: your safe,
modern manufactures make these heater with the what if factor in mind, more than likely it a synthetic sand to transfer the heat from the heating coil to the glass tube.
carefully clean up all the glass and as much sand if it looks bad, other than that I wouldn't stress too much about it.

+1. I'm not an expert on manufacturing heaters by any means. But anyone I have ever spoken to about heaters in the industry has assured me that heaters these days do not contain any materials that could "contaminate" your system. I also agree that I would faster blame the electrical current itself.

 

[ff337]

Was this the reason your breaker tripped ?

 

[porpoiseaquatics]

What Marlon said.

 

[camellia]

FF337;1067669 wrote: Was this the reason your breaker tripped ?

Yes heater cracked on back side. I run two, the newer smaller Ehiem blew up. Up until 12 days ago they were on their own personal GFIC but I'd needed it at work and removed it, SO stupid.


Well when I reset the breaker my blue led strips came on. My corals didn't look near as bad this morning as they do now. IDK much about the effect of electrical current to corals but would certainly think it wouldn't be any different then to a human? I would think it would be an instant ouch, pain or death... not a slow dying death! But, as stated I have no idea. Just hating it!

Also killed hundreds of brittle stars which is going to be a real battle with water quality I've fished out tons of them today but can only imagine how many are still in the rock, stuck...

Fish are all moving now, my Ruby Red Dragonet sat under a rock all day until about 10 minutes ago
That fish is NOT a sitter, it moves continuously all over all day so I was pretty worried about him!

 

[camellia]

Sewer Urchin;1067661 wrote: I'm no expert, but I would think that the corals would react faster to an electrical charge in the tank then they would be a possible contamination from being exposed to a heater.

If I where in your shoes again (please no Caitlyn jokes), I would do a bunch of carbon and some Polypads ( check the color to see what they are adsorbing). But do small water changes, frequent and not large ones.
Oh and take heart, it's not the end of the world. Just going to be a pain for a little while.

Agree, that's why I'm questioning contents of heater. Corals getting worse, not better...

 

[shrimpy brains]

(toxin removing) polyfilters can't hurt if there are no toxins and will help if there are. Also, lots of Prime to offset ammonia due to die off.

 

[black reef]

Water change is best Deb

 

[black reef]

Use a magnet inside a cleaning pad moving back and forth near where the heater broke for picking up
any metal broken pieces

 

[bulkrate]

Polyfilter and huge volume water changes likely all you can do.

Good suggestion about scraping the glass in the general area of the blowout (with a siphon running nearby to suck out any released material. I'd also use it to remove the sand in the area that was covered in the heater innards.

 

[camellia]

Shrimpy Brains;1067771 wrote: (toxin removing) polyfilters can't hurt if there are no toxins and will help if there are. Also, lots of Prime to offset ammonia due to die off.

Thanks everyone

 

[crew]

Ya - I would say the ammonia spike it what's hurting your coral, not the contents of the heater.

 

[camellia]

Crew;1068047 wrote: Ya - I would say the ammonia spike it what's hurting your coral, not the contents of the heater.

+ 1 as well as the electrical shock for the second or two before the breaker tripped...

If this was your situation what would you do captain seat for the ammonia Spike?
Thanks dear

 

[crew]

the breaker would trip faster than that.. probably milliseconds. The temperature swing was probably a big factor too, not that you don't already know that.

I would just run carbon and do some water changes. At this point it's more of a waiting game. It's a very unfortunate part of this hobby. Even the best, most stable tanks crash. No one is immune.