Exploded Heater

[briancarterkc]

Hows it looking this morning?

Well, the SPS are all totally bleached, but seem to still have polyps in them so I'm going to give them some time. The LPS are peeking their flesh out a little, so I'm going to hope/assume they will recover with time. The rock anemone seems to be bouncing back. The fish are ok.

The water is still pretty cloudy, even after my 3rd 30% WC. I'm making up a fourth batch now and this will probably be the last one I'll do unless it's showing something I can test for needs managing. I'm mostly worried about ammonia from anything that is dying.

The skimmer continues to pull really nasty stuff out; i think it's mostly coral stress coat goop. Even though I can still barely smell from this cold, cleaning out the skimmer cup this morning nearly made me hurl.

So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Even if most do survive, it's going to be a long recovery for these poor guys.

 

[briancarterkc]

How many watts to what size tank? I am going to run an undersized heater on my tank I didn't know if it would stress my heater out being on more than average.

It's a 200w. Total volume of my system is about 85g. A lot of people do two smaller wattage heaters. I'm not sure which is better; I always looked at 2 heaters as doubling my chances of something going wrong.

 

[briancarterkc]

I'm thinking, from what you're describing and what happened to me a few months back it may have electrocuted the tank.

Good luck either way. Baby everything and you should be able to save it. I still have things coloring back up from my accident

Thank you! Hearing of a happy recovery helps me keep hope!

It's been quite a while since i posted the story about it, but I had a catastrophic failure 4 years ago related to my ATO. Took 2 years off and restarted 15 months ago. If it all goes to heck again, I may be done for good :(

 

[11f150]

Good luck @briancarterkc I hope everything turns out good.

 

[briancarterkc]

Good luck @briancarterkc I hope everything turns out good.

Thank you!

 

[Frop]

It's a 200w. Total volume of my system is about 85g. A lot of people do two smaller wattage heaters. I'm not sure which is better; I always looked at 2 heaters as doubling my chances of something going wrong.

I originally planned for 2 heaters. But I just bought a chiller that only takes in 1 heater and uses its built in temp control to give or withhold power. Which is why I have 1 150W that I'll need for around 75 gallons

 

[TylerS]

Just a thought, if there's concern that the beneficial bacteria died you could buy one of the bacteria in a bottle quick cycling products and use that. I don't think they can hurt.

 

[briancarterkc]

Just a thought, if there's concern that the beneficial bacteria died you could buy one of the bacteria in a bottle quick cycling products and use that. I don't think they can hurt.

Thanks Tyler! I'd considered that. But, I've seen evidence of bristle worms, copepods, etc all doing ok and I'm still getting crops of bacteria in my sump per usual from my vodka dosing, so I think the microfauna is ok. It's more what corals are dying vs protecting themselves and working on healing that I can't discern yet.

 

[Reefcowboy]

Heaters do fail, ive had many fail from different brands... Eheim glass ones are workhorses and heat the most water per watt of any heater out there. They have problems, but in relation of units sold per issues, probably have best chances of all others. Many, many hobbyists have those heaters.

I agree, replacing a heater every year is a must. Nobody likes throwing away a 1 year old working heater, but I look at it as insurance policy

 

[Reefcowboy]

I hear the Aqueon Pros are also great. Never tried them though

 

[LostInTheDark]

I just had an Eheim Jaeger glass heater stop working but didn't explode/implode. It only got warm to the touch. Not hot. I went to Amazon to replace it and it popped up that I bought it in 2011. Can't complain about that. I run 2 300w heaters on a Finex controller. I'm thinking I should replace the other one now just for peace of mind.

 

[TylerS]

I would guess there's a balance between replacing every year vs waiting until they die. Brand new products fail as well. Look up bathtub curves
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtub_curve

I would guess just one year is barely after the early failure period.

 

[Reefcowboy]

I would guess there's a balance between replacing every year vs waiting until they die. Brand new products fail as well. Look up bathtub curves
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtub_curve

I would guess just one year is barely after the early failure period.

Very true. Ive also gotten bad Eheims out of the box...I usually test them heating up buckets for water changes before placing them in my tank.
Still not guaranteed, but with heaters it will always be a risk

 

[Bdog4u2]

I had an old one go bad on one of my tanks 10 years ago and luckily it was an empty quarantine tank but now I buy a new one every year and never trust their thermostat my tank also keeps a steady temp even without one since my house stays around 75 year around

 

[briancarterkc]

This evening the water is almost totally clear and not stinky anymore. I made the decision to toss my softball-sized acro. About 1/2 of the polyps had bailed and it was ghost white. I suspect it was what may have been continuing to make the water cloudy and smelly as it continued a slow death. Still have no PE on the other SPS, though most of their polyps are intact. Zoas and palys are still closed up tight, except the green zoas. They look like nothing happened. LPS are slightly open though they've had a lot of tissue recession from the skeletons. My Galaxea is the worst. Literally no tissue except the polyps remain (photo attached)

. Also had a pretty bad diatom bloom on the rock with all my zoas. I think when they closed up they oozed out some protective slime that fed the diatoms. Hopefully the worst is passed and we are on the upswing.

 

[Lowstorm]

Don't give up on the galaxea yet. He may come back stronger than ever.