Heater blew up.

Joey waid · Sep 30, 2016

Needless to say my heater exploded. With 24 hours I have lost six out of my seven fish. Crazy part is my corals are doing fine other than my frog spon. The only fish that has made it is a banded cardinal. Moral of this expensive story is, I'm never using glass heaters again. The sad part is the heater is two months old and fish too. The lfs replaced the heater, but the fish are on me....

143MPCo · Sep 30, 2016

Ouch, sorry about the heater issue and also about your losses, always pains me to hear about stuff like this. :(

stevo01 · Sep 30, 2016

:( sorry to hear that. I'm always worried a heater is going to stick on and over heat a tank while I'm at work. I think Hydor makes one of the safest/reliable products on the market. Are all of their heaters shatter proof now? Pretty sure.

Joey waid · Sep 30, 2016

With this heater it was Cherri red when I got to the sump. I panicked and pulled it by the cord, and it blew up. Of corse the elements were in the water. With in the first 8 hours fish were dieing. I have my 6th one die two hours ago. When I got home earlier that day there was three hovering in one corner. Based on that I checked all parameters and did a small water change. Of corse all was good with the tank. I'm guessing it had a crack and was sending a stray voltage/current to the tank stressing some of them out, then when it blew up it shocked/electrocuted them.

stevo01 · Sep 30, 2016

So sad dude

alyee5 · Sep 30, 2016

Sorry to hear the bad news. What brand heater was it?

Joey waid · Sep 30, 2016

alyee5 said:
Sorry to hear the bad news. What brand heater was it?

Cobalt aquatics..

cromag27 · Sep 30, 2016

Sorry to hear that. I run two via aqua titanium with controllers, and I have them hooked up to an apex as well.

RobBaglieri · Sep 30, 2016

Another sad story about heaters. Sorry to hear that. There has got to be a better, safer way to maintain temperature in an aquarium. This isn't rocket science. If someone invents a heat exchanger for aquariums, they would revolutionize water temperature control

alyee5 · Sep 30, 2016

I don't have statistics, but I've come across at least 3 stories of Cobalt NEO Therm heaters "blowing up" see video below of another sad story....that's enough for me to avoid this particular brand. I use an Eheim hooked up to a Finnex controller which is hooked up to my apex....

dodgerblew · Sep 30, 2016

alyee5 said:
I don't have statistics, but I've come across at least 3 stories of Cobalt NEO Therm heaters "blowing up" see video below of another sad story....that's enough for me to avoid this particular brand. I use an Eheim hooked up to a Finnex controller which is hooked up to my apex....

There's a very large thread on RC about the Cobalt Aquatics Neotherm heaters and I've been a victim of these heaters.

I don't think fish can get electrocuted because they're not grounded but I'm sure the junk that gets in your water after the heater breaks however can be lethal. I'd run carbon

Joey waid · Sep 30, 2016

cromag08 said:
Sorry to hear that. I run two via aqua titanium with controllers, and I have them hooked up to an apex as well.

Thanks. I ordered titanium one with controller last night. It just never dawned on me to not use glass ones. I have never had a issue before.

Joey waid · Oct 1, 2016

dodgerblew said:
There's a very large thread on RC about the Cobalt Aquatics Neotherm heaters and I've been a victim of these heaters.

I don't think fish can get electrocuted because they're not grounded but I'm sure the junk that gets in your water after the heater breaks however can be lethal. I'd run carbon

The store said cobalt said there's nothing that could kill fish in them. I don't believe them. I don't think it was a electrical issue that killed them. I think when it exploded it released something. I had a vlamingie tang that changed to his dark color with in five minutes of it breaking. He never went back to being blue, now they are all gone, but one.

Joey waid · Oct 1, 2016

RobBaglieri said:
Another sad story about heaters. Sorry to hear that. There has got to be a better, safer way to maintain temperature in an aquarium. This isn't rocket science. If someone invents a heat exchanger for aquariums, they would revolutionize water temperature control

I wad thinking the same thing, like what they use for reptiles. Something thats outside that warms the tank itself.

Joey waid · Oct 1, 2016

Well my last fish just died. I had put new filter floss last night in the overflow, when I changed it out today it had a black color on the edges along with the normal green tint. Good news is my leather coral molted and is now coming out. I really would have thought the corals would have took the brunt of the heater issue. I really was thinking they were more fragile that fish, snails, and crabs. The only thing that's suffered was the fish. The leather did go through a cleansing phase, but I don't know if it was just coincidence that it did it the same time the heater blew up. One of my frog spawns is not fully extending, but I think that's normal too. Now I'm running lots of charcoal. If the corals are ok, how long before I can add fish again??