Heater broke SPS lost color

[PhantomHalo]

I posted this in the emergency forum two days ago, but now I have some issues in the tank and wanted to get thoughts from here. So after I finished my water change I noticed my heater broke open and it smelled like an acrid burning smell. (Side note: my plug to my pump got wet and sparked when I plugged it in and so I didn’t smell this.) The water was mixed in a 65 gal brute can with wheels and a lid and has been mixing and heating up for two days. Anyway, I look at the heater after the water change and notice the guts laying out of it at the bottom of the can. I am assuming the pump hit it and broke the top of it and made it come apart. Regardless, my corals (hammers and torches) don’t look happy. Could just be from the water change. My fish are swimming fine and acting normally. The water change itself was about 35 gal. I did a 5 gal on my qt tank and was about to do another 5 gal water change on my bio cube when I noticed this. (Fish are all fine) So there was some left in the bottom that I just dumped out. Now for the questions. Anything I need to worry about on either of the tanks that had that water put in? I am running carbon already and GFO in a reactor, carbon also in a bag now along with my protein skimmer. Second question, is my water changing can okay to still use? I rinsed it out with RO water, but not sure if any chemicals would soak into the plastic. Finally, all of my SPS that had green in them are now tan such as my anacropora, WD, and Cali tort, my monti’s to include my crazy t and beach bum have lost their green and yellow coloring (my beach bum turned purple), and PE has gone away. This all happened over night. Will these color back up? Anything I can do to help? A water change again will happen today with fresh saltwater. I dose AB+, Microbacter 7 ( battling a GHA and PO4 problem right now), and Acropower. Major water parameters are attached. Temp is 78*. Thanks all for the help!

 

[bobby.w.hodges]

You may want to try cuprisorb to catch any heavy metal in the water.

 

[PhantomHalo]

I will try to go grab some. Thank you!

 

[czynot]

Broken Glass heater will release metal into the tank if left in the water. If your heater broke in mixing bin while it was off? It won’t release too much metal if you caught it early. It is different story if this heater is a display heater and broken while it was plugged in.
Run some carbon now and get cuprisorb ASAP. You can also do another large water change.

 

[JMetaxas]

Water changes will be your friend.

 

[PhantomHalo]

It was in there for probably 2-3 days broken in the mixing station before I caught it. It wasn’t until after I did the water change and got to the bottom of the water before I saw it. It was running however and did still heat the water if that makes a difference. Not sure when it broke though during the 2-3 days of mixing. I am assuming the first day when I put the pump in, but the pump moves around the bottom because of the force. I will grab some cuprisorb tonight if I am able to. If not, I will grab it tomorrow. Do you guys know if the corals will regain color, are alive/will stay alive? I would put them into my other tank but I’m afraid of shocking them and doing more harm than good.

 

[PhantomHalo]

Will the corals recover? Would I have a better shot at putting them in my other tank or would that stress them out more?

 

[PhantomHalo]

Will having the cuprisorb in my overflow be more effective then just a higher flow area of my sump?

 

[PhantomHalo]

Just did 3x 45 gal water changes. How many do you think I need to do? A few of the SPS have lost their color, but I don’t know how long it will take for them to come back. Any suggestions? I have 250ml of cuprisorb in right now with more on the way and am running carbon and GFO in a reactor and carbon in the bag. It’s a 350 gal total system volume approx. I have also reduced my peak lighting to two hours and reduced the tank temp to 76*. Should I go lower to help slow/stop the bleaching?

 

[HOLYREEFER]

why i just switched to the titanium heater from BRS

 

[HB AL]

As long as you quickly get rid of any contaminates and the corals survive they will eventually get there color back although it could take months depending on the individual coral.

 

[PhantomHalo]

why i just switched to the titanium heater from BRS

I have a Finnex titanium for my DT, but I will look into this one for my water mixing. Thanks for the suggestion!

As long as you quickly get rid of any contaminates and the corals survive they will eventually get there color back although it could take months depending on the individual coral.

I am noticing some starting to have dried out looking tips. Specially my anacropora. I just did another ~15 gal water change today. Had to change my QT water and doing a TTM on another fish I just got. Anyway, after the water change I noticed another acro starting to lose tissue from the base. One of my more expensive ones. So I just took it up and put it in my biocube to try to save it. Don’t really know what to do other wise? I just tested my water after my water change too. I attached it in case someone wants to see it. Temp was dropped to 75* to help slow the bleaching and lighting was cut to just two hours of full light (well not 100% of the light’s capability, but you know what I mean) and another 5 hours at just 25% with moon lights on at night. Do you think it’s too much lighting? Really looking for some sound advice here before I lose my entire tank.

 

[HB AL]

So now a coral is starting to stn, not good, I would frag the good portion and since it sound like you have another tank I would put the frag in there. If possible since you really dont know what's all in the water I would put as many of the corals as possible in the other tank. If some toxins remain the corals will continue to deteriorate or the initial shock of chemicals is causing them to continue to decline.

 

[Crustaceon]

Don’t do too much.

 

[Reefnjunkie]

I would agree it’s the initial shock that has them continuing to decline. A friend recently had a similar situation (simp light fell into the sump for 3 days) and I’m sad to say he lost nearly all his acros- other corals mainly pulled through

I’d agree on moving what you can although it looks like this happened nearly a week ago so moving may not matter- acros just don’t tolerate mishaps like this IMO

If you can get them into another tank that’s similar in params I’d do that.

You’ve done large water changes yet your PO4 has doubled- either tissue is deteriorating or something is dying off
Skimmer could be undersized, over feeding? PO4 should be increasing

 

[PhantomHalo]

So now a coral is starting to stn, not good, I would frag the good portion and since it sound like you have another tank I would put the frag in there. If possible since you really dont know what's all in the water I would put as many of the corals as possible in the other tank. If some toxins remain the corals will continue to deteriorate or the initial shock of chemicals is causing them to continue to decline.

I will pull what I can and try to save them. I will try to frag the RTN one as well. I am just hoping the others don’t follow suit. So far they have just lost their color.

I would agree it’s the initial shock that has them continuing to decline. A friend recently had a similar situation (simp light fell into the sump for 3 days) and I’m sad to say he lost nearly all his acros- other corals mainly pulled through

I’d agree on moving what you can although it looks like this happened nearly a week ago so moving may not matter- acros just don’t tolerate mishaps like this IMO

If you can get them into another tank that’s similar in params I’d do that.

You’ve done large water changes yet your PO4 has doubled- either tissue is deteriorating or something is dying off
Skimmer could be undersized, over feeding? PO4 should be increasing

PO4 has gone down, but nitrates have gone up. Battling that now. I think my skimmer just can’t keep up. I have the gate almost completely closed, but it doesn’t pull anything out. Not sure why. Switched to pellets a few weeks back to try to lower the PO4 due to my frozen food introducing some much. I also recently just brushed off a bunch of GHA during a water change (one of the 3x 45 gal ones). Maybe a bit of all of that causing a spike. Will slow my water changes to about once a week now. How long should I keep my carbon (in bags right now) and cuprisorb in the sump for? Thanks for help all! I am freaking out and trying to minimize the damage.

 

[Reefnjunkie]

my mistake on the PO4 sorry about that.

ive used cuprisorb so cant comment on that-
Carbon is good to use “always” it’s a clarifier amd when stuff goes south it’s already there to help absorb anything toxic

Do your best to not freak out anymore, I think the worst is behind you, not saying you won’t experience more die off just saying a crash isn’t gonna happen- you need to just “wait and see”
Not trying to down play that, it sucks but there isn’t much more you can do IMO, other may offer different opinion.

It looks like you had a lot going on in there prior to this
AB+
acropower
Microbactor
Battling GHA

try to simplify things until stuff stabilizes
Sorry for what you’re going through

 

[Sebastiancrab]

why i just switched to the titanium heater from BRS

What brand?

 

[PhantomHalo]

my mistake on the PO4 sorry about that.

ive used cuprisorb so cant comment on that-
Carbon is good to use “always” it’s a clarifier amd when stuff goes south it’s already there to help absorb anything toxic

Do your best to not freak out anymore, I think the worst is behind you, not saying you won’t experience more die off just saying a crash isn’t gonna happen- you need to just “wait and see”
Not trying to down play that, it sucks but there isn’t much more you can do IMO, other may offer different opinion.

It looks like you had a lot going on in there prior to this
AB+
acropower
Microbactor
Battling GHA

try to simplify things until stuff stabilizes
Sorry for what you’re going through

so should I stop dosing the acro stuff and AB+? Thought that would help with the healing. I will try to stop freaking out. Lol. Thank you for the help once again!

 

[Reefnjunkie]

Those products wont assist in the healing IMO/E, keeping it simple like the water changes are the best for now.

Sadly I think it really is a waiting game at this point. If you can get some pieces you are overly concerned about into anothe tank that has or had near same params that would hurt, if the params are much different its just going to cause more stress which is the last thing they need.

Its hard not to freak out-been there before and sometimes the knee jerk reactions or over reactions can be bad.

These are my opinons, others may have theirs. Ive always approached seeking answers to questions is take it all in and whats the majority say or what sounds solid-key is keeping it simple-IMO