Heater failed overnight... S*cks

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

So I have a IM Nuvo 20 that I used 30 pounds of wet gulf rock in (I'll come back to this). The tank had been doing great. What we are most sad about is we had to relocate a male clown from another tank that got beat up pretty bad (lost an eye) but was doing great and recently discovered a giant hammer he would never leave.

I found the BRS with twin 100W heaters. I laid the heaters down in the lower compartment on their sides of the 20 Nuvo in the back.

Here in Memphis we have had 2 weeks of really bad weather, lots of power failures and massive heat. Tons of lost tanks in the area. Up until yesterday we thought we dodged a bullet and just realized we needed to get a generator. We did have our power turn on and off about 7-8 times over the last two weeks, this could have easily played into the situation. I get power spikes and the such. I was just surprised that this heater failed.

The tank went to about 100+ degrees overnight. The water turned milky white and had a real bad smell to it. The BRS heater failed in the on position.

Just sucks, I am LITTERALLY in the middle of a build with my wet rock showing up tomorrow. Sigh...

Here is where I need some help:
Surprisingly two Nassarius snails lived! Couldn't anything else have made it? So, what about all the beneficial bacteria on my rocks? These were wet gulf rocks, the tank had been doing pretty well with the typical issues. Should I dark cure these for a while? Should I put them in the 20G tank and just change the water until the ammonia from the die off goes away? What would you do in this situation?

 

[Troylee]

So the tank dropped to 64? That wouldn’t harm the bacteria as it’s the same kind in cold water lobster tanks etc.. rocks should be fine live stock there’s no telling.

 

[TokenReefer]

What the temperature of your house? Yiu said you were in a heat wave... Your house would have to be that cold also... I don't trust that reading if it's not that cold in your house right now fwiw

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

So the tank dropped to 64? That wouldn’t harm the bacteria as it’s the same kind in cold water lobster tanks etc.. rocks should be fine live stock there’s no telling.

No, thanks for asking that. I clarified the situation. Tank went to 100+ degrees. The picture you saw had me put the heater probe in a bucket. The water was 64. I removed that pic as to not create confusion. FYI - about 5 minutes later the water was 85 degrees...

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

See above. Tank went to 100 degrees. House is at 70. Which can someone help me explain to my wife why we need heaters when we keep our house at 69-70 degrees...

 

[TokenReefer]

See above. Tank went to 100 degrees. House is at 70. Which can someone help me explain to my wife why we need heaters when we keep our house at 69-70 degrees...

Ahhh. Makes sense now. Sorry for your losses here. Tell her you don't if you keep the room at the temp your fish like

 

[Vwfan]

How much use did you put on that heater before the failure? I literally just purchased the dual heating element 600.

 

[Troylee]

No, thanks for asking that. I clarified the situation. Tank went to 100+ degrees. The picture you saw had me put the heater probe in a bucket. The water was 64. I removed that pic as to not create confusion. FYI - about 5 minutes later the water was 85 degrees...

That makes more sense… Heaters gotta be the number 1 reason for tank crashes.. I’ve never ran one personally and my tank stays 78-81 while my house stays at 74° year round. I know Apex has some kind of fail safe for heaters and maybe even ink bird that shuts them down if the temp to gets a certain point.

 

[exnisstech]

You said the heaters stuck on. The brs heaters I have seen are titanium and require a controller. Did the controller fail and keep the heaters on? Was the temp probe in the tank water?

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

You said the heaters stuck on. The brs heaters I have seen are titanium and require a controller. Did the controller fail and keep the heaters on? Was the temp probe in the tank water?

They are titanium, you are correct and I do have the controller. It was fine when I did my tests last evening. But you never know, anything is possible.

 

[Acros]

On the IM tanks (or any other tank), always place your heater in a compartment that has stable water level, without relying on an ATO. In this tank, use the second camber on either sides and not the center one.

That might not be the issue here, but it is a good practice for future builds.

 

[Boehmtown]

Might help someone else , but I got worried at one point and bought an auto aqua smart temp plug as a failsafe

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

I wonder about what you are saying, the reason I laid them down under those ledges is for exactly what you said. I found them a couple times sticking 1-1.5 inches out of the water the first couple days I had this set up. That could have also contributed to this. Lot's of lessons learned here for me. I will be investing in redundant water temp alarms for sure after this. That and a subscription service for heaters...

 

[Snoopdog]

One of the reasons I am scared of doing a small tank without an Apex. I think I will just bite the bullet and make sure even a small tank has a stand and a place to put an Apex. Live rock is expensive.

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

Washing the sand we are finding things we never knew we had. So sad. Anyone have any idea on the rock and the beneficial bacteria? Is my live rock salvageable at all?

One of the reasons I am scared of doing a small tank without an Apex. I think I will just bite the bullet and make sure even a small tank has a stand and a place to put an Apex. Live rock is expensive.

 

[RichReef]

Not to derail the OPs questions but this may be good advice for the future because your power outages may have contributed to heater and/or heater controller failure.

I always keep a spare heater and return pump.

After a series of heater failures and refrigerator compressor failures I now run these on my skimmer, heaters, and any appliance that has an electric control board. This is just an example but there are a range of similar products now available. It delays the power 1-2-3 minutes depending on what device you buy. I have not had a failure since on any item I used this on. Going on 4 years now. They even have ones with multiple outlets now. Those weren't available at the time.

 

[littlefoxx]

This happened to me too. Not a power outage but my heater broke and brought my tank to 87 F!!! Killed my shrimps and my CB angel. I was able to save the rest of them with a water change with cold water and frozen peas and stuff put in the tank

 

[averagesteve]

Honestly, 2x Eheim heaters both large enough to heat the tank on their own, with the internal thermostat on an inkbird with it's own thermostat and probe with an alarm seems to be the best, most inexpensive way, to avoid heater issues. It's the way my LFS sets up his frag tanks, and has been pretty solid for me for the past year.

 

[Lebowski_]

Honestly, 2x Eheim heaters both large enough to heat the tank on their own, with the internal thermostat on an inkbird with it's own thermostat and probe with an alarm seems to be the best, most inexpensive way, to avoid heater issues. It's the way my LFS sets up his frag tanks, and has been pretty solid for me for the past year.

It’s really hard to fit EH Jagers in IM tanks. The sump area where the water doesn’t fluctuate is usually only 7-10” depending on model.

 

[Acros]

It’s really hard to fit EH Jagers in IM tanks. The sump area where the water doesn’t fluctuate is usually only 7-10” depending on model.

I use 2x 50w Eheim Jager heaters on my IM25 lagoon. They fit perfectly in the first or second chamber. I anyway like to get 2x slightly undersized heaters.