HELP!! Heater Shattered In Mixing Station. Brown Powder Everywhere

GlassMunky · May 5, 2020

So I just had the weirdest thing happen....
I was walking outside to go check on the garden as we just planted some new tomatoes over the weekend and as I walked out my garage, where my Saltwater Mixing Station is located, I heard 3 LOUD BANGS!!! Almost as if someone was pounding on the wall.;Bored
I walked over to check out where the noise came from and noticed a nasty burning/burnt smell, so immediately shut off the power to the mixing station thinking maybe somehow the pump motor had burned up. I opened the water barrel to check inside and saw what looked like sawdust, just some kind of nasty powdery brown stuff all in the water. Then I checked the heater and Yup, it shattered!!!

I feel super lucky to have standing right there when it happened so I could deal with it right away but wow!

Does anyone know what this nasty brown powder that’s inside the heater is???? Is it toxic???

I immediately pumped all the nasty water down the drain (the pump was fine) and proceeded to take apart the whole mixing station at every union and valve and completely rinse and wipe down the inside of the barrel and all the plumbing parts and pump with fresh water.
After cleaning everything and drying it down we set it back up and now have just fresh water running through everything to help further rinse the system out. After this rinse of fresh I’ll probably do another fresh water rinse after pumping this down the drain and then rinsing one last time in RO/DI.

After all the cleaning and rinsing do you think this barrel and pump/plumbing are still safe to use for mixing Saltwater for our Reef?

Retro Reefer · May 5, 2020

Wow! Gad you were there.. I don't know what it is made of but how about contacting manufacture?

Long Island Reefer · May 5, 2020

Wow! Thank god you were around to hear that. Would have been a nightmare later on.

TriggerFinger · May 5, 2020

Would putting carbon in with your rinse cycles help? That looks like the heater I just bought for a second QT tank....care to share what it was?

GlassMunky · May 6, 2020

Retro Reefer said:
Wow! Gad you were there.. I don't know what it is made of but how about contacting manufacture?

TriggerFinger said:
Would putting carbon in with your rinse cycles help? That looks like the heater I just bought for a second QT tank....care to share what it was?

Im going to be calling the manufacturer today to see what they say.
It was an Aqueon Preset Heater like this one from Petco. less than 6 months old.

https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/aqueon-preset-aquarium-heater-100w-2335293?mr:device=c&mr:adType=pa&cm_mmc=PSH-_-BNG-_-CAL-_-PME-_-PET-_-AQU-_-0-_-PM_BNG_FY20_SBU05_SH14_AquaticSupplies_Other_PLA-_-0-_-0&kpid=bi_386327962_1265538486466453_79096240596020_pla-4582695755281968:pla-4582695755281968_c&utm_id=bing_386327962_1265538486466453_79096240596020_pla-4582695755281968_c&utm_config=tad0iunwp&utm_campaign=PM_BNG_FY20_SBU05_SH14_AquaticSupplies_Other_PLA&utm_source=bing&msclkid=e13a1e555b9915e9609440e7cf59a223

TriggerFinger · May 6, 2020

It is the same one except I didn’t get the preset temp

have you checked the mixing station today? How’s the smell?

GlassMunky · May 6, 2020

TriggerFinger said:
It is the same one except I didn’t get the preset temp have you checked the mixing station today? How’s the smell?

so immediately after we saw what happened we cleaned and rinsed everything off.

When we were refilling it with fresh water to run overnight there was no more smell of anything burnt and the barrell smelled like normal.
seems normal this morning too, but im still gonna drain the fresh water in there and reload it with more to further rinse just to be extra safe.
I gotta wait till 8am Central time to call Aqueon and see what that powder stuff inside is.

We found a different thread about an exploding heater that had aluminum oxide inside it, but that person said the powder was silver, not brown like this so maybe something else?

lakai · May 6, 2020

I'm surprised. These are great heaters from my experience, I left one plugged in while in a empty bucket for 3 weeks before i noticed it and it was fine, still worked.

TriggerFinger · May 6, 2020

Interested in what Aqueon says. I’ve had good luck with the pro versions but now I’m kinda nervous about it, have two 200w in a 90g, a 100w in a 29g, 100w for heating new saltwater and a new 50w for a QT. Good thing you planted tomatoes huh?? You were in the right place at the right time. Nothing circulated through your pumps and pipes for very long before getting drained out.

GlassMunky · May 6, 2020

TriggerFinger said:
Interested in what Aqueon says. I’ve had good luck with the pro versions but now I’m kinda nervous about it, have two 200w in a 90g, a 100w in a 29g, 100w for heating new saltwater and a new 50w for a QT. Good thing you planted tomatoes huh?? You were in the right place at the right time. Nothing circulated through your pumps and pipes for very long before getting drained out.

Yea super lucky for sure!
I’ll be sure to update here later today with what Aqueon says after I talk to them.

Plecosam · May 6, 2020

Most likely mineral mica, used for heating element insulation.

GlassMunky · May 6, 2020

So I just got off the phone with Aqueon and the woman i spoke to in tech support said that she thinks the powder inside is sand, and that for sure theres no toxic components used inside. I asked if she could tell me what kind of sand weather its just silica or what, but she said shed have to check with her R&D/Manufacturing dept to get a more exact answer and will call me back later today.

Hopefully it is just sand and nothing crazy. fingers crossed.

andrewey · May 6, 2020

It used to be that some of the older heaters utilized ceramic or even quartz (usually in the form of sand) around the heater core and that could explain the brown. However, the last few I've taken apart didn't have sand at all and beyond the heating core, thermostat and cabling, they were empty. However, I did notice the same brown crud when I repaired a glass heater that had a leak- it turns out where the water was in contact with the heater directly produced some type of brown sludge/foam. If it turns out not to be sand, it could explain what's going on. Either way, anecdotally, but after that brown gunk was released into the water, I added some extra carbon and none of my sticks at the time were affected (no stray voltage thankfully).

GlassMunky · May 6, 2020

Heard back from Aqueon today saying that it is quartz sand. They have also offered to send me a free heater of any model they make as a replacement for this, even though I don’t have a receipt which is nice of them.