My heater fell apart

Stephenm

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My heater fell apart or blew apart inside the sump. It was a finnex titanium. There was sand like substance and some kind of thin metal looking substance all in the sump. I vacuumed out the compartment that had all the stuff in it and fired it back up. Then I saw very small sparkles of what looked like metal all in my display. Any recommendations?
 
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Stephenm

Stephenm

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also it was a brand new heater in a brand new setup only been on a week.
 
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Stephenm

Stephenm

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Actually I have no livestock in it yet. Literally a week with water in it.
 

Jeeperz

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Did you save or take pics of the shrapnel? If it's real titanium, then no issue, but titanium from China is anything but quality or pure titanium. I had a recent issue with a pump and massive water changes every day plus a polyfilter and cuprisorb may have been what prevented any issues.
 

Fishy212

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Since there is no livestock, you can use a sweeper magnet to get all the pieces? I am just thinking about if there is or will be any long term consequences with leaving the shrapnel in there. Don’t mean to freak you out but I am just thinking out loud. Better to be safe than sorry : /
 

Brian_68

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Did you save or take pics of the shrapnel? If it's real titanium, then no issue, but titanium from China is anything but quality or pure titanium. I had a recent issue with a pump and massive water changes every day plus a polyfilter and cuprisorb may have been what prevented any issues.
Only the outer shell is titanium, the inside is more the concern with the heating element itself.
 

Jeeperz

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Real titanium is not magnetic. Neither is copper or aluminum, which are other metals probably in these cheap heaters. Cuprisorb and polyfilters, now. Keep the display turned up with a powerhead to get it to the dump to be removed.
 

TheOne

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Wow, I've never heard of that happening. I have two finnex titanium heaters in my sump now. Was it a brand new heater?

Is this the heater?
finnex.jpg


I replaced my Jager TruTemp heaters because they kept getting condensation inside the glass tubes.
 

Flippers4pups

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Real titanium is not magnetic. Neither is copper or aluminum, which are other metals probably in these cheap heaters. Cuprisorb and polyfilters, now. Keep the display turned up with a powerhead to get it to the dump to be removed.

Ti is a alloy, mixture of steel and aluminum (in the basic sense). Depending on the grade of TI, it can corrode slowly over time or I should say "oxidize". These heaters tubes are hard anodized to keep these from "oxidizing".
 

Jeeperz

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Stainless is also a mixture of steel, aluminum, chromium, etc.. Real, quality, stainless, does not corrode. Same with titanium.

Fun fact. Most real titanium, 90%, comes from Russia. China produces 3rd rate titanium. Russia has the best quality ore for production of titanium. The U.S. produces something along 2% of the world's titanium.
 

X-37B

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A lfs recently lost his entire frag system, around 300 gal, due to a titainium heater that broke and leaked all internal material. Not sure what the internals are but he wont run one ever again. It was murphys law as it went out during the 2 days they are closed. He said his controller shut it down so no stray voltage.
 

TheOne

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A lfs recently lost his entire frag system, around 300 gal, due to a titainium heater that broke and leaked all internal material. Not sure what the internals are but he wont run one ever again. It was murphys law as it went out during the 2 days they are closed. He said his controller shut it down so no stray voltage.

Do you know what heaters he is using now?
 

X-37B

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Do you know what heaters he is using now?
He uses ehiems in all his systems and put the titainium in and never gave it much thought. I use ehiems also and never had an issue. Never heard of condensation inside of them.
 

TheOne

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He uses ehiems in all his systems and put the titainium in and never gave it much thought. I use ehiems also and never had an issue. Never heard of condensation inside of them.

There is a post about it right now. Both of my ehiems did that within a year. Now I'm second guessing running the finnex titanium heaters, ha.

 

X-37B

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There is a post about it right now. Both of my ehiems did that within a year. Now I'm second guessing running the finnex titanium heaters, ha.

Strange as I have not had that issue. I did just look at mine and no bubbles. I will keep an eye on them though. Been using them for
years. All 3 lfs near me use them too.
 

TheOne

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Well I have a grounding probe in my sump and my apex monitors the voltage. Still I would rather have stray voltage than some type of internal material all in my tank. I toss em after a year anyway so I guess I can live with it for now. May go back to ehiem after reading this though.
 
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