Glass heater exploded

[Nandez13]

I just heard a loud pop while half asleep and thought it may have been the sump compartment door shutting on its own or skimmer falling off its stand but one of my heaters actually exlpoded. It was a Tetra glass heater that I had in my DT however this was not my primary heater. I have 2 Eheim heaters in my sump; I really only use the tetra heater for water change buckets. I was cleaning my sump sump a bit and playing around with the plumbing last night which is why I placed it in my DT while my return pump was off and forgot it in there . It's a fully submersible heater (2 months old) and was still a few inches below water level when I saw it. It looked like there was was a light bulb inside my tank; I'm surprised that thing was still being fed power.

I'm glad I was home when it happened. I removed it and as much glass as I could see. Also took out all the blackened sand that I could but now what?? Should I be worried about anything leaking into my tank??? I have to leave for work in a bit so I don't have time for a water change. I'm already noticing stress spots on a couple fish so I'm worried about what I may come home to.

Help.

 

[Nandez13]

Here's whats left of it. Just added some carbon

I can't wait til their customer service line opens

 

[masterswimmer]

Poly pad and large water changes. Keep that carbon fresh and changed regularly until all parameters are back to normal.

Good luck, hope your return home is uneventful.

Russ

 

[timberwolfny]

would add a grounding probe if i were you they are cheap and keeps you and the fish from being electrocuted that is prob what happened and why your fish are stressed they prob just got jolted a bit

 

[FearsomeB]

I had a glass heater explode in a sump about a year ago while I was at work. Girlfriend got it out more or less right away but I wasn't around to run carbon, poly pad, water changes etc., so your results may vary. My results were that all crustaceans died, all but one fish lived, all corals other than a few LPS were heavily damaged, about half died. Most of the other half looked dead for a couple of months before they started to color back up. Switch to titanium heaters, and good luck with everything.

 

[oh207]

Very scary. I would have been afraid to put my hands in the water. Hopefully you unplug it first. GFCI and grounding probe is a must as well.

 

[duromega]

any feedback on these heaters ?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=u9GJHvj4yCw

 

[Tonyscoots84]

best heater
http://www.saltwatercritters.com/eheim_jager?b=1

 

[Nandez13]

i had a glass heater explode in a sump about a year ago while i was at work. Girlfriend got it out more or less right away but i wasn't around to run carbon, poly pad, water changes etc., so your results may vary. My results were that all crustaceans died, all but one fish lived, all corals other than a few lps were heavily damaged, about half died. Most of the other half looked dead for a couple of months before they started to color back up. Switch to titanium heaters, and good luck with everything.

I almost left work early when I read this post. I was able to get it out of the tank within seconds of it happening. If it'd happened an hour later it would've sat there for about 12 hours. So far all but two fish are accounted for. My red firefish tends to hide alot so I'm not too worried about him; I've checked around the floor as well. My blue hippo always swam around with my clowns but I haven't seen him yet. He's very small (~2") so I'm hoping he's hiding in the rockwork. All the stress spots from this morning are gone though.

My two Xenia frags are shriveled up. A couple zoas are closed but that may just be a snail/hermit that caused it. Three monticaps have lost some color though from this morning. I just dipped them and placed them in my nano; really hope they recover as I just got them over the weekend.

@oh27: I didn't even think when I saw it, I just yanked it out of the tank and then unplugged it.


@Tonyscoots84: I have 2 Eheim jager heaters in my sump. The cheap Tetra heater was just for water change buckets; never using them again.


I just did a 15% water change. I plan on replacing the carbon again in the morning and another water change tomorrow night. We'll see how things look after that.

On a separate note, how do i "quote" multiple users at once in my response?? lol

 

[KathyC]

I hope all of your critters & corals make it. Good that you heard it happen & investigated!!

ALL heaters should be plugged into a GFCI outlet. If you don't have one, then please use a GFCI power strip so the current will stop as soon as the heater breaks. (NOT just a regular old power strip, they are of ZERO protection!!)

Anyone who knows - for sure - please chime in on this part..but IIRC you should never plug a GFCI power strip into a GFCI outlet..is that correct.
Just want to cover all the bases here

 

[Nandez13]

I hope all of your critters & corals make it. Good that you heard it happen & investigated!!

ALL heaters should be plugged into a GFCI outlet. If you don't have one, then please use a GFCI power strip so the current will stop as soon as the heater breaks. (NOT just a regular old power strip, they are of ZERO protection!!)

Anyone who knows - for sure - please chime in on this part..but IIRC you should never plug a GFCI power strip into a GFCI outlet..is that correct.
Just want to cover all the bases here

Thanks Kathy, I'll keep that in mind.

Just spotted the blue hippo hiding in a crevice. He's still spooked but alive.

I noticed I lost a couple of snails but it could've been worse

 

[oh207]

@oh27: I didn't even think when I saw it, I just yanked it out of the tank and then unplugged it.

Yikes! A true renegade. You live dangerously!

 

[Nandez13]

Ugh....GSP, daisy polyps and another couple zoas have been closed up for a few hours now...

Foxface got its brown stress spots again, it's like I'm going backwards after a water change

 

[Harlem20]

Ugh....GSP, daisy polyps and another couple zoas have been closed up for a few hours now...

Foxface got its brown stress spots again, it's like I'm going backwards after a water change

Its normal for the corals to stay close for awhile mine took up to two weeks for stuff to even slightly begin to open up again. For me the first week was the deciding factor of what inverts and corals lived and which ended up dying from the shock. When my incident happened my 4 sps frags completely browned out, all corals completely closed tight from sps, lps, and softies, on the third day I actually began to see some color on the sps and some corals were starting to open up. Did another water change and on the 5th day 3 sps had completely turned white and lost all there skin and all the other corals were opening up alittle more. To me it all comes down to how strong the coral is. As far as fish give it some time since they probably got shocked any little changes done to the tank whether you aproaching the tank or shutting off the pumps to do a water change etc. will cause them to react a lot more quicker and get stressed easier than when everything was normal. Are they still eating? Just keep an eye on your par put your skimmer to wet skim and continue to run carbon. As far as water changes I only did two. One 10% the day it happened and another 10% on the third day. My theory didn't want to cause more stress but this could be why it took alittle longer for my corals to open up, But I did run lots of chemipures 3 in total within a week. At the end of it all I lost 9 snails out of 20 and 3corals (sps) out of probably 40 mixed corals pieces. Its been 3 weeks later and everything is fully open again.
Now I do want to say my incident wasn't from a heater but was from putting a led strip attached to Velcro over my sump :smash:. But at the end pretty much same effect shocked the tank and things being released into the tank that's not suppose to be in the tank. Crazy thing is my fish were swimming and eating like nothing had happened the same day it all happened.

 

[Charley]

Can you use heaters in a tank. If 1 breaks down, would there be a chance then the other would kick up to compensate?

 

[JimmyR1rider]

I like the titanium heaters way better than ANY glass heater. Yes they can still fail but I haven't had but one fail on me so far and have never had to worry about what has happened to many on here with glass and such being introduced upon its failure.

 

[Nandez13]

Its normal for the corals to stay close for awhile mine took up to two weeks for stuff to even slightly begin to open up again. For me the first week was the deciding factor of what inverts and corals lived and which ended up dying from the shock. When my incident happened my 4 sps frags completely browned out, all corals completely closed tight from sps, lps, and softies, on the third day I actually began to see some color on the sps and some corals were starting to open up. Did another water change and on the 5th day 3 sps had completely turned white and lost all there skin and all the other corals were opening up alittle more. To me it all comes down to how strong the coral is. As far as fish give it some time since they probably got shocked any little changes done to the tank whether you aproaching the tank or shutting off the pumps to do a water change etc. will cause them to react a lot more quicker and get stressed easier than when everything was normal. Are they still eating? Just keep an eye on your par put your skimmer to wet skim and continue to run carbon. As far as water changes I only did two. One 10% the day it happened and another 10% on the third day. My theory didn't want to cause more stress but this could be why it took alittle longer for my corals to open up, But I did run lots of chemipures 3 in total within a week. At the end of it all I lost 9 snails out of 20 and 3corals (sps) out of probably 40 mixed corals pieces. Its been 3 weeks later and everything is fully open again.
Now I do want to say my incident wasn't from a heater but was from putting a led strip attached to Velcro over my sump :smash:. But at the end pretty much same effect shocked the tank and things being released into the tank that's not suppose to be in the tank. Crazy thing is my fish were swimming and eating like nothing had happened the same day it all happened.

Thanks for the insight. I'll keep doing WC/ switching carbon and hope for the best.

My blue hippo/foxface weren't eating last night; no sign of the firefish either. All other fish seem unphased. It may just have to do with the proximity they were to the heater. At least that's the case for the corals

 

[Charley]

Cannot type I guess....can you use 2 heaters in a tank in case 1 breaks down and the other can then compensate?

 

[Nandez13]

Cannot type I guess....can you use 2 heaters in a tank in case 1 breaks down and the other can then compensate?

Sure, that's what I do. I have 2 heaters in my sump, one in the left compartment, one in the right compartment (return pump is in the middle).

I don't think 1 of those heaters would be enough for the whole system but if one were to stop working the other would prevent the temp from dropping too much until I replaced the other one.

The two are more than enough for the system volume which means they won't be on as long, extending their lifetime.

 

[Nandez13]

After 2 wks of water changes and replacing carbon, it looks like I'm in the clear. All the fish survived. My monticaps that were right next to the heater were hit the worst. They turned almost completely white to the point I couldn't recognize which was which. I dipped all of them in Coral Rx and switched them to my established nano tank. Two wks in there and they're looking much better. They've regained most of their color, just a little more to go.

My two xenia frags had an interesting reaction. The stalks used to be about 2-3" long but they both completely shriveled up after the heater incident. They looked dead so I tried to remove them but they were still stuck to the rock. A couple days ago I was finally able to make out distinguishable heads on both frags which are now pulsating but there are no stalks left. They almost look like palythoas encrusted over the rocks.


Lost a couple snails but I'll take it compared to the other horror stories I read about