Heater broke in two

[FearsomeB]

The other night after the skimmer kicked on 30 minutes following water change I noticed that it was creating an unusual amount of skimmate, but didn't think much of it. At this point, I think the heater (glass Fluval brand) was probably cracked (possibly from temperature variation associated with the water change?). The next morning I went to work without looking at the tank. When I got home from work, all of my corals were bleached white, and a serpent star was dead. I ran tests, noticed that the salinity was a bit low (no other major problems), did a water change and raised salinity a bit, and added extra carbon. I also noticed that the skimmer was still overactive, though I couldn't figure out the source. The next day while i was at work, my girlfriend called me, and sent me a video of my sump. The heater had broken in two and was sparking in the sump (I do have a grounding probe). I had her unplug everything and then pull the heater pieces out. When I got home I did another water change. This morning I did a third water change and added a polyfilter. It looks like all the SPS are dead or dying. Most of the LPS is 50/50. Two big lobos looked bad the first day but now seem like they'll live. All the fish seem fine. Clean-up crew is TBD, I'm just not sure where they even are yet. Needless to say, I'm pretty discouraged, and it was a frightening experience. I'm currently trying to decide whether / when to start again. I do have one question for the community (and obviously I'll accept your other constructive comments) -- if I decide to start over, especially with SPS, will the carbon, polyfilter, water changes, skimming, etc. be enough to remove whatever the heater put in to my tank (I'm assuming it leached some type of heavy metals, though I really have no idea) over time, or do I need to break the whole thing down, clean the tank, get new rock, and start all over?

 

[MatthewScars]

Buy new rocks and sand. Tank itself should be fine.

 

[Ziggy]

Sorry to hear that! It did happened to me!! Lost all of SPS some LPS from way over 120 different corals I was able to save about 20. Was no effect on fish but I did a lot of water changes in two weeks I did probably 450-500gallon in total.After couple of weeks started restocking tank again! Oh almost forgot don't buy glass heater again!

 

[KathyC]

If your fish are still in there and some coral are hanging in there, I would check the ammonia/nitrite level, and run some poly pads to see (the real ones, not just some blue foam) if they show there are any heavy metals in there. Changing out the carbon frequently will also help.

 

[edd]

i would think that your live stock died from stray current and whats inside heater. if that heater was sparking, their must of been a lot of current in that water. your lucky it was your corals and not you. when you do start up, put a ground fault. sorry for your lose.

 

[cthoughts1]

Wow, that that sounds like a horrible experience. I hope you bounce back and I'm glad nothing worse happened.

Ziggy, do you have any suggestions on a reliable heater?