costalot Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 Hi all, i am a new member here and have been learning new things here. Well new heater blew up in the sump. Got all the fish in to the qt tank All the corals die and cuc also. Going to get new sand sat. Change the water with fresh and add a cup of bleach and let that run for a day then change that water and add decorinater and run that for a day or two. Making a lot of new water now. Now my main question is what to do with live rock, will the toxins from the heater kill the rock to? Tank is 35 gallon hex with 20 gallon sump It has been set up for 6 months now Thank you for any help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 You probably did more harm with the bleach than just removing the heater. The only part of the heater that would be a concern would be the coils and wiring which could be an issue if they are made from copper. (Chances are they are not) If it's removed soon after it occurs then it shouldn't be an issue. FWIW, it's not uncommon for this to happen in the sump. It will occur if the water level drops too far letting the heater get hot and then it gets splashed with water. Be sure the heater is placed into an area that will always have a consistent level or get a submersible heater instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moto826 Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 it happned to me also but in my mixing garbage can and i pumped 20 gallons in the tank and lost $5000 in zoas so i went cold water for a few weeks till i found out i could not buy stuff lol but run carbon i got new rocks because of the copper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReeFit Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 what kind of heater was it? I only use titanium heaters, hopefully they are a little more prone to that happening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaticEngineer Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 it happned to me also but in my mixing garbage can and i pumped 20 gallons in the tank and lost $5000 in zoas so i went cold water for a few weeks till i found out i could not buy stuff lol but run carbon i got new rocks because of the copper Dont give up on the coldwater yet, I just got my bat stars and gorgonians the other day and they are awesome!! Not to mention I got strawberry nems for u if u want em Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 what kind of heater was it? I only use titanium heaters' date=' hopefully they are a little more prone to that happening.[/quote'] +1 on the titanium heaters. Beth kept breaking the glass ones and so far the Titanium one is going strong. We bought 2 more with the BRS group buy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael7979 Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 Been there! :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelhead77 Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 Just out of curiosity.....Why the heck would you run bleach in your tank because a heater blew up? Did someone tell you this was a good thing to do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
costalot Posted November 24, 2010 Author Share Posted November 24, 2010 You probably did more harm with the bleach than just removing the heater. The only part of the heater that would be a concern would be the coils and wiring which could be an issue if they are made from copper. (Chances are they are not) If it's removed soon after it occurs then it shouldn't be an issue. FWIW, it's not uncommon for this to happen in the sump. It will occur if the water level drops too far letting the heater get hot and then it gets splashed with water. Be sure the heater is placed into an area that will always have a consistent level or get a submersible heater instead. I haven’t put the bleach in. Was going too do this someone told me the it would remove the toxins. If not a good idea I won’t do it. Are you saying just clean the tanks and equipment and change the water? What about the live rock? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 I haven’t put the bleach in. Was going too do this someone told me the it would remove the toxins. If not a good idea I won’t do it. Are you saying just clean the tanks and equipment and change the water? What about the live rock? No it's not a good idea to sterilize it with bleach. Doing so will kill anything that's live. What toxins? Heaters are not like flourescent bulbs that are filled with gas. They have a heater coil (made with a sort of spring steel) and a thermostat (Often nothing more than a metal strip that bends away from a contact as it gets warm) and very little else (some ceramic to keep the coil in place). Before determining a course of action you first need to know what your cleaning up. The components generally found inside a heater are going to be made primarily from glass, ceramic, silicon, aluminum, steel of some sort for the coils, and possibly some brass or copper. (titanium if it's a titanium heater although I doubt this post would exist since titanium isn't going to shatter the way glass does when subjected to extreme temp. changes) If you have a picture of what is left post it up and I can give a better idea of what materials are used. The only material here I can think of that you really would need to worry about would be copper and only then if there was enough to leach into the water. Before it will do so though it will first need to corrode which doesn't happen too fast. Most likely not enough to make a difference in less than a few hours or even a few days. Especially considering that there will only be a very minimal amount of copper if any at all inside the heater. At the very most you might do a heavy water change however nothing you do will get the copper out of the live rock once it leaches into it if it has. Any further attempts than this to clean out toxins that probably don't even exist are more likely to do more harm than good. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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