Heater blew-up

My heater cracked and spewed its toxic liquid into my perfectly happy reef tank. It killed or severely wounded EVERYTHING!

My fish store says: throw away everything -- including my sand and live rock, and start completely from scratch!

Before, doing that though, I completely drained the tank, cleaned he filter and refilled with new salt water. And after about 24 hours, a few mushrooms, zoas, polyps, one cauliflower and one leather coral are showing signs of life.

However, I can still smell the noxious odor of whatever the substance was from the failed heater and other corals are clearly still dying.

Do y'all think I should do as the fish store recommend and give up on my survivors?

Thanks in advance,

 

Well.....this is just an educated guess here....but I think the LFS overreacted. I don't think you have to throw everything away. You did a complete 100% water change. During this time, at the very least, I would run a carbon reactor 24/7. If you do not have one, I would get one. You should be running carbon anyway. The smell is electrical in nature and hangs around for days.

At the worst, I think the rock and sand could be treated, washed and used again. You would be starting from square one, but that is OK too. You could get a 20g long to keep what corals you have living with some of the original LR (I would go barebottom on the 20g if you go this route). It would act as a holding tank until your DT got up to speed again. You wouldn't need a skimmer in a tank that small with a bioload that light. Just keep up on the water changes.

Good luck man. Check out your other equipement also. I found that with my old setup, when one of the PHs went, it turned out all the PHs were due to be changed out and upgraded. I upgraded the heater at the same time.

 

Thank you!!!!!! The backup 20g is a GREAT idea!!!

The contaminant though is chemical, not electrical. I think the heater had some kind of dielectric or heat transfer medium. It smelled like a solvent and left an oily film on the surface. The odor made me physically sick! It also killed my fish, shrimp and invertabrates in a matter of minutes!

And I don't know what a carbon reactor is? Is it the bag of "black stuff" you put in the filter cannister? Also, what's DT? Googled it, but found nothing that relates...


Thank you again!!!!

 

man..i wouldnt be a happy man if that happend to me..lol..

 

yeah, carbon is the black filter media in your canister filter, and sorry for such a big loss. Next time try shatterproof heaters, or a real thick one.

 

So sorry for your misfortune. What caused it to break? Anyways, a "DT" is a display tank; your main tank. While the 20 gallon would be "behind the scenes" so to speak.

The bag of black stuff is simply activated carbon that is placed inside the filter to absorb chemicals in the water. But a carbon reactor Aquarium Chemical Filter Media Reactor: ViaAqua Poly-Reactor Multi-Media Reactor is an external cylinder that runs ONLY carbon. AND LOTS OF IT! The idea behind this is that by running so much carbon, you would have more chances in removing the tiny trace amounts of the toxin that is still attached to the glass and filter, even after you clean it. (Kinda like how silicates leach from new equipment even though they are clean, thus you still have a diatom bloom) and would be much more efficient than running a small bag of carbon.

Hope this helps.

 

Hmmmm. Chemical. Well. I honestly don't know what the correct coarse of action would be. How much rock do you have?

 

Wow. That sucks Sorry to hear that dude. Id consider getting one of those titanium heaters, or maybe an inline heater next time.

Nobody ever suspects the heater duh duh duuuuuuuuh!

 

if you rince everything and treat it then it should be fine,
as for the LFS saying you need to get rid of everything, well i hate to say it but in there world bussiness is bussiness and you are money and ontop of you spending money at there store they are covered if something goes further wrong but go with your instinct. and if you can keep stuff to re use then re use it.

i had a heater blow up in on of my tanks once every thing was killed except for a PJ cardinal but i didnt throw out any rock of sand and the same tank is still going fine

 

Yeah, just run carbon and try to get the oily stuff out with a paper towel, assuming it is on the surface of the water. Also, do a 25% water change, get some cuprisorb as well to absorb any heavy metals that may have been released.
I second going with a high quality heater, either titanium or inline. Personally, I have Eheim heaters that are very reliable.