Heater exploded while cooking LR

Discussion in 'Live Rock' started by saz125g, Jan 10, 2012.

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  1. chumslickjon

    chumslickjon Purple Spiny Lobster

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    It's not litterely cooking the rock. That term is thrown around as reefer slang.
     
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  3. khowst

    khowst Bangghai Cardinal

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    Yes, I am completely aware of that.

    However the intent of the 'cooking' the rock is to heat it enough to basically steralize it. Meaning you kill off the algae, bacteria, etc etc.

    So I am trying to clarify & figure out what the OP was doing, as the rock wasnt being cooked at all. More like the heater was being maxed & blew up. Lucky there wasnt a fire involved.
     
  4. saz125g

    saz125g Astrea Snail

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    Yeah we were happy we were home to unplug it after the cord was severed.

    Bump....any other ideas about whether the rock is ok if I cure it long enough? I really need some advice here.
     
  5. thepanfish

    thepanfish Flying Squid

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    Yes, Chinadmantium. ::)
    LOL
     
  6. saz125g

    saz125g Astrea Snail

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    Bump!!!
     
  7. Caspian

    Caspian Coral Banded Shrimp

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    It's hard to say, you could try curing it the normal way, you could Soak it in vinegar the acid will basically kill Everything in the rocks and you'll have decorative stones. It's a risk since heaters can have copper elements, and if enough of it fragmented or was powdered it could have just coated everything, as for the oily substance it could be a form of ballancing solution put in the heater so that it wouldn't explode or over heat too far which clearly didn't save it. Or just a lubricant or machine oil? Hard to say. If the heater was a solid black tube with a little LED light that changed from green to red depending if the heater was on it was a Stealth pro heater which was recalled for that verry explosive reason. IF so Contact marineland and see if the'll pay for dammages and maybe some live rock. I had one of their VISI-therm heaters fail on me and i'm in the process of contacting them my self about lost stock.

    Lost several fish and all of my corals the water dropped to 55 degrees...
     
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  9. Crimson Ghost

    Crimson Ghost Blue Ringed Angel

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  10. m2434

    m2434 Giant Squid

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    There can be copper and other metals released. If exposed long enough, these can bind to the rock and slowly release back into the water. The way to remove them is to dip the rock in a muriatic acid bath. You can search the internet for the procedure, I don't have it handy. It may be fine without it though, it depends how long it was exposed and such.
     
  11. MickyB

    MickyB Astrea Snail

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    Surely all, of the bleaching etc is over kill? wouldn't just soaking the rock in fresh water would kill all marine life pretty quickly.

    You couldn't take a piece of LR from your reef and put it in your fresh water tank and expect it to carry on, everything would die.

    When red Cyno on it dropped into fresh water it disolves and turns the water red and baking soda wont neutralise chlorine, surely a good dose of a strong dechlorinator like you would use on a pond would be much better? or am I missing something?

    I'm not criticising the way you guys do things but just trying to get a clearer understanding of why.
     
  12. Crimson Ghost

    Crimson Ghost Blue Ringed Angel

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    Hi M2434 - I didn't know that there was potencial for Copper to be in there .... didn't even consider it. Thank you for posting that - I learn something new every day ! I love the experiance and knowledge of our members !!