Advice please

[somosomo]

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated

So yesterday I came home from work and my tank looked ill. Xenia were shriveled up and not pulsing, duncan tentacles were thin, frogspawn was sucked in, galaxea looked dead, other LPS shrivelling..

I had changed the carbon and phosphate remover in my reactor on Saturday and added two part the day before. Thought maybe something was contaminated so I went to get salt to do a water change. Changed 25 gallons of water..( mid change one of the 5 gallon buckets I use for the old tank water somehow shattered while I was carrying it to the bathroom and water went all over the kitchen floor)...mid water change the breaker tripped and all the tank power shut off. After plugging things in one at a time I found out that my heater was bad-it tripped the breaker by itself. I removed from the tank and boy did it smell burnt ..This was when I noticed the temp was 83 ..which is 3-4 degrees higher than usual

No wonder the tank was not happy.
I changed the carbon out again ..but as of this morning things in the tank still looked bad..the fish seem unconcerned as well as the CUC but the coral looks bad..

Has this ever happened to anyone else local?
Is there anything else I can do besides further water changes /changing out carbon to remove anything that might have leached in from the broken heater? I also have cranked up the skimmer. Is the coral likely to recover ?

Could a failing heater explain receding colonies of zoos?

Temp 79-80
Ph 8.1
Alk 9
Calc 440
Am- 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20 ( before the change) I am assuming there must have been some die off of something because they are usually in the 0 -10ppm range

thanks
Nate

 

[swabe3618]

My heater recently went too. My tank is not looking good as well. I had to order another one and have it shipped next day...which took 3 days to arrive with the bad weather. My tank went from boiling to freezing. Fish are okay, coral not so good. It's tough to deal with i know that. Water Changes did nothing for my tank i know that. I have it running normal once again and im hoping things improve.

 

[rogersb]

I have had my tank in the upper 80's and had everything recover. On the low end it went to near 70 and also recovered. I have read many times on here from the mods that mortality occurs at extended periods in the lower 60's, so if you're not in that range for extended periods you should be ok. I have also seen bertoni say many times that 80 is on the low end for a reef and that 82 would be a much closer average for our animals. That said, it might not be the temp that was bothering the coral but something from the heater burning that has upset your coral.

 

[somosomo]

Thanks for the responses..
I was not worried about the temperature spike so much as what might have leached into the tank from the heater malfunctioning. I have had the tank overheat once before while on vacation and our AC was shut off by the person watching the house to save electricity in late August. It really did not affect things much long term. This was different so at this point I am assuming something toxic to the coral leaked when the heater went.

Initially I thought it was something else then the heater which is why I did the water change and changed the carbon.

I guess I will have to wait and see how things are when I get home from work today...

 

[swabe3618]

I had a different issue. I was gone for a few days and when i returned i noticed the water temp was pushing 92 degrees. I dont know for how long but i found the problem to be a faulty thermostat on my heater. Now my corals have white tips and moy zoas are about half open. My green mille has little to none polyp extension. I really hope it makes a recovery as i do not know what else to do. What is weird is i also have a algae bloom that i can not explain.

 

[Ricunger]

If the heater smelled burnt it would be leaching some vapors underwater... i know it sounds weird but the fault of the heater will do that. I always use a titanium heater so a majority of the parts are kept out of water. I'm sure with some solid water changes it will come back.

 

[Phil125]

I think If you've been in this hobby long enough you'll experience a runaway heater eventually. It is very common. And it doesn't matter the brand. I have had high end heaters do it.

 

[Sanjay]

Water changes and carbon will do it. There is most likely some stress from what ever the heater leached out and the temp swing. Most stuff will recover.

I never run a heater without a RANCO controller. Gives you an extra level of control and is a lot more reliable.

sanjay.

 

[somosomo]

Thanks for the help guys. Sanjay I will look into the Ranco controller.
I plan on doing another water change tomorrow evening.

I will be buying a new 300 watt + heater this weekend. Any recommendations?

 

[lflint]

Was your heater a VisiTherm Stealth? I had three of these heaters fail and Marineland replaced them for me with the Stealth Pro model.

 

[tbundy]

+1 on that. I had one fail within 2 weeks of purchase and the upgraded not only to pro but also from 200 to 300 watt

Was your heater a VisiTherm Stealth? I had three of these heaters fail and Marineland replaced them for me with the Stealth Pro model.

 

[somosomo]

Yes It was A Visi-therm stealth..but it was 6 or 7 years old. I think I have had it almost since I started in 2003. I couldnt even begin to imagine where the warranty / paperwork is at this point...

 

[apt220]

My recommendation is to go titanium. My Via Aquas are great.