broken heater - bad shape

[nyisles016]

Hi all,

Came home to a cloudy tank - result of a heater that exploded in the sump. Heater coil was still live and was sparking slightly. Running carbon and going through 5 gal water changes as quickly as I can make it. Everything is looking pretty bleached at this point. Anyone with experience with this? What am I looking at?

Am I looking at issues due to the stray voltage that the broken heater was leaking or am I dealing with chemicals that leaked from the heater?

Thanks in advance,
Ryan

 

[preef]

I'm betting this is a Marineland Stealth heater.

You're looking at metals and chemicals from the melting plastic released into your water. Lots of water changes,lots of carbon, Polyfilter is about all you can do. Stay away from Stealth heaters or similarly constructed plastic molded heaters.

Lots of threads about Stealth heaters exploding.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1918585&highlight=stealth+heater+explode

 

[mike_cmu04]

I had this happen a while ago to me. I found out it was broke because i was shocked when working in the sump. I did a 20% water change and there were no negative effects in my tank.

 

[nyisles016]

Thanks for the replies. Everything is pretty bleached. Will continue with polyfilters, carbon, and WC's for a bit.

 

[preef]

Was it a Stealth heater?

 

[nyisles016]

visa-therm

 

[preef]

visa-therm

I stand corrected. First one of those I heard of failing this way. Hope it all works out for you.

 

[Palting]

Dang. I got both stealth and visa-therm. Winter is here, too.

Good luck. Can't think of anything else to add.

 

[Tracey2]

I had a stealth explode made in China, I don't think the ones made in Italy are a problem.