Broken heater

[seege]

I walked into a house late last smelling of burnt plastic. My 135ga reef tank looked poisoned. The Zoas were all closed, the anchor,frogspawn and hammer corals were fully retracted and sliming, softies looked ok and my RBTA was on his rock but shriveled with mouth closed. Fish looked mostly normal, maybe a little agitated but still ate(at least the ones who woke-up) One of my heaters failed (Marineland Stealth Pro 200).

Strip tested for speed, no ammonia, 20+-nitrates, 0 nitrite, ph and alkaline normal.

I had 25 gallons of water on hand - but only enough salt to make 17 Ga. of seawater. I mixed it up and aerated for only a few minutes and made a quick change. Also changed carbon on the reactor and cleaned the skimmer and sock. Before I went to bed I noticed improvement in the Zoas and everyone else stayed the same. I also started the halides for a few hours to keep more heat in the tank overnight as my remaining heater wont make-it on a cool night.

Woke-up to 74 degree tank(78 normally), RBTA on the sand - mouth closed, hammers pulled way in and looking bad, softies now limp and retracted too.
Retested water all same - same

I have a 10 week old cycled 29 standing by with cuc but not much lighting. I made a decision that the worst-off inhabitants would be better-off in there and fished-out the anenome and the anchor. I found a t5 to put over that tank and thats where I stand.

My plan is to pick-up salt and a new heater this morning and do a big change.
Question is, how big? What else should I do today? Looks pretty bad for everyone but the fish:sad2:

 

[James404]

Sorry for your loss, yet another stealth pro kills a tank. I would run plenty of carbon and do some good 50% water changes over the course of a few days.

 

[preef]

This is the third Stealth failure in about a week discussed on RC.

Run a Polyfilter, carbon and do some big water changes.

 

[mcgyvr]

Quick break the glass, let some water spill on the floors then call Marineland.. From what I've heard they will pay for you tank, all inhabitants, new flooring,etc... just kidding please don't do that.. But do call Marineland as they will pony up some money to at least cover the cost of the heater and maybe more..

 

[seege]

Oh jeez you guys... are any of these corals going to come back? Noticed my brain and maze corals bleached in the last couple hours...

 

[preef]

Get a big water change going. If it looks bad I'd do 30-50%. More than likely your corals are bleaching from the toxic goo released by the heater rather than the drop in temperature. Stealths tend to split at the seam allowing water to reach the heating elements and corrode the metal. In some cases the plastic has melted into the water column. I'm not sure your corals will come back.

Your tank isn't the first to get nuked by a Stealth. It is very common with these heaters. So common in fact I'd like to see RC start a sticky thread on this topic. They are a ticking time bomb and a danger to the tank and reefkeeper.

I had one at one time and it was responsible for giving me a shock when my hand was in the tank and my arm touched my light fixture. I got rid of it before mine could nuke my tank.

Good luck.

 

[greech]

Really sorry to hear this. I hope your livestock makes a full recovery. I am really amazed how many of these are popping up. Marineland needs to step up and make things right for everyone and pull these things off the shelves. I for one won't be buying ANY marineland products.

 

[seege]

Thanks everyone. Here's a video of the heater. They really do explode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iugPmd6Y5VU

My lfs is closed today so it was back to Petco for another of the Stealth Pro's:thumbdown They said they'll store credit me when I bring back the original(I'll bring them both back). So I need 2 safe heaters in the 200-300
watt range. Any suggestions?

 

[Fishfish0001]

I use Rena Smart Heaters. Had no problems and they are pretty simple and they aren't glass or anything.

 

[greech]

+1 for the Renas. I have one on 2 separate tanks and they have done well for almost 2 years.

 

[The_Codfather]

Marineland won't do nothing unless people tell them whats going on

 

[James404]

Marineland won't do nothing unless people tell them whats going on

Many people have told marineland what is going on with these heaters, they have replaced tanks,livestock and flooring. They also say that it was only a problem with a few heaters that got sold sometime last year and all of the defective units have been taken off the shelves. I find this hard to believe since I bought one from petco in may and it has one of the defective lot numbers on it. This makes heater #3 in a week that we know of that has caused damage, just do a google search and you will see many many more.

 

[dread240]

I'd really like to see marineland do a campaign on these heaters honestly. They're a great company, but even great companies make mistakes here and there. Maybe at least give owners 20-40% of the purchase price of the heater towards a new one. It's the first time I've spoken in one, but I've seen at least 10 different posts on stealth heaters recently taking a crap and nuking tanks.

 

[hhaase]

After all of these threads, mine are coming out in the near future. They are 3 years old, and have been working flawlessly, but I'm just not going to take the chance. I can't even check if mine are part of the bad batches or not..... lot numbers are long gone.

-Hans

 

[grizwalt333]

gonna go get ride of mine right now.

c.

 

[preef]

Thanks everyone. Here's a video of the heater. They really do explode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iugPmd6Y5VU

My lfs is closed today so it was back to Petco for another of the Stealth Pro's:thumbdown They said they'll store credit me when I bring back the original(I'll bring them both back). So I need 2 safe heaters in the 200-300
watt range. Any suggestions?

Couldn't be happier with my Hdor Theos.

 

[The_Codfather]

Many people have told marineland what is going on with these heaters, they have replaced tanks,livestock and flooring. They also say that it was only a problem with a few heaters that got sold sometime last year and all of the defective units have been taken off the shelves. I find this hard to believe since I bought one from petco in may and it has one of the defective lot numbers on it. This makes heater #3 in a week that we know of that has caused damage, just do a google search and you will see many many more.

Oh i have seen the threads and just not on RC and yes 3 in a week so far

 

[zachfishman]

Sorry about your setback. I wouldn't be surprised if everything is fine though once you bring the temp back up. An early winter power outage a few years ago brought my 120 down into the sixties; didn't lose any coral (did lose a couple fish though).

 

[NCSUsalt]

got an emergency call from a maintenance client tonight, he went to run errands for 30 min. when he left everything was great, he got back and all fish in the tank were dead. got there and immediately smelled that acrid burnt electric/plastic smell. stealth split right on the side. odd thing is that his corals still looked great, and his 3 year old fire shrimp was out and about like nothing had happened. It did however kill a yellow tang and a purple tang that he bought in 1994 which he was very, very distraught over. out of 12 fish i was able to save a melanarus wrasse and a damsel. guess i won't be using any more stealths in maintenance tanks, also had one shock me in a tank a few weeks ago.

 

[preef]

That's 4 tanks nuked by a stealth this week. Sorry for the losses.