heater breaks corals dying

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68551

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Woke up at 3:30 AM 2 weeks ago I smelled burning electric.....Just knew it was the tank, the water smelled like burnt electric....Scared to touch anything for fear of getting zapped. All systems were on & running normally....Looked in the sump and noticed one of the heaters sparking under water....Unplugged & removed the heater & where the dial for the temp is adjusted had created a leak allowing water to get inside the heater creating a short....
Everything looked normal in the tank. Fish ok, checked parameters all normal ranges, did 2 water changes within a week but corals were already decling with carbon & purigen in sump....birdsnest coral was almost 1 foot long lost zooanthelite & turned white, same with plating montipora & acropa....Everything just slowlyturned white & strings of loosing aooantehlite comming from sps. Dendrophyllium stayed closed for 2 weeks finall just starting to open back up....Green star polyps look like nothing ever happened...Red mushrooms are 1/8 their normal size & all of the rock & corals have air bubbles on them....
Nitrates 0
phosphate <.25 (somewhat typical even before the problem)
Alk 8.5
ph 8.0
calcium 400

Whatever is in my tank is not being detected from the test kits
clam looks great
cheato in the sump going crazy
looks like diatoms all over the sand

Any advice????
 
Ride it out...

I'm guessing everything is in shock from a possible raise in temp in the tank when the heater broke?

Sharp temp rise can kill (and did when my heater broke way back) most fish and corals...

Chaeto going crazy indicates excess nitrates or other nutrients in the system.

But if you actually smell 'burnt electric components' from the water... Then whatever it is is most probably not going to be detected by any of our hobby test kits... probably some Rare Earth Element (heavy metals) or other crazy polymer or something.

In that case the more water changes the better!

Get that stuff out of there physically!

The SPS spewing and bleaching says to me that something in the water quality is off... Corals tend to eject their zoanthellae when under duress.. good news is I've read that not all are ejected typically... <- possible to have that small remaining population re-inhabit the coral = coral might live...
 
No rise in temp occured....Temp was 81 when I pulled the plug & the other heater that I have in the tank took over....Since I keep temps @ 79 it went no higher than when the mh are on...Besides I have a Reefkeeper 2 that turns off the heaters it temps rise above 82.5...The zooanthelite stinks...I keep skimming it off the water with a screen. My skimmate has never smelled so bad & it is slightly more volume than usual plus I set it to skim wetter to try to pull out the unknowns that are causing the problems....Should I keep any corals loosing zooanthelite out of the tank or keep up water changes & skimming & hope part of them redevelopes its zooanthelite....My tank looks like when it was new with diatoms on the sand & rock !!!
Ps....What about all of the micro bubbles on the rocks & on the zooanthelite coming off of the corals....I have been turkey blasting it???....What a mess a $30 heater can cause!!!
 
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Well so you know its not heat...

In that case assume it was some sort of pollutant from the heater itself.

Assume that it might not be removed by the skimmer and go with water changes.


If something bad did get into the water, it might have caused a small die-off (of bacteria, critters, etc) that could be fueling the spike in nutrients/organic waste resulting in excess chaeto growth and crazy skimming like you mentioned.

Keep up with the water changes (I'd up them from your normal routine until you get that original water out of the system). Remember each water change is divisible, so 2x50% water changes is not 100% of the water changed...

Blow off the bubbles from your rock (might be by-product of nuisance algae starting from the nutrient spike) but try not to turkey baste the corals, I'd let them do their thing, not move them (or put them under any additional stress) and just hope that they come back...

You can 'reef dip' the corals to seal tissue if necrotic (dead) tissue starts spreading.

With this many indicators... expect your bacteria population to have dwindled, try to go light on feedings, and dose live bacteria if you have any or your lfs does (can't hurt)...
 
It's interesting that you report more skimmate. I've read this before in another case of a broken heater. Did the color of the skimmate happen to change too?

If you have a LFS that carries Poly-Filter, put that in your tank. It'll change color according to what metal, etc. it pulls out of the water.

One of these days I'm going to break a heater to find out what the skimmer is pulling out.
 
Yes! It's probably a die off caused by the tank getting juiced. That should have occurred to me sooner.
 
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I forgot all about poly filter....I used to have a bunch of them, just looked & of course they are all gone....Skimmate was very dark brown almost black!!! I should have known, the tank was giving me a mild shock when I had my hands incertain spots with the long stainless steel tweezers I have. The last time that happened it didn't take long before one of my other heaters failed a few years back...
 
Could it be Ozone?
Doesn't electricity passing threw the water in the atmosphere creat ozone? I know that's how you make hydrogen.. Pass electricity threw water and bam!! Hydrogen and oxygen. Maybe the arcing in the heater was creating ozone in the air in the heater and that got into the water, ozone will kill pretty much everything.

If there is a contaminant you NEED to step up the carbon!! At least set up a HOB and run filter packs with carbon in them and change them daily.
 
Saltydrip said:
Could it be Ozone?
Doesn't electricity passing threw the water in the atmosphere creat ozone? I know that's how you make hydrogen.. Pass electricity threw water and bam!! Hydrogen and oxygen. Maybe the arcing in the heater was creating ozone in the air in the heater and that got into the water, ozone will kill pretty much everything.

If there is a contaminant you NEED to step up the carbon!! At least set up a HOB and run filter packs with carbon in them and change them daily.
Click to expand...

Great thought!

I knew its used industrially, and they also use it to purify drinking water in some cases (but not a good long term solution as its cancer-causing)... a quick search and I found this...

Wikipedia:

Incidental creation: Electrolytic
Electrolytic ozone generation (EOG) splits water molecules into H2, O2, and O3. In most EOG methods, the hydrogen gas will be removed to leave oxygen and ozone as the only reaction products. Therefore, EOG can achieve higher dissolution in water without other competing gases found in corona discharge method, such as nitrogen gases present in ambient air. This method of generation can achieve concentrations of 20"“30% and is independent of air quality because water is used as the starting substrate.

...

Aquaculture
Ozone can be used in aquaculture to facilitate organic breakdown. It is added to recirculating systems to reduce nitrite levels[71] through conversion into nitrate. If nitrite levels in the water are high, nitrites will also accumulate in the blood and tissues of fish, where it interferes with oxygen transport (it causes oxidation of the heme-group of haemoglobin from ferrous (Fe2+) to ferric (Fe3+), making haemoglobin unable to bind O2[72]). Despite these apparent positive effects, ozone use in recirculation systems has been linked to reducing the level of bioavailable iodine in salt water systems, resulting in iodine deficiency symptoms such as goitre and decreased growth in Senegalese sole (Solea senegalensis) larvae.[73]

Ozonate seawater is used for surface disinfection of haddock and Atlantic halibut eggs against nodavirus. Nodavirus is a lethal and vertically transmitted virus which causes severe mortality in fish. Haddock eggs should not be treated with high ozone level as eggs so treated did not hatch and died after 3"“4 days
Click to expand...


Could be a cause.

Either way...

Water Changes!

:beer:
 
Don't know what is going on, but very interested in the cause. I had a similar issue very recently and posted this in the equipment forum (but never got a response):

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2253585

In my case it was definitely not the voltage since it occurred in my separate Brute container. I suspected some sort of metal poisoning only because I couldn't pin it down to anything else. My only casualties a week later is one mushroom and my xenia does not look good, though slowly getting better. Also, my skimmer was working overtime and pulled a lot of something out of the water.
 
Now to make it even more fun the main return pump stopped working while I was at work while it continued to overheat & send the temp in the sump up to 88....I have a hawkfish that survived it but who knows what happened to all my critters in the fuge. last night my clam spawned from all the stress & i have done more water changes....Can't believe how 2s make 3s!!!
 
shonc182 said:
Don't know what is going on, but very interested in the cause. I had a similar issue very recently and posted this in the equipment forum (but never got a response):

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2253585

In my case it was definitely not the voltage since it occurred in my separate Brute container. I suspected some sort of metal poisoning only because I couldn't pin it down to anything else. My only casualties a week later is one mushroom and my xenia does not look good, though slowly getting better. Also, my skimmer was working overtime and pulled a lot of something out of the water.
Click to expand...

I can't believe noone answered any of your posts....I am sure you & I aren't the only ones this happened to!!! You are correct about the unknown metal...None of my regular test kits detect anything off....My fish also are fine...My Scolomia (sp) has lost part of its tissue & there is a big bare spot with "bones" showing but the rest of it appears to be trying to send out feeder tentacles like it usually does at night but they aren't coming out enough to feed....This just sucks
 
Saltydrip said:
I would just keep changing water as fast as you can. Maybe a 50% change.

What are you doing or have you done so far??
Click to expand...

MANY water changes, charcoal, skimming dead zooanthelite off top of tank after blowing it off with a turkey baster, blasting air bubbles on rock with turkey baster, purigen and very wet skimming slowing of feeding tank
 
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