Heater exploded and killed my fish!

[smoknreefrs]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6506184#post6506184 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dt90gt
I used ebo jager heaters my entire life, except I can't anymore since someone bought the company and they are NO LONGER fully submersible!!! Such a pia since I bought one from fostersmith and read the heater and it had a water line?!? SO I called up fostersmith and they said that they changed the heaters. Kinda sucks since I had their heaters for the past like 15 years and never had an issue. Now I am going with someother heater they sell which is submersible.

the EBO's are certainly submersible, and the line on the EBO is the minimum water level meaning it should be in the water at least to height that marked on the heater.... and the new company that bought them is not so new at all, its EHEIM, so the quality is still there

 

[dt90gt]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6506237#post6506237 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sds
the water line is a minimum on the ebo. I have 3 running fully submersed and working fine

Hmm I must have been confused by the statment written over the waterlevel line that says:

"Do not immerse beyond waterlevel"

Now maybe Kabong is right, maybe not, but according to what is written on the heater, it is not submersible. I'm not saying it will break underwater, just that eheim says it should not be full submerged.

 

[ga_reefer_guy]

Sorry to hear about your loss

 

[Saaack]

The first thing you need to do is install a GFI. It would have tripped immediatly after your heater failure. A surge protector is so lightning does blow up your electrics. Buy a titanium heater; no glass to break. When glass heaters crack, they fill with water and presto! 110 volts right into you tank. Won Brothers makes a fully submerible titanium heater, the temp control is part of the wall plug.

 

[Bandsaw]

Just to add to what Saaack said. The difference between a GFI and a surge supressor is one protects a device from over voltage while the other protects other than the device from stray current (Did I just say that )

In essance, a GFI watches the current leaving the one side of the plug and the current returning to the plug. If it differs, it trips on the assumption that the current is going someplace else - like you, your fish, your pets, etc, etc.

Hope this helps - even a bit :confused

 

[Anemonebuff]

My Won titanium with LCD display is very Constant.

 

[JimR]

I ordered my Jager heaters from bigalsonline.com. When they arrived, I noticed the waterline also. I called bigals and talk to a supervisor. I was informed that is only there due to canadian laws of some sort. I have both my 300 watters fully submerged now, over a year. No problem.

 

[friendtothefish]

"My Won titanium with LCD display is very Constant."


I have that one too, and it is amazing. In my 29 gal I have a marineland and Im a bit scared now. I had never heard of this happening before...I just might get a nother titanium.

Sorry for your loss.

 

[11fishes]

ive got an ebo also but its like from the 80's no joke and fortunatley no proplems but thats cuz its an ebo yeah! oh! sorry for the loss my friend

 

[williamkeren]

heater trouble

heater trouble

I am glad I read this. My glass heater shorted out and cracked. The next day all my corals were in major distress. I thought it was the temperature drop that did it. Never occurred to me it was the chemical leak from the heater. After two weeks of water changes, new Chemi pure charcoal and filter changes all my corals have come back strong. No loss. Funny but the only coral that showed no problems was my blastamusus (sp) Fish showed no distress at all.

Thanks

 

[briddellm]

I now have a heater that is made by Marineland that is shatterproof thermoplastic. It's all my LFS had. I'll look into a GFI - thanks for the suggestion. I have changed the water and put a new chemi-sorb pad and some Chemi pure in. Thanks for the kind thoughts!

 

[eleodes]

that's a drag that your fish got killed.

i had a similar experience just a couple of days ago with some laboratory sea urchins that got nuked after they chewed through a filter wire. the GFCI did not trip and the current ran through the tank for who knows how long. in addition to the GFCI, it is also important to have a ground--that is the reason that the device did not trip for me. i am going to get some of those titanium ground probes for each tank.

the exposed wire in the uirchin tank had some kind of electrical reaction with the water and was eaten through. i tested the water and got measurable copper, so i had to throw out all of the sand and rocks too.

i have Theo Hydor heaters in all of my tanks (one of the more expensive submersible glass heaters) but i have recently had two of them burn out (without damage to tanks). i think that i am going to upgrade to titanium heaters for everything.

so many of these submersible appliances are just real chincy and cheap.

 

[Swanwillow]

ok everyone-calm down!!!!

out of how many people using glass heaters-you hear of this what? once a year-out of thousands, if not millions!!!

don't worry too much about them exploding. Its kinda like finding a hitch-hiking neon green (insert your favorite type of coral). Very slim chance of it happening, but ya never know...

 

[sloshesv]

Is this GFI thingamajiggy something that's as easy as plugging in a surge protector? williamk, my blasto was the only coral that came through the Wilma fiasco with out missing a beat. Cold, dark water and it looked happy as can be.

 

[PsychoKnight]

"Do Not Immerse Beyond Waterlevel" ?
That KINDA sucks! The manufacturer made only a slight change to their product description from the previous model, they added three words "Completely submersible TO WATER LEVEL."
What the H kind of upgrade is that, for a heater line that's been around since around 1980?

Does the Visi-Therm Stealth have an indicator light? I use two or three smaller heaters instead of a single-sufficient heater and its going to be hard to know which one is on when I try to match their temps if it doesn't have an indicator light.

 

[masson]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6507151#post6507151 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Anemonebuff
My Won titanium with LCD display is very Constant.

Mine said my tank was 80 degrees everytime I looked , Even when it was 86. Are you keeping track with another thermometer?

 

[coralnut99]

I've had two similar incidents with exactly opposite results. A glass vistherm cracked in my 125 last year. Couldn't say how long it was cracked, but I remember unplugging it to pull the return pump out of the sump, and most of the tube remained. In pieces. No livestock lost. The more recent episode scared me a bit more. Went to pull an asterina star out of the refugium on my 75, and I got zapped real good just as I made contact with the water. With everything else functioning perfectly, the heater was my first guess. I unplugged it, and pulled it out. As I pulled it, I realized the tube stayed behind.........intact!!! The whole element had seperated from the tube, and water had seeped in. Again, no livestock lost at all, and I can't say how long the condition existed. I wonder what saved all of my livestock?
I was going to buy one of the aquamedic titanium units with the controller this past w/e but the LFS was sold out of the 500W unit.

 

[Bandsaw]

sloshesv, to answer your question. I have never seen an extention cord or power bar or octopus or what ever kind of GFI that plugs into a standard recepticle. Then again, I have never had reason to look for one.

Get a streight GFI recepticle and replace the one in the wall (after you turn the power off!!). If you are uncomfortable doing electrical work or if local bylaws forbid it, best have an electrician do the work.

If your recepticle that you are using is part of a chain of plug in, install the GFI at the first recepticle in the loop folling the instructions with the GFI. That way, all the plug ins on that loop will be protected.

 

[reverendmaynard]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6511810#post6511810 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by PsychoKnight
Does the Visi-Therm Stealth have an indicator light? I use two or three smaller heaters instead of a single-sufficient heater and its going to be hard to know which one is on when I try to match their temps if it doesn't have an indicator light.

No it doesn't. It does however have a pretty accurate thermostat from my experience. Set it to 80, you get 80. I like it better than any of my previous glass ones. Side by side, like when I was using totes to house my LR in my cold basement, it was able to keep the water temp better than a cheap glass one that was more wattage.

You could put them in 5 gallon buckets and see what temps you get. That should tell you pretty accurately what the thermostat calibration is like.

Considering their about the same price as the glass ones (at least at dr fosters), I wouldn't buy a glass one again.

 

[Amphiprion]

Go with one of the Ebo Jager heaters. GFIs work well, but they don't ALWAYS work . At one point, some contractors plugged some huge machine into our outdoor plugs (which, by poor wiring, was connected to one of the indoor circuits). The amperage was exceeded (but the breaker did not flip) and the surge somehow overrided the GFI. The surge then caused my heater's thermostatic contacts to weld together, leaving the heater on constantly. The water was over 100 degrees. Fortunately, the tank did recover... years later, though.