My nanos been wiped out :(

[fishfingers]

Man am I pissed....

Came home today to find my nano completely destroyed. Inverts, corals and my favourite fish, my purple firefish, all dead. At first I thought my caulerpra had gone sexual, on closer inspection I noticed my heater had exploded, leaking whatever stuff was in it all throughout the tankI'm guessing everything was killed instantly when the elecricity ran through the water. This tanks been running for about a year, and it was my favourite tank. It sucks so bad . Sigh, so I'm guessing coz of the heater leakage that the live rock will be buggered and I have to start over again from scratch. Any suggestions would be greatly appreaciated...

EDIT: Pulled the wrong plug out, got the powerhead instead of my heater >.< and just saw the heater give a little pop and flash then....lucky I did't have my hand in the tank. It's off now though.

[Reefneck]

I've had many heaters crack and/or blow out and never lost anything. I've also had stray voltage in tanks and never had anything harmed. all this was in 55G or larger tanks.

This is an example of a small problem causing a large problem in a small tank.

Sorry for your losses. When/If you start over, Go larger.

[fishfingers]

Thanks for your condolences. I didn't think anything severe happened if heater blew either, but this was literally in pieces and gunk was everywhere so I guess I proved myself wrong.

I'm in the process of setting up a 4ft tank, and I've been running a 3ft tank for a couple of years. My nano was just my tank filled with corals I'd collected/fragged over the year and a place for my firefish to have all to himself. Still, it was my favourite. I'll be setting it up again in due time, I think nano tanks are a lot more fun and rewarding than bigger tanks.

[StarLab]

Had this happen in a piranha tank once. Thankfully all the tanks are on GFI's (Ground fault interrupters) which killed the power immediately. (Nasty guy bit into the heater while chasing his food! Watched him do it!)

Bummer about your loss. Unfortunately salt water is an excellent conductor.

[Bear]

what brand of heater was this?

[fishfingers]

Originally Posted by StarLab

Had this happen in a piranha tank once. Thankfully all the tanks are on GFI's (Ground fault interrupters) which killed the power immediately. (Nasty guy bit into the heater while chasing his food! Watched him do it!)

That would have be been a good scare. I would of thought the power would of been cut off when the heater exploded, but it hadn't gone off all day and did't go off when the heater turned on the second time :/

Originally Posted by Bear

what brand of heater was this?

It wasn't a known brand, and I got the whole tank set up secondhand off a club member. So really I probably brought it on myself, but as I said I didn't think it was that big a deal if heaters went bust.

[Bear]

I guess that's just something that comes along with a nano. How big was it?

[leveldrummer]

that sure sucks, but it seems you only lost frags, and the one fish, could have been alot worse, your tank could have shorted out the whole house and burnt it all to the ground. so look on the bright side, chin up, and rebuild.

[fishfingers]

Originally Posted by leveldrummer

that sure sucks, but it seems you only lost frags, and the one fish, could have been alot worse, your tank could have shorted out the whole house and burnt it all to the ground. so look on the bright side, chin up, and rebuild.

Some of those frags were 1 year old though. But your right, I did get off lucky when you think of it that way.

However, my when I got up this morning I found my coral beauty dead in my 3ft. All my parameters were ok, nitrates were a little high but I don't think they would have brought on such an abrubt death. The only thing I think that could have caused it is that the fumes from the heater have made it into my other tanks water (I was running air con when the heater blew and it really stunk). The CB was doing fine before this happened. So atm I've been left tankless from one lousy heater breaking. I'm quite upset about the coral beauty because he was my first fish, I've had him for about two years.

I'm wondering if the liverock in my 3ft tank will be ok, or if it will be destroyed like the LR in my nano. I'm running carbon to try and get the toxins out of the water, but I'm not sure if this will make my LR safe to use again.

[(RC)]

A broken heater does normally kill the power because there is not ground on the heater or on most tanks. That's why a GFCI is always a good idea.
What came out of the heater ? I've broken many heaters and never had anything come out of hang on the back or submersibles.


RC

[Bear]

hows everything doing in the 3ft?

[TheOldSalt]

RC, there are some new heaters on the market lately which have some coaldust-looking stuff in them packed around the coils. I'm not really sure of it's purpose, but I think it's ironically there to more evenly distribute the heat and prevent breakage.

[fishfingers]

Originally Posted by (RC)

A broken heater does normally kill the power because there is not ground on the heater or on most tanks. That's why a GFCI is always a good idea.
What came out of the heater ? I've broken many heaters and never had anything come out of hang on the back or submersibles.RC

I'm not sure, it look like black clouds coming out of the heater. However I only got a chance to look at it hours after it happens.

Originally Posted by Bear

hows everything doing in the 3ft?

The inverts are ok, however my only remaining coral since my 3ft's crash died. Other than that my tanks started going through a massive cyano bloom.

[Bear]

wow

muddy waters, keep treadin it'l get better

[fishfingers]

Yeah, the positive thing out of this is that I can really focus on my 4ft, I'll be sure now to make sure every little detail is worked out so most problems from carlessness can be avoided.

I'll be beginning to cook my LR soon so the state of my 3ft tank doesn't mean much to me as I'l be stripping it down.