So I just got back from a few months of travel, and my wife had been taking care of my tank. She did a great job (showed her all the tests etc), but I decided to go ahead, and do a 5 gallon change on my BC, and clean everything up. well I took my heater out, did the change, everything went fine. put the heater back in, and we went to dinner. I came back, and my hammer coral was completely closed up. NEVER has it EVER closed up like this before. My clown's were fine, but the water was a little cloudy. started looking around, and I smelled like a burnt rubber/chemical smell coming from the back of the tank. So I took a closer look, and the heater had snapped, and melted. the glass had actually melted and the contents from the heater looks to have spilled into the tank. I had some new water already made, so I immediately did a 10 gallon change. tested the parameters, and everything looks fine, but the coral is still buttoned up tight as can be. I'm guessing the heater threw out some toxic crap, but my clowns are fine, and my CB is fine, and my CUC is fine. the coral is just locked down. am I completely screwed? is this thing dead now? what should I do? should I do another 10 gallon change?> I'm worried that if I change another 10 gallons I'll have a mini cycle, and put even more stress on the inhabitants. send me your thoughts. Thanks all
HELP!!!! Heater Broke!
- Thread starter rhino31
- Start date
nightfire76
Active Member
do some big water changes if you can, you wont have another cycle go on unless you start exposing your live rock and such that havelife on it to the air and back into water.....not sure how your tank is set up or how big it is...sorry i cant be of more help....things should be fine...corals recover from alot of crap thrown at them from us...good and bad
I hate to see you dump good media. Maybe just replace the CPE and keep the purigen. The CPE has a lot of carbon in it, plus other things that might absorb toxics. I'm not sure if a Purigen replacement is needed, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to replace that as well. Hopefully the hammer will be fine.
I want to say yes, so I'm going to say yes, but it's still buttoned up pretty tight. it is STARTING to open up, and the ammonia levels are not rising, so I am taking that as a good sign. I'll let you know what happens. no more casualties though, so things look promising @ this point