Heater exploded

[cvonseggern]

The cheap glass heater in my mantis nanocube exploded a few minutes ago - Deb was in the room and said she heard a pop, followed by smoke coming out the vents. She unplugged everything and called me - when I got there to take a look the heater was shattered and there was a bunch of dark film floating on the surface of the sump. I pulled out the heater and all the parts I could find, but I don't know what may have gotten into the water. What's inside a heater?

I'm running a healthy sockfull of carbon and can do some big water changes quickly if need be. What should I be concerned about?

Chris

[jroescher]

I don't know much about what those heaters are made of, but I would guess what you see is oxidation from the metal heating coils when they came in contact with the salt water. Red hot and full of electricity.

[cbianco]

I personally would be most concerned with glass shards in the aquarium. Running a carbon sock doesn't sound like it would hurt anything.

Christopher

[brewercm]

Probably your best bet is to do a good water change, run carbon and see how your shrimp is doing. Most likely if he is still alive he should do fine, I'm surprised that in a nano that it didn't get shocked when this happened. Do you have a grounding probe on the tank, and have you seen if it's still alive today?
Them little dudes can live through just about anything though, as many of us know. :angry