911-Need help ASAP

[verynewatthis]

Woke up this morning.

My atinics are on and every coral in my tank has its polyps sucked in, the clam and flaming scallop are closed tight, and all my snails are upside down. NO3 is at 25 and NO2 is at 0. Water temp is at 78 degrees. The fish are swimming around and seem fine. Please help........

[verynewatthis]

Well, I found the cause...My heater exploded in the middle of the night. So, I don't know if everything is mad because it got shocked or if there are contaminants in my tank now...Any ideas?

Is everything going to die?

[andysgr]

I'm not sure what is wrong but my response would likely be to run carbon and do a water change. What is your salinity?

[DrMark]

As almost always, major water change ASAP.

[andysgr]

heater..obviously remove as much of the heater parts as possible and do a LARGE h2o change with lots of carbon.

[rocketeer]

Ouch! To be safe, you might want to move some of your favorite corals to somebody elses system temporarily while you do some water changes. If your tank isn't too big, you can just change as much of the water as you can leaving the corals in. You could use my tank but I'm in S.A. Hopefully, things are just ****ed off and will start to open up again.

PM me if your critters need a refuge in S.A.

Jack

[verynewatthis]

OMG....im so mad right now...Im on the way to the store to get a new heater. that way i can start my water changes....im going to do about 20% to start, and maybe 20 more at lunch time ish.....im starting to fear the worst....

[p00num3lli]

shoot, man that's gota suck. yea i agree with the other ppl, water change .

hope all your "babies" turn out to be fine

[ErikH]

Do a large 40% change first. Wait three hours an do another. Moniotr the levels, and skim wet. You'll be fine.

[stoneroller]

Take out any animals that are dead ASAP.

[verynewatthis]

back from the store....things are looking bad.....all my caps are white and nothing looks good....i have added a HOT filter with carbon and started water changes......tried to call local reefers...so far can reach any of them.....things that look dead so are are...

Snails......Purple Cap.......Orange Cap.....Green with purple rim....Green cap with purple rim...
will update soon......

[DrMark]

Agree with moving of the corals to another system, had a similar scenario recently.
mark

[subsailor]

If you wan't to get your coral's and clams and such out an keep them somewhere while you get your tanks to norm call me asap.. 254-493-4654

[verynewatthis]

new update.....got a few corals that looked like they had a chance out...maybe 15 or so...the rest are heading down hill..

Skimmer is running as wet as can be....its a UR 180 running on a 60 G tank....so i dont think i can do much better then that...Got tons of carbon in the tank...and the HOT running...and just got my first WC done...20%....Got some extra water from a buddy...so ill be able to do 2 more 20% WC's today..

Death toll.....
all caps....purple, green, orange, and strawberry patch.....that one makes me cry alittle..
Tubbs mystic blue
Oregon tort
Ora blue green
Green slimmer
Warp speed
green birds nest
blue mill
red milli
frag farmer blue stag
frag farmer candle lite acro
purple nana
Tyree's Ponape Birdsnest


right now im kinda down.....ill keep doing WC's but my hopes are low......its stuff like this that makes people leave this hobbie...

hope all is well with yalls tank....

rich

[krazykdnb]

man...I'd give you a hug but im in sa.

Krystal

[jessinator752]

hey rich, i'm in killeen as well. if you want me to hang on to anything for you let me know. i'm always at my computer so you can email me jclemens001@hot.rr.com

[DBlackman]

Be careful with the carbon... carbon is known to cause stress and/or shock to corals. 1 to 1 1/2 cups only for a short period of time. Your water changes and skimming are the MOST IMPORTANT factors here.

[verynewatthis]

Update.....

It didnt go well.....i did get a few corals out to a friends house. But all the ones that are left in my tank have RTNed on me....(little tear falls) .....all the fish look okay and are eating...but they are not why i had the tank..I have to wait to see how the other corals fair with the move, but my hopes are small....very small....i did hear that my clam opened up a little ...but not much change with all the SpS..

Today SUCKED.....

Rich

[ErikH]

Dang man, that really sucks. Sorry to hear you're having bad luck.

[dapettit]

Hang in there Rich. We are fighting RTN in our tank this week. Don't know what happened but had a major ****e in nitrate. DON"T GIVE UP!

Dave-

[tony]

this is why i dont use a heater :(

sorry about your losses though

[LoneStar]

what kind of heater did you have?

[DrMark]

Really sorry you had all the trouble.
Hope things will recover next couple of days.
The Heavy duty plastic encased heaters, I feel, are the way to go.
Again, dont quit.
mark

[SABOB]

Sorry to hear about your heater problem.Don't rush to bail because of this.I recently was frustated with a cyno outbreak after 4 years and wanted to return to Freshwater.Got a Reactor from Ace,been running GFO and just looked over at tank and thought it was High Definition.It sucks you lost most of your corals,I would gladly give you some but only have a Chili Coral,Christmas Tree and a Brain Maze.Hang in there!!!

[mikedelgado]

ouch

[Kristy]

SUCKS! So sorry to hear you are going through this. Don't give up!

[verynewatthis]

thank you everyone for your kind words..im still wondering what im going to do....as far as the heater...it was a 1K watt titanium one....i opted to use it with the reefkeeper 2 that i had. never had any trouble with it. well i got to head to work

[DBlackman]

I was wondering 'what' type and/or manufacture of heater it was that exploded.

Titanium in saltwater or any metals for that matter SHOULD always be avoided, there are too many other alternatives out there.

Here is a suggestion, which is the same product I use: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=12060



thank you everyone for your kind words..im still wondering what im going to do....as far as the heater...it was a 1K watt titanium one....i opted to use it with the reefkeeper 2 that i had. never had any trouble with it. well i got to head to work

[verynewatthis]

lol...its funny you picked that heater....thats the one i got at petsmart yesterday...i got the 250 watt one..

[Fish4life]

if my tank took a crap I would be heart broken. thoughts are with ya. I too do not use a heater. just open and close windows when needed :). Always an issue of being to hot and not cold enough. If my tank craped i would be out thousands. GL.

Cheers,

Kurt

[ErikH]

If my tank craped i would be out thousands.

Most of us would be out that much! I would die..... twice.

[Joshua]

Sure hate reading stuff like this... I find that being in Texas and running halides I don't need a heater. I've used them to keep the temp a little more stable, but found that a couple degrees more nightly fluctuation doesn't bother anything and I get to have one less disaster prone device running in my tank.

[verynewatthis]

ya, i think ill leave the heater out for now on. The only reason i ran one was to keep the tank locked in to about +/- 1 deg. So much for overkill on hardware...lol...