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loohunter

loohunter

Fish lover
Joined
May 31, 2005
Messages
1,113
Location
Lake Stevens
i get a call from the girlfriend today. she tells me the tank is all cloudy so i run down a verbal checklist and it turns out the heater fell apart in the tank and over 100 snails are upside down on the ground. so after picking up a new heater and a crap load of carbon i get home and the skimmers are just going nuts the anenomes are all shrivelled. i did a 25 gallon water change and the anenomes are perking up. i tipped all the snails back over and alot of them are starting to move around alittle. i guess i am wondering what i should do now. what is a reliable heater that might reduce the risk of frying my livestock and should i start pulling snails out or see if any more will start moving around
 
Eh... Sorry to hear this. Im not sure I have any good advice. What if you took them and put them in a seperate bucket. When they start moving add them back in?
 
can you get your hands on some kind of zeolite rock (like in a filter pad) to use to absorb ammonia in the tank? I have some you could have but I live way up in Lynnwood. They carry it at most pet stores in the fish section. Maybe this would help a little if you have anything dying. But running lots of carbon in an area of your sump is going to help a lot, same for doing water changes.

bummer about the heater. what kind was it? I'll make sure not to buy one. :rolleyes:
 
Sorry to hear that. Were was your heater, sump, tank. Did it just fall apart with out anything touching it ?. Hope all recovers. Any info will help all of us. Thats not the first heater problem I heard about
 
Jan said:
can you get your hands on some kind of zeolite rock (like in a filter pad) to use to absorb ammonia in the tank? I have some you could have but I live way up in Lynnwood. They carry it at most pet stores in the fish section. Maybe this would help a little if you have anything dying. But running lots of carbon in an area of your sump is going to help a lot, same for doing water changes.

bummer about the heater. what kind was it? I'll make sure not to buy one. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

i did add some zeolite i am making more ro water and i will continue the water changes i am picking the snails out and puting them in a 29 gallon with a power headto see if any will live the heater was just some cheapo brand probaly i dont realy know where i got it or what brand it was it is in the garbage now and there is no real distinctive markings. i had the heater in the tank cuz i was/ am in the process of puting the tank in the wall the heater has been in there several days and the fish have been leaving it alone so i think it was just timefor it to go:confused:im just afraid my new heater will do the same thing eventually a year or two down the road
 
No one makes a good reliable heater, you best choice is to buy a one or two stage controller, Ranco is about $125.00 for the two stage and $99 for single stage. With a controller if the heater fails and stays on the controller will shut power off to the heater after the tank reaches the pre set temp you programed in. A single stage controls just one side, cooling or heating, a 2 stage controls 2 such as a chiller/fan and a heater. If the heater broke and was exposed to the water, you might want to check for copper the leached from the heater components.
 
Continue doing large WC's also first & foremost do it until you know everything has improved. Won_pro titanium & the Jager run on a ranco like mentioned should preform well!
 
Sorry to hear of the crash.
Ditto what scooty said on heaters. Controllers help overheating but won't help metals leaching in from a busted one, LOTS of H2O changes will. Fish doing OK?
 
all the fish are fine everything is looking better. i am waiting for the lights to come on to check everything out. i never thought about the leaching of metals. i need to look for my test kit
 
Jan said:
can you get your hands on some kind of zeolite rock (like in a filter pad) to use to absorb ammonia in the tank? I have some you could have but I live way up in Lynnwood. They carry it at most pet stores in the fish section. Maybe this would help a little if you have anything dying. But running lots of carbon in an area of your sump is going to help a lot, same for doing water changes.

bummer about the heater. what kind was it? I'll make sure not to buy one. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

You want to make sure the zeolite you get is for saltwater, some is just for freshwater. I just got over a little spike of ammonia in my tank. I used zeolite and bought a bottle of cycle bacteria a dumped it in the tank. It went away in a day. I still have the zeolites and you are welcome to them if you need them.here's the thread on my little disaster.
http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30167
 
Not to cause thread drift, but I'm seeing several places in the forum mention about using zeolite to remove ammonia in saltwater. From my understanding, and everything I've read from Fenner, zeolite is totally useless in saltwater. If the ammonia disappears, it's probably the work of the bacteria and not the zeolite.
 
to be honest i dont know much about the zeolite i have been changing massive amounts of water and everything is looking better. i dont know if it is one thing in particular or a combination of wc zeolite and massive amounts of carbon. i also want to thank everyone that offers help. my tank and all its inhabitants are part of my family. so thanks to you all
 
all corals are dead, brittle stars dead, snails dead, not sure about the anenomes they are very shrivlled the fish seem fine the amonia is .25
 
Crap! Let me offer condolences my dear friend. How hot did the tank get? Or is it metals and or other toxins from the heater?

When your tank is back aged and doing well, I have some nice corals that can be fragged to help you get back going.

Mike
 
Aahhhh.....so sad! :(

Let us know when you're ready to go again. I have a frag or two I can spare too.
 
thanks you guys are so sweet. it was all caused from contaminants from the heater. the temp never got passed 78 or below 75 iam moving the fish to another tank and am testing for copper and cleaning it. iam not sure if i am going to be able to use the rock again oer not
 
thanks mike. i just tested for copper and there was no trace on the kit, however according to the article that dosen't mean it isn't there so i will clean the tank and cook the rock and hopefuly be back in a month or so better than ever
 
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