Boiled Alive- Heater mishap! :'(

[saltyduck]

At this point I just need to know what is salvageable, if anything. Luckily I have been going super slow with setting everything up so I just had a couple corals and some snails and crustacea in there so I didn't lose anything too drastic.
I went into the office about 3-4hrs ago and everything was fine and dandy and perky. I go in there now to shut the lights off for the night and the heater is smoking, water cloudy, and I notice the heater is missing. I haven't touched any of it in days so I don't know what exactly caused the heater to go haywire, but it pretty much boiled everything in my tank alive. The only thing I saw moving in there was a blue-leg. I stuck in a human thermometer and it read 101.8. The heater brand was "Deep Blue"
Should I completely start over? Take everything out - LR, LS, 100% water change? Or is the sand and rock salvageable? I am not sure if these heaters eek out any chemicals or anything when they burst like that.
Thanks in advance.

 

[acrylic51]

That sucks.....I'd unplug everything at first and get the heater out of there and refire everything and try a water change.....More than likely you've killed a few, but get it running.

 

[flower]

I always used plastic or titanium heaters, the glass can get broken too easy, I had a fish break mine, nothing toxic its a coil heater in them, no chemicals that hurt fish that I could tell. Half my critters survived when my glass one broke.
Do a huge water change...the dead in the tank will restart the cycle, so everything is salvagable. Thank goodness no fish were lost.
I just noticed...your first post, welcome to the site.

 

[novahobbies]

Sorry to be welcomed under such dismal circumstances, but welcome to the site anyway! We don't bite.
You mentioned the water was cloudy. Has it cleared at all yet? Normally I'd say that heater mishaps don't cause 100% replacement failure, but I don't know much about the deep blue brand. If it was a glass coil style heater, make sure there isn't any copper coiling broken off in the tank.
Otherwise if the water has cleared, I'd suggest doing at least a 50% WC (possibly more) but save your rock and sand...they should be fine. And keep the poor blue-leg, he's earned his place in the tank!

 

[saltyduck]

Hey everyone! Thanks for the welcome! I wish it were under happier circumstances too! I started this tank up after a 8 year hiatus from saltwater (I used to keep seahorses) and have been taking things slow with this one so I just lost some polyps, crustacea and snails. It could have been a LOT worse.
The water has cleared up now and the temperature is back down to a normal level. The shrimps and crabs are definitely dead - I removed them last night. I moved the snails and things in shells up towards the front of the tank to see if they'd move, but they haven't so my guess is they're dead too, especially if the other things are dead. Wistful thinking on my part hoping they would make it.
I can't find the blue-legs though so I'm guessing they're the only ones that made it. I've witnessed them in some pretty rank and hot tidepools in the wild so I'm guessing this mishap was nothing to them.
I talked to a friend who works for the Smithsonian Institution in DC with tanks, fish and invertebrates and things (I used to work there too!) and he said that they had the same thing happen to an exhibit once so if it happens to them too then I don't feel AS inadequate, but I'm still bummed. He suggested doing a 100% water change but keeping the rock and the sand.
Edited to add: I didn't see any copper wires on the heater (I still have it) - it's all some sort of silver type metal if there's metal. The water is also not crystal clear but not as cloudy as it was before.

 

[saltyduck]

I went to my LFS and they were so nice! They're communicating with the company to try to get me a reimbursement on all that I lost and more.
Just did a 60% water change....we'll see how it goes.