dead candy cane coral and broke heater

[capschamp]

Hello all. Been having some trouble lately. Had a xenia die (just withered away to nothing, now its gone), got some zoos that are not doing well at all (almost withered away to nothing), and bought a candy cane coral (trumpet coral?) 2 days ago and now its DEAD

. I tested everything I had tests for:
1.026 specific gravity
temp 79
ph 8.4
11.2 dkh
ca 320
ammonia, trites, trates all zero
I add esv b-ionic equal parts of alk supplement and ca supplement 2-3 times a week in an effort to raise calcium, and thats all the higher its raised.
Water changes bi-weekly with deathco (*****) natural ocean water (comes in box). I run phosban reactor with rowaphos and an aqua-c remora skimmer. approx 20-25lbs live rock
In addition to the coral deaths, i have recently lost 2 astrea snails and a conch. 2 clown fish seem to be doing great, i cant remember exactly when i started the tank, i think it was late oct. I put a green star polyp laden rock in a week ago, and they opened up for the first few days, but today nothing, and the candy cane coral looked good when i left for work this morning, get home at 6 and its like it wasted away. here are some pics:

 

[capschamp]

the last two pics are kind of a before and after. the top is the zoos about a month ago and the bottom is now, with what i beleive is a nassarius snail crawling on them.
Next is the pics of the heater, this i discovered today, not sure how long it has been broken, but it looks bad. Is there anything in here that could have leeched into the aquarium? I am also now looking for a new heater, so if anyone can reccomend an indestructible heater, preferaby a titanium one that's submersible, let me know.

 

[capschamp]

and my sincerest apologies for the terrible pics, i really need a good camera, so if anyone has any reccomendations on that send me a pm with make and model

i wont be on too much longer tonight but will be on tomorrow and most of the day friday

so if i dont respond to questions right away please be patient with me, i really value all help

 

[socal57che]

Originally Posted by capschamp
http:///forum/post/2515373
Next is the pics of the heater, this i discovered today, not sure how long it has been broken, but it looks bad. Is there anything in here that could have leeched into the aquarium?
Electricity is my first answer. I don't believe there is anything harmful in this part of the heater. I think it's basically a wire convection type heater in a glass tube.

 

[paulywg]

Never use a glass heater. And get 2 smaller heaters.

 

[capschamp]

so is it possible that the electricity caused the rapid death of the coral, and possibly caused the conch to die? I watched the conch die, it was right at teh front of the tank and looked like it was having a siezure. The other snails that died just fell of the glass over the past couple days and the crabs went to work on them. i will be getting a titanium heater, can anyone reccomend a reliable brand?

 

[zona322]

get two visi therm stealth i like them i have never had one go bad. just make sure that you set on at 78 and the other at 79 so that they will not fight each other to tern on. have any other question i will be on for a little bit.

 

[scsinet]

That appears to be a Hydor Theo.
Worst heater made.
There isn't anything wrong with the concept of glass heaters, but if you are going to have one in the DT where it can come into contact with rocks and livestock that knocks it about, you should have one made of good, thick Pyrex glass. I use Jagers myself and in spite of all the abuse I've given them, I've never had one break. I have maybe 10 or 12 of them, no problems.
Lots of people here use the Visi-Therm stealths, and report great success as well.
The non-glass variants like the titanium heater... I've not seen a brand that doesn't seem to have a long list of problems attached to it. I started out using titanium but I switched away from them due to these problems.

 

[nordy]

I too have the visi therm stealth and it is one of the better ones I have used in 10 years of FW and SW fishkeeping. I would suggest getting a good digital thermomemeter so you can calibrate your heater(s). The temp gauge on the stealth isn't too accurate but once I got mine dialed in and calibrated, it stays pretty steady day, night, lights on or off.

 

[capschamp]

That appears to be a Hydor Theo.
Worst heater made.
QUOTE]

realizing this a little too late. I will take your advice on the other heaters though, and thanks

for saving me from another mistake as I was almost ready to get a titanium heater.
I just got home from work and noticed that another snail has died and a hermit crab hasnt moved since last night, so i believe it is dead also.
One odd thing that I am also noticing is that I used to have some red hair algae growing on the back wall and green algae used to grow every couple days on the glass, now it all is brown. I recently switched from a 14k metal halide to a 20k. Would that cause the algae to suddenly turn brown? There isn't any growing on the sand, so i don't think its cyano.
Good news though the fish still seem very happy.