kenwhite
New Member
Last night as I'm sitting down eating dinner, my heater (VisiTherm, 100W) blew up in my 55 gallon tank. Out of the corner of my eye, we saw some very bright flashing prior to the explosion, but just thought it was the TV reflecting off the tank. I thought it was the fluorescent tube (it sounded like a lightbulb exploding), but the shattered glass inside my tank made it real obvious as to what happened.
Fortunately, there was no electrical fire and thank goodness I was home to deal with it. I'm concerned that my GFI wall outlet didn't turn off the power to the whole tank. Do these heaters automatically shut down when they fail?? I'm very concerned about someone being electrocuted, if not.
When I removed the shattered heater, a black substance came out of the tube. I immediately siphoned out the black cloud (about 10 gallons) and replaced it with newly mixed salt water. As bad luck would have it, I just did a water change the day before and had barely enough salt left over to make 10 gallons. Fortunately, I had a backup heater (from an old 15 gallon freshwater setup) that I am using to maintain temperature until I can replace the VisiTherm.
I immediately lost a damsel (I had the poor bugger for two years, it was my very first fish). The other livestock inhabitants(purple tang, clownfish, cleaner shrimp and crab) were freaked out last night, but seemed to be OK this morning. My mushroom rocks deflated very rapidly after the explosion (almost like a wilting flower) - I hope I don't lose them - time will tell.
My questions are:
1. Are heater failures/explosions common? It was two years old and seemed to be working fine.
2. Should I continue doing water changes to remove any remaining "black" substance? The water doesn't smell like an electrical fire any more and I don't see any evidence of a film/cloud.
3. Any other advice?
Thanks for any help you can offer.
Fortunately, there was no electrical fire and thank goodness I was home to deal with it. I'm concerned that my GFI wall outlet didn't turn off the power to the whole tank. Do these heaters automatically shut down when they fail?? I'm very concerned about someone being electrocuted, if not.
When I removed the shattered heater, a black substance came out of the tube. I immediately siphoned out the black cloud (about 10 gallons) and replaced it with newly mixed salt water. As bad luck would have it, I just did a water change the day before and had barely enough salt left over to make 10 gallons. Fortunately, I had a backup heater (from an old 15 gallon freshwater setup) that I am using to maintain temperature until I can replace the VisiTherm.
I immediately lost a damsel (I had the poor bugger for two years, it was my very first fish). The other livestock inhabitants(purple tang, clownfish, cleaner shrimp and crab) were freaked out last night, but seemed to be OK this morning. My mushroom rocks deflated very rapidly after the explosion (almost like a wilting flower) - I hope I don't lose them - time will tell.
My questions are:
1. Are heater failures/explosions common? It was two years old and seemed to be working fine.
2. Should I continue doing water changes to remove any remaining "black" substance? The water doesn't smell like an electrical fire any more and I don't see any evidence of a film/cloud.
3. Any other advice?
Thanks for any help you can offer.
