Oregonic Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 Just had a neotherm heater explode. Was sitting on couch and heard a loud boom from in the sump. Got up and made it to the tank in less then 5 seconds opened the sump door and saw bubbling and lots of smoke. Quickly shut off the heater and had it out of the sumo in less then 30 swconds from when it popped. I filled a mesh filter sock with carbon and put in a high flow area. Its been about 30min now and everything looks happy. BTA’s still fully inflated, they usually shrink if I even have my hand in the tank for less then a few seconds. Duncan corals still fully open, they usually close up with any type of swing. I was lucky I was sitting right next to the tank and was able to act at olympic athlete speed. Should I worry? Should I make up some water do a large water change tomorrow? Tank has been super stable and I have rarely been doing water changes as the seen to slightly throw things off for a day or two after water changes. Here are a few pics one showing the crack in the heater and one after I removed the broken plastic to see what happened. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flash21 Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 (edited) I had the same thing happen...do a water change ASAP. Those heaters are crap! I myself was right next to the tank as well. I had 3-4 corals die I believe. Edited March 9, 2019 by Flash21 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derbird Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 Wow, thankfully you were home to catch this 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
albertareef Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 Scary stuff. Glad to hear you caught it quickly and hopefully limited any potential damage. Good luck! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milesmiles902 Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 It's always a good idea to check grounding too. Maybe check out some of the GFCI articles. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flash21 Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 Updates? I suggest to just buy the trust rusty eheim heaters. They have been around for awhile. After seeing this, I dug up my old thread on when this happened to me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 Wow, insane! So glad you were home. Sounds like your BTAs will tell you if theres a problem. I have had good luck with these Aqueon Pro Adjustable Heater. Looks like they don't make them anymore? I run about six of them on different outlets. GFCI on each outlet. ground probes in the tank and sump, and AFCI at the panel. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff.Tichenor Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 (edited) Sorry this happened. It's one of my worst fears 😞 I believe those are the same that ruined The King of DIY's tank and killed his beautiful rays 😞 edit: yup same model - Edited March 9, 2019 by jtichenor added YT link 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregonic Posted March 9, 2019 Author Share Posted March 9, 2019 Everything looks fine this morning. All corals and anemones opening up fully as the lights are ramping up. I did a bunch of reading last night and it seems I caught just in time. Everyone who I read about that had fish or coral deaths seems to have not caught it right away which let the resin inside the heater get into the water. When I got mine out of the water no resin had oozed out of the crack yet. The smoke smelt terrible but no smell to water or cabinet this morning. I think I got really lucky and dodged the bullet. I had just got back Triton water tests on Thursday so I am going to order another test and send in asap to see if it leached any heavy metals. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregonic Posted March 9, 2019 Author Share Posted March 9, 2019 It is scary that heater is plugged into the Red Sea power block that cam with my E170 and did not trip the breaker on it. It also did not trip the gfci outlet that block is pluged into. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregonic Posted March 9, 2019 Author Share Posted March 9, 2019 Going heater shopping today, thinking of trying to find a titanium heater, think I saw some the other week at The Wet Spot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
albertareef Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 4 hours ago, Oregonic said: Going heater shopping today, thinking of trying to find a titanium heater, think I saw some the other week at The Wet Spot. Seahorse has quite a few in different sizes... just picked one up from them. They have some Aquatop models with temp probes and controller - some of the other titaniums require a separate controller from my recollection. Good luck. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Z Reef Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 I had a glass one pop open and my tank basically crashed. I moved everything out into a hospital tank and re-cycled my tank and used Triton Detox to remove any heavy metals. Let your corals guide you though, it was obvious in my tank something got in the water column, everything closed up and was pissed. I would at a minimum do a large water change. Maybe consider running Detox, it doesn’t hurt corals or fish. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregonic Posted March 9, 2019 Author Share Posted March 9, 2019 35 minutes ago, Blue Z Reef said: I had a glass one pop open and my tank basically crashed. I moved everything out into a hospital tank and re-cycled my tank and used Triton Detox to remove any heavy metals. Let your corals guide you though, it was obvious in my tank something got in the water column, everything closed up and was pissed. I would at a minimum do a large water change. Maybe consider running Detox, it doesn’t hurt corals or fish. I have been keeping a close eye on the tank all day. Everthing looks normal with exception of my elegance coral being open but not quite as full as usual. Never heard of Triton Detox, I will have to see if anyone local had some. If not I will order some online. Thanks for the tip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregonic Posted March 9, 2019 Author Share Posted March 9, 2019 58 minutes ago, albertareef said: Seahorse has quite a few in different sizes... just picked one up from them. They have some Aquatop models with temp probes and controller - some of the other titaniums require a separate controller from my recollection. Good luck. Apex should be able to regulate a titanium heater without an internal thermostat I would think. Do I need to plug it into one of the outlets that has a relay on the apex power strip? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Z Reef Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 (edited) 58 minutes ago, Oregonic said: I have been keeping a close eye on the tank all day. Everthing looks normal with exception of my elegance coral being open but not quite as full as usual. Never heard of Triton Detox, I will have to see if anyone local had some. If not I will order some online. Thanks for the tip. I’ve still got my bottle if you are in a bind and want to come grab a dose of it over here in Camas. Can’t meet up to deliver today, full time Daddy duty for the weekend 🤪 Detox is the only heavy metal remover that I’m aware of. Until Triton started doing the ICP testing we didn’t really have anything to test metals with aside from copper. I didn’t do a before/after test but it’s reviewed online to work. Figured when my heater blew up and no other parameters seemed out of whack it was the best thing to do. Edited March 10, 2019 by Blue Z Reef 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuncrestReef Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 1 hour ago, Oregonic said: Apex should be able to regulate a titanium heater without an internal thermostat I would think. Do I need to plug it into one of the outlets that has a relay on the apex power strip? Based on your question, I assume you have the older EB8 power strip, not the newer EB832, correct? If so, the relay outlets (#4 & #8) are best reserved for very low power draw devices because the TRIAC outlets (#1-3 & #5-7) can sometimes fail to turn off when the power draw is very low, failing in an Open state. As long as your heater doesn’t pull more than 5 amps it will be fine in any of the TRIAC outlets. The newer EB832 uses relays for all outlets and they’re all 7 amp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregonic Posted March 10, 2019 Author Share Posted March 10, 2019 21 minutes ago, SuncrestReef said: Based on your question, I assume you have the older EB8 power strip, not the newer EB832, correct? If so, the relay outlets (#4 & #8) are best reserved for very low power draw devices because the TRIAC outlets (#1-3 & #5-7) can sometimes fail to turn off when the power draw is very low, failing in an Open state. As long as your heater doesn’t pull more than 5 amps it will be fine in any of the TRIAC outlets. The newer EB832 uses relays for all outlets and they’re all 7 amp. Yup this is exactly what I was talking about. Good to know. I just picked up 2 150w aquatop heaters. I was trying to find a titanium heater but could not find on local so these will have to do for now. My last heater was not tied to apex because the Neotherms did a great job keeping temp 78 +\- .01 degrees, dont think these will do that without the help of an apex. So my plan is to set apex to turn them on at 77.9 and off at 78.0. I will set the thermostat on the heaters to somewhere around 79 just incase the apex fails to shut off at 78.0. I have a doser set up on plug 4 that stays on of not plugged into that outlet. I would think it would be safe to run 2 150w heaters on outlet 8 with a splitter? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregonic Posted March 10, 2019 Author Share Posted March 10, 2019 28 minutes ago, SuncrestReef said: Based on your question, I assume you have the older EB8 power strip, not the newer EB832, correct? If so, the relay outlets (#4 & #8) are best reserved for very low power draw devices because the TRIAC outlets (#1-3 & #5-7) can sometimes fail to turn off when the power draw is very low, failing in an Open state. As long as your heater doesn’t pull more than 5 amps it will be fine in any of the TRIAC outlets. The newer EB832 uses relays for all outlets and they’re all 7 amp. I really appreciate the offer but just ordering online with 2 day shipping. Im not super concerned as I caught it super fast and there was no evidence of anything oozing out. Evething still looks happy and healthy. My duncans seem to be my coral that show me when somthing is off in the tank and they look unaffected. My elegance that looks slightly smaller today has its days where its just not happy for no apparent reason fairly often so I dont trust it to tell me when something is wrong, the boy that cried wolf coral 😂. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuncrestReef Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 1 minute ago, Oregonic said: I would think it would be safe to run 2 150w heaters on outlet 8 with a splitter? I have two 300w heaters controlled by my Apex, so you doubling up your 150w heaters on a single outlet should be no problem. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuncrestReef Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 7 minutes ago, Oregonic said: I really appreciate the offer but just ordering online with 2 day shipping. Im not super concerned as I caught it super fast and there was no evidence of anything oozing out. Evething still looks happy and healthy. My duncans seem to be my coral that show me when somthing is off in the tank and they look unaffected. My elegance that looks slightly smaller today has its days where its just not happy for no apparent reason fairly often so I dont trust it to tell me when something is wrong, the boy that cried wolf coral 😂. I’m guessing you meant to quote @Blue Z Reef in this reply. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregonic Posted March 10, 2019 Author Share Posted March 10, 2019 Oops yes 🤦♂️ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 I hope to switch to a hot water heater for heating the tank once the reef room gets built. Too many of these stories going around! Glad it turned out well for you! Truth about the elegance/wolf coral 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaylorW Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 Yikes I'm so glad you were there!! A heater malfunction was the cause of my crash last year, after that I spent so much time researching... Sent from my BLU R1 HD using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaylorW Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 (edited) My tank water was 94 degrees... Had one crack open years ago too and shock the hell out of me when I put my hand in there Sent from my BLU R1 HD using Tapatalk Edited January 2, 2020 by TaylorW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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