Kessil

Heater boiled everything in my 100g tank.

Xcaret, I'm no there to see it, but is there a crack in the magnet/coil lining on the Male or female side of the impeller chamber? I've seen rust as an early warning sign there, although it's usually obvious once clean.
 
Left the parts soaking in vinegar, will report back on that.
The downside (up for some of us) is the heat these little pumps generate, therefore thay are more prone to calcium making a good thick layer to thw point the impeller stalls.
 
xcaret said:
Left the parts soaking in vinegar, will report back on that.
The downside (up for some of us) is the heat these little pumps generate, therefore thay are more prone to calcium making a good thick layer to thw point the impeller stalls.
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I wonder if it's almost better just to plan on changing these every two years or so.
 
Bruce Spiegelman said:
I actually keep a nano pump in my sump in front of the heater and where I dose just to keep water moving.
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Why a nano pump vs cheap Aqueon or similar circulation pump?
I dose in to my drain line to avoid precipitation, but it's a bit of a stab in the dark as I've never had an issue either way, thus I can't prove it helps.
 
jccaclimber said:
Why a nano pump vs cheap Aqueon or similar circulation pump?
I dose in to my drain line to avoid precipitation, but it's a bit of a stab in the dark as I've never had an issue either way, thus I can't prove it helps.
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The nano is in a smaller sump for my frag tank. If I had your 600 I'd use a bigger pump. :)
 
Some kind of heater controller is an absolute necessity. An stc-1000 controller is $20 but can be hot or miss on quality control.

A rancho controller is $40 I think and works well.

Apex Jr is a great choice but personally, get an apex that has more outlets and ph monitoring already.

Honestly, do this before you take any other steps to reboot. The peace of mind that comes with an apex is worth every penny. Being able to check on the tank anywhere you have internet access is great and you can even use a web cam to see everything.
 
Thanks everybody, I'm going to start replying you all now.

I'm still busy cleaning and doing lots of water changes. I'm removing all rocks from the tank to be able to clean it deeply. And re-do my aquascape. I'm sure I'm going to need the whole day.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Good friend of the hobby Rich Ross once (more than once) said, "tank crashes, problems, mistakes happen, it's ok, just make sure they don't happen twice" (paraphrased). So if you do get up and running again, make sure that can't happen again.
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Totally agree! Indeed I have decided not to buy cheap stuff anymore, I used to buy equipment in Amazon based on reviews, but not doing that anymore. Not buying again any tank equipment in Amazon just to save some or convenience.
 
Oakland Evan said:
Got this controller recently, haven't set it up yet though. I like how it can be set by .1 degree instead of others that are only by 1 degree. Only a $35 fix to make sure it doesn't happen again. I had this same thing happen before and now I have a controller on both main and back up heaters, luckily I caught it at around 82 degrees. The 2nd one listed is the one I currently use.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KEYDNKK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B077N22T3W/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

P.S. Sorry for the loss, let me know when your ready and I'll have some free cheap hearty frags for you to test out your tank with.
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Thanks a lot for the recommendation, indeed I ordered the $35 Inkbird but then I cancelled. Decided to go to Neptune Aquatics and I bought a Aquatop DDC-800. It costed me $80 but it seems to be build specifically for aquariums, has alarms, etc...

Thanks for the frags offering, I appreciate it.
 
scuzy said:
Spend a little more and get a ranco controller. They are awesome and lasts a lifetime. I have never heard of a ranco going bad. Those cheaper inkbird and others have many bad stories. Just my two cents. I use a ranco and my Apex/ghl to control my heaters. Double and triple redundancy helps a million.


RANCO ETC-111000 Digital Cold Temperature Control NEW https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0015NV5BE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_A7AmCbMK7CGN9

You'll need about $15 more additional parts but it's 10x better than the ink bird.


It sucks to have lost everything. But don't give up everything is a learning experience.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
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I ended up going to Neptune and bought a Aquatop DDC-800 for $80. Will start to investigate about Apex
 
Bruce Spiegelman said:
When you're up and running again (and the cycle is complete) let me know and I can get you some nice size frags. I have a frag tank bursting at the seams as it is so you'd be helping me out. :)

My advice is to take the rebuild slowly and think through things that you "wished" you had done differently before -- aquascaping, fish choice, etc. Make this a dream tank and it'll be more fun getting started again if you have a plan. Step one -- use two heaters on a controller. I saw a used Apex on CL for $140.00 the other day. It will run your heaters (plus more) and send you an alarm if there's an issue.
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Thanks a lot for your words Bruce! I just bought a digital controller heater but as you just said, I'm going to start to investigate how the APEX works and might buy one, then use 2 heaters... basically, I'm going to start building for redundancy to avoid this happening again.

Thanks a lot for your frag offering!
 
glee said:
Sorry to hear about this. I can donate an RBTA when you are ready and I can pull one off my rocks easily. Send me a PM.
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Thanks a lot Glee for your offering, much appreciated. In my previous tank the RBTAs were multiplication no stop all the time. Now as some members are recommending, I'm thinking over what type of corals and fish I want to have in this restart. Thanks again.
 
jccaclimber said:
I'm sorry for your loss. While not as large a system I have also had a cooked tank due to a faulty heater. I was lucky in a sense that my stuck heater stopped at 94*F, so half the fish and coral survived. It may take a lot of water changing to get your tank cleared up and would consider using algae to clean the system if its resistive. A giant ball of macro in the display can be astoundingly effective at cleaning water over a week or two. I would pick something like cheeto that won't root in to the rocks or a species that tangs readily eat.
A few things to consider on the rebuild:

Multiple small heaters are better than one large one. While this increases the odds of an issue it decreases the damage a single heater can do. Second put it on a temperature controller, either standalone or something like an Apex. When you do this be sure the heaters have their individual thermostats set just above your target temperature. I knew someone who set all of their heaters high and relied 100% on the controller. This is effectively a single point of control as they found out when the temperature probe fell out of the sump in to the cold house and the controller then overheated and crashed the tank.
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I'll check about the algae if the cloudiness persist in the water. Thanks for the recommendation.
I'll also put 2 heaters in the tank, for sure. Both controlled.
 
xcaret said:
I've opened up the pump, seems the issue is build-up of calcium; odd thing is that there's rust color inside, the impeller assembly is Titanium, no chance for rust either. Do you run GFO? That might explain the rust color inside the pump.
Is good to inspect and clean pumps. If the pump does work after cleaning it, will bring it back to you so you can have a backup in case you need it.
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No, I don't have GFO. I use lots of bio filter material but no GFO.
Thanks Mario, I'll give you back the bigger yellow one that I'm not using.
 
juanfdezdc said:
So my heater malfunctioned during the night and I wake up this morning to some bad smell and I realized that my 100g reef tank was all with like white/murky water, I touched the water and it was really really hot, my external thermometer was at 99f and because it can't go higher.

"Everything" in the tanks died, about 15 fish (tangs, wrasses, blennys, etc), dozens of RBTAs, Zoas, Hammers, etc... only thing that survived were 2 big hermit crabs that were fast and clever enough to go above the water (they were hanging on tubes).

Oh, is so painful... I have already done 45 gallons of water changes, removed everything I can see that is dead and water is better (now cooled) but is still murky. I think tomorrow I'll do another 45 gallons water change.

I have had the heater for a year (same time I have had my tank) with no problems. It was a 300W Hygger brand that I bought because it had good reviews in Amazon.
I just bought an external controller for my next heater. I'll start to do more research on external controllers and equipment to prevent accidents.

My wife has even told me to dry the tank and forget about the hobby for a year or so, and I have think about it but at the end is my hobby, so I'll try to recover and add simple things in terms of corals and fish.
Luckily the next coral market is soon so I'll start to replenish there.

I leave a pic of my tank before Xmas. I'm looking at my tank now and I still can't believe it... be careful with your heaters.
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We are very sorry . We hope we’ll be able to help you out with restocking things
 
grizfyrfyter said:
Some kind of heater controller is an absolute necessity. An stc-1000 controller is $20 but can be hot or miss on quality control.

A rancho controller is $40 I think and works well.

Apex Jr is a great choice but personally, get an apex that has more outlets and ph monitoring already.

Honestly, do this before you take any other steps to reboot. The peace of mind that comes with an apex is worth every penny. Being able to check on the tank anywhere you have internet access is great and you can even use a web cam to see everything.
Click to expand...
I'm definitely going to be reading during the next week about all types of Apex and will get one.
Phase 2 will be to think what to do is an emergency happens while I'm traveling...
 
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