# Massive Failure!



## Wide_Eyed_Wanderer (Aug 22, 2006)

So I came home just now and looked at my tank and noticed the thermometer was reading the tank as 98F. I put my finger in the water and the water is hot as hell. All I had in the tank was live rock and an hermit crab. The water has been hot Im guessing for about 10hours and its a 27g long with 40lbs of cured live rock with lots of coraline. The heater was set at 78 but I have no clue to why it made the water so warm!

So right now all pods/critters are dead, and Im guessing my live rock is also dead? Will this rock re-generate itself or am I stuck with worthless dead rock now? How can I repair this damage and what should i do now?

I just got a new heater got the water under control and did a 45% water change with r/o water. Im not totally bummed because i was expecting mistakes to happen.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys.


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## notaverage (Sep 10, 2005)

Woah...The heater must have short circuited or soemthing.
I'm sure somebody will have answers for ya!
Being its newly set up if you did loose anything just be glad you didnt have a lot more in there.


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## AKSkirmish (Jun 24, 2005)

Dont be so worried first off-sh*t happens...

The rock will recondition/seed itself-Just takes a bit of time...

Toss the heater against the wall to alleviate some stress-
Replace the heater.
You already did the water change-Just go about as normal/recycle....


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## Wide_Eyed_Wanderer (Aug 22, 2006)

notaverage said:


> Dont be so worried first off-sh*t happens...
> 
> The rock will recondition/seed itself-Just takes a bit of time...
> 
> ...


Thanks for the reassurance man. I guess ill start testing the water and see how long this new cycle will last. Also how do you think I can replace all the pods populations? This rock used to be literally crawling with life, and now that's all dead, that's whats bothering me the most.


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

speakyourmind said:


> Dont be so worried first off-sh*t happens...
> 
> The rock will recondition/seed itself-Just takes a bit of time...
> 
> ...


Thanks for the reassurance man. I guess ill start testing the water and see how long this new cycle will last. Also how do you think I can replace all the pods populations? This rock used to be literally crawling with life, and now that's all dead, that's whats bothering me the most.








[/quote]

Once you get the tank stable, simply add a few small pieces of live rock, or order a bag of pods from online, you could also get a bag of cheato from somebodys well established fuge or sump and let it free float in your tank for some time... then remove it once the cycle is over and you add livestock... by then everything will be fine


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## Wide_Eyed_Wanderer (Aug 22, 2006)

^ can u send me a link for the pods, i tried google no luck. I will definetly do the chaeto Thanks for the tip man!


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

nothing to worry about, but lesson learned, your better off with two heaters that cannot over heat the tank by them self

i run one undersized heater and cylce my lighting so in the summer ligths run at night and in the winter they run during the day. this way i dont run a chiller or the a/c during the day in the summer and in the winter the heat is low during hte day and i can turn it up when i get home


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## Chapz (Jul 9, 2007)

Stuff like that happens. I dont have any heaters in my tank for that reason. Its warm enough at my apartment that keeps the temp regulated. Lucky you didnt buy the $50 fish you had in mind. That would have hurt more.



speakyourmind said:


> ^ can u send me a link for the pods, i tried google no luck. I will definetly do the chaeto Thanks for the tip man!


If you were closer i would give you some cheato to help you out.


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## Wide_Eyed_Wanderer (Aug 22, 2006)

Okay guys new heater and SAME PROBLEM AGAIN this morning!!!!!

what the hells wrong im using an ebo jager, its placed horizontally behind some live rock

Plzz help


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

speakyourmind said:


> Okay guys new heater and SAME PROBLEM AGAIN this morning!!!!!
> 
> what the hells wrong im using an ebo jager, its placed horizontally behind some live rock
> 
> Plzz help


what is the temp in the room?

are those compact florecent lights?

is the tank covered?

are you absolutely sure its the heater?

was it properly calibrated?

how many watts?

considering you have nothing in the tank and if you did it most likely wouldnt have survived yesterdays cooking i would just remove any heaters all together, you dont need it the tank can be 70 degrees it wont matter, even with fish in it the tank can run in the 76- 78 range as long as it doesnt drop in temp faster then a few degrees over the course of day


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## Wide_Eyed_Wanderer (Aug 22, 2006)

^^^^^^^^^^^^
The room temperature in the room is 25 degrees Celsius.

I have a t5 compact fluorescent fixture.

Tank is not covered

Could it be the maxi-jet leaking heat into the system? Not sure if its the heater.

Heater is properly calibrated

The heater wattage is 50w

Thanks I really dont know what to do!


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## nataz (Mar 31, 2006)

I would almost bet its the max-jet. I have a 20 high with (no heat) 6" sand bed 20lbs of lr and 1 max-jet 12 and my water would hit 94 to 96 degrees without a top nor lights. I unplugged the powerhead for 4 days and my tank stayed cool. I ended up putting a 4" comp fan on it and a glass top with no power heads and my water stays around 78 now.

To me maxi jets are great but produce to much heat for nano tanks.

good luck,


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## Wide_Eyed_Wanderer (Aug 22, 2006)

Hmmmmmmmmm you know what nataz that completley makes sense. When the exact same heater was in my other 20 gallon ZERO problems.


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## nataz (Mar 31, 2006)

Also if you have a AC hob filter siiting around, you can make a HOB fuge out of it. Take a piece of eggcrate and silicon it over the water return and put your cheeto and some tiny ruble rock in the section where your sponge and stuff would go.

Just an idea thou..


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## Wide_Eyed_Wanderer (Aug 22, 2006)

Yeah after my cycle, I gonna grab an AC filter to turn it into a fuge and have a protein skimmer lined up aswell. If this heater mess up didn't happen I would have have been about a week and a half away from adding livestock as my levels had been 0 for about 2 weeks prior. Now im guessing livestock addition will come late october or early november. Oh well as people say "nothing good happens in a salt tank fast" lol.


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## nataz (Mar 31, 2006)

A look on the bright side, you didn't loose anything (livestock). Theres a chance you tank might not take that long to recycle, mine didn't.

Its good you found the problem now rather than later, I lost a beautiful queen angel that just got her adult colors about 4 months ago from my tank over heating. Thats why I sold my 220 and swithced my 75 from salt to fresh.

Good luck,


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## Wide_Eyed_Wanderer (Aug 22, 2006)

Yeah true i didn't suffer a loss at all if you think about. Right now the maxi-jet is off and if temperature remains constant tomorrow morning problem solved!

Ill have to look at a new powerhead tho


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## nataz (Mar 31, 2006)

-Hydor Koralia #1's. Not sure price up your way but I think they go for around 30 bucks here give or take.


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

nataz said:


> -Hydor Koralia #1's. Not sure price up your way but I think they go for around 30 bucks here give or take.


i would go atleast 2's the price difference and size difference is minimal but with the low velocity output they create doesnt really provide high enough flow rates to get things moving in a tank that shape. maybe if it was a cube but i think with a rectangular tank there would be dead spots.


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## Wide_Eyed_Wanderer (Aug 22, 2006)

Wow I just looked today in the tank and seen a few tiny pods crawling around on the live rock! This is awesome i cant believe they survived 2 cookings!!!


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

speakyourmind said:


> Wow I just looked today in the tank and seen a few tiny pods crawling around on the live rock! This is awesome i cant believe they survived 2 cookings!!!


there are inverts in the ocean that live in some very extreme conditions, sometimes they find species that live in broad range of conditions so its not quite that surprising. if the temp raised gradually and dropped gradually they can adapt, if the water didnt get cloudy then its likely the increased temp had a minimal impact on the tank.

did you remove the maxijet and see fi that was the cause?


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## Wide_Eyed_Wanderer (Aug 22, 2006)

Nope I didn't try that. The heater is not meant to be submersible even though i have tried it submersed many times and it worked fine for months. So I put it upright and now its been working fine for about 5 days now and zero problems with the maxi jet still in. Im going to put in a stealth heater soon before i add any live stock.

Oh yeah and the water didn't get cloudy at all.


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## Wide_Eyed_Wanderer (Aug 22, 2006)

Ha i jus looked in the tank again just now and seen the hermit crab out on the sand he survived too!!!!


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