EMERGENCY heater went haywire

[LaxFrags]

Something went wrong with heater and my 72 gallons at 88 degrees. Nothing dead yet, turned off lights and took out heater, crossing fingers and hoping everything isn’t dead in the morning. Any tips would be great, nothing like this has happened to me before.

Side note- sorry I’ve been pretty inactive lately. I’ve just been enjoying the summer and haven’t had much time for reefing but trying to get back into the swing of things. This community has been so awesome.

 

[chadfish]

Do you have a fan? If not, I like to put a couple frozen water bottles in the sump. Can slowly reduce temp if you have a medium-small system

 

[LaxFrags]

Fans now on the tank, thanks! put some ice in bags in the sump.

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

Did the heater break in the tank or just malfunction? Maybe run some carbon

 

[LaxFrags]

I think just malfunction, I’m going to test it tomorrow. I don’t have any carbon right now, gonna pick that up tomorrow too.

 

[Greg Hiller]

I know it's after the fact, but I never trust the thermostats in a standard heater. Best to set them at about 78, then plug them into a separated temperature controller. You can purchase very inexpensive and seemingly reliable external temp controllers now. Also, I suggest that you never submerge the seal section of the heater. The seals eventually leak and if water gets into the heater your tank can be in a "world of trouble" as the heavy metals in the heater end up in the water. I've seen it happen to many a tank.

FWIW, I wrote a three part series on stopping such accidents. While it was written a long while back, seems to me it is all still applicable:

Part I was here:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-05/gh/index.php

 

[LaxFrags]

Thanks! amazingly, only one coral ended up dying. all the fish were saved too.

 

[thrillreefer]

Wow that’s great! I figured a lot would be toast. Must have caught it quickly! Not boiled just blanched