Need advise

[sferris1]

I just got home amd my thermometer malfunctioned and broke the glass casing. Of course there is copper in there and ive been at work for 11 hrs and all of my corals look terrible. What do I do besides a simple water change cause you usually cannot get copper out once its in?

 

[Smitty]

Oh wow, sorry to hear that...I large water change is needed. Do you have maybe someone's tank you could put your corals and inverts in or else a quarantine tank that you can place them in?

 

[yote]

I'm betting that the real problem is the electricity.
But I'd still do the water changes just in case.Give it a couple of days and see how it goes.

 

[Smitty]

Are you talking about the heater glass cracking or the actual glass thermometer glass cracking?

 

[BL1]

If it's a glass aquarium thermo, there shouldn't be any copper or mercury in it

 

[Smitty]

If it's a glass aquarium thermo, there shouldn't be any copper or mercury in it

That's what I was thinking too.

 

[sferris1]

Thanks guys Smitty no I dont have anyone that has one. Yote I think you may be right cause the water actually smells burnt and yes Smitty the glass on the haeter I know I said thermometer but I meant heater.

 

[Smitty]

Ok, yeah go ahead and unplug it and take it out so that it don't harm your livestock.

 

[sferris1]

Thanks Smitty did that...

 

[andysgirl8800]

Sorry about your tank. Hope everything perks up again. :(

 

[Cathic]

Sounds electrical to me, corals should return to normal, those that survived (not to sound depressing) but not knowing when it happened Livestock should be fine. New heater and you should be good to go. Preferably a shatter proof one, Marineland makes a nice one I like called a Stealhpro self regulating composite shatterproof foam insulated.

 

[tankedchemist]

it's definitely not a copper problem. There's no copper-based thermometers anyway, and the copper in a heater is in solid form, plated with tin. You'd have had to leave it in there for a looooong time to degrade all that tin and get to the copper.

if you want confirmation, get a voltameter and measure the voltage of the tank. or get a copper test kit, and test for that. :)

 

[sen5241b]

I had the same thing happen!

Indeed there is a copper element in that heater and my inverts came to a halt also. You need to do a 50% change followed by several 25% changes. A 50% is the only thing that will get a substantial water change done. If you do the math, a a series of smaller changes will take forever to get the copper out.

Some people have had luck eliminating copper by running water thru a canister filter with "poly-filter".

 

[sferris1]

Thank everyone I did about a 35% percent water change. I guess ill do another one tonight.

 

[tankedchemist]

if your copper test shows copper, the best thing to do is run carbon through a canister filter, and/or run a poly filter. Or, there are copper chelators that you can buy at the LFS that might help.

 

[wontonflip]

Preferably a shatter proof one, Marineland makes a nice one I like called a Stealhpro self regulating composite shatterproof foam insulated.

I have 2 of those heaters....LOVE them :^: They have auto-shut off if pulled out of water, but I haven't tested that ;)

 

[tankedchemist]

those are the only heaters I've ever used. though for some reason, one of the ones in my 125 had some stray voltage, despite everything being in tact. weird, but bound to happen occasionally given how many of these heaters I have.

 

[motorcyclereefer]

Sorry to hear. I lost a Lionfish due to a heater breaking.

 

[sen5241b]

I had a glass heater and they say NEVER take it out of the water while its plugged in. I pulled it in and out a hundred times but on the 101th time it broke after I put it back in the tank and I did not know it was broke till a day later as I was walking out the door to leave for the weekend. The Surge protector had begun to melt and I smelled smoke!! I called off my trip and did 5 water changes --one every couple hours. Only lost a snail or two.