help asap

[ems067]

I need help.. I was doing a water change and forgot to turn off the heater it broke and brown stuff came out i tried to suck out at much ot the water in the filter as i could... i dont want to turn the filter back on unless i know that it will not kill everything by doing so. please help

 

[lando]

Welcome to AquariumAdvice.com!!!
I will ne honest...this is not good. Be prepared to do several water changes over the next few days. Also begin running fresh carbon or chemi-pure and replace it often. Syphin out whatever you can see and hope all goes well. good luck

 

[ems067]

Thank you for your advice. While I was doing my water change I was taking water out of the bucket. I do not believe that any of the water got into the tank. I drained the filter of all the water that was in there cleaned it out of all the debry. I am going to the LFS now and I am going to get chem pure and new filter pads. I cleaned out the protein skimmer as well just in case anything got into that. Any suggestions on heaters that shut themselves off. I would have a great deal more piece of mind knowing the heater will shut off automatically in the event of no water or my mistakes.
thanks again... and say a little prayer to the fish gods that they survive.

 

[TheRealFF]

wow ur lucky u didn't get shoked 0.o. God bless you bud.

 

[revhtree]

Ya had that happen and didnt find it for a week! Lost alot of corals and inverts and got shocked!

As Lando mentioned: Carbon and water changes. Good luck.

 

[ems067]

I am happy to report that everyone made it through the night. Everyone appears to be happy and healthy. I purchased the new stealth heater which is plastic so it is shatter proof and most importantly error proof. I started my tank in July and this was my first crisis. I find I get very paniced when something goes wrong. I worry more about my fish then I do myself sometimes.
I think the thing that save me here was that I was there and saw it happen and the filter was not pumping at the time of the heater breaking. I drained out the entire filter, wiped it out, then also as an added precaution I bought new chem pure, cleaned out all the filters so hopefully it will not effect the fish. Thank you for your advice.

 

[pkremer]

Glad to hear it...I too had that experience a few years ago...pulled the heater out of the water for a second without unplugging it, put it back in the water and POW! I didn't get shocked and none of my fish died...glad you were lucky like me!

Paul

 

[malkore]

Any suggestions on heaters that shut themselves off. I would have a great deal more piece of mind knowing the heater will shut off automatically in the event of no water or my mistakes.
thanks again... and say a little prayer to the fish gods that they survive.

Visi-therm Stealth heaters
Ebo-Jager heaters


most good quality brands have auto-shut offs anymore.

 

[JG]

The "brown stuff" was probably iron precipitating out of the water as the electrodes from the heater came in contact with the water.

JG