My heater broke and it has been about a year later what do I do. - Aquarium Advice

raidencmc · 03-02-2008, 09:43 PM

About a year ago my heater broke in my 30 gallon SW tank. It never shut off. I arrived home from work and I can't remember what the temperature was but I had to use a meat thermometer to get a reading. Every thing was dead or so I thought. Immediately I started water changes of 5 gallons at a time until I got the temperature down. As I was cleaning out everything I noticed my clown was still hanging on. I left it in the tank cause I thought it was the only thing that made it. I found out that a few hermit crabs were still roaming around. I did not do anything other than start regular water changes. I started out with 5 gallons a day and went to 5 every other day and ended up at 10 a week. Today I do 10 gallons every other week. When I did the water changes I would vac the sand bed. In the beginning the rock looked bad, brown and dried out looking. The tank smelled but as time progressed the rock began to get its color back and the smell went away. I decided to add some snails to help with the sand(they are the ones that go under the sand and a tube is sticking out of the sand). The only thing that really seemed bad was algae. I figured it was a by product of the heater problem. I would scrape and remove it. I then added Astraea Turbo Snail and they cleaned up the rest of the algae. I also added another clown and it seems fine. My rock still just does not look as good as it did before. The colors are not as vibrant. I moved the tank and really gave it a good cleaning and noticed it had a lot of the dried look on the bottom and it left a large amount of sediment under the rock. I am wondering if everything is OK or has the rock been destroyed and needs to be replaced. As far as the inhabitants of the tank they are in great spirits. Any thoughts?

**melosu58** · 03-03-2008, 08:26 PM

Maybe the nitrifying bacteria might not be on the LR anymore but that can be taken care of over time. Can you give us some water test results?

raidencmc · 03-04-2008, 04:25 PM

That makes a lot of sense hear are the levels
Nitrate 40
Nitrite 0
Alkalininty KH 180-30
Ph 8.4-8.2 (I can't tell which color it is closer to on the test kit)
Ammonia 0-.25(I can't tell which color it is closer to on the test kit)
SG 1.021

stevefromga2000 · 03-10-2008, 06:17 AM

i've always been under the impression that the rock is never really alive, it's the creatures within the rock. if you want to jumpstart the growth within your rock, you could either remove some of the rock and replace with live rock from your LFS, or you could simply just add some more live rock to your tank now. like i said, i've only had my one tank, but that's something that might work in my opinion to help get everything growing again.

cmor1701d · 03-10-2008, 08:55 AM

Live rock simply refers to rock that hosts the nitrifying bacteria. It could be base rock that has gone through a cycle or rock recentyl taken from the ocean. The new rock from the ocean will have coraline algae and a lot of life on it too.

**melosu58** · 03-10-2008, 05:44 PM

Cmor is right. Live means that it has the nitrifying bacteria on the rock that promotes the cycle of you biological filtration. The live critters are a bonus.

raidencmc · 03-10-2008, 08:16 PM

That is fine. Just wanted to make sure that it did not create a problem that could not be cured with regular maintenance.

03-02-2008, 09:43 PM	#1
raidencmc Aquarium Advice Newbie Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 4	My heater broke and it has been about a year later what do I do. About a year ago my heater broke in my 30 gallon SW tank. It never shut off. I arrived home from work and I can't remember what the temperature was but I had to use a meat thermometer to get a reading. Every thing was dead or so I thought. Immediately I started water changes of 5 gallons at a time until I got the temperature down. As I was cleaning out everything I noticed my clown was still hanging on. I left it in the tank cause I thought it was the only thing that made it. I found out that a few hermit crabs were still roaming around. I did not do anything other than start regular water changes. I started out with 5 gallons a day and went to 5 every other day and ended up at 10 a week. Today I do 10 gallons every other week. When I did the water changes I would vac the sand bed. In the beginning the rock looked bad, brown and dried out looking. The tank smelled but as time progressed the rock began to get its color back and the smell went away. I decided to add some snails to help with the sand(they are the ones that go under the sand and a tube is sticking out of the sand). The only thing that really seemed bad was algae. I figured it was a by product of the heater problem. I would scrape and remove it. I then added Astraea Turbo Snail and they cleaned up the rest of the algae. I also added another clown and it seems fine. My rock still just does not look as good as it did before. The colors are not as vibrant. I moved the tank and really gave it a good cleaning and noticed it had a lot of the dried look on the bottom and it left a large amount of sediment under the rock. I am wondering if everything is OK or has the rock been destroyed and needs to be replaced. As far as the inhabitants of the tank they are in great spirits. Any thoughts?

03-03-2008, 08:26 PM	#2
melosu58 SW 10 yrs and over Community Moderator Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Richmond Va Posts: 12,641 Images: 80	Maybe the nitrifying bacteria might not be on the LR anymore but that can be taken care of over time. Can you give us some water test results? __________________ View My Tanks http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...8/melosu58.jpg Click here to Visit FantasyReef

03-10-2008, 08:55 AM	#5
cmor1701d Aquarium Advice Addict Community Mentor Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Belle Mead, NJ Posts: 3,883 Images: 43	Live rock simply refers to rock that hosts the nitrifying bacteria. It could be base rock that has gone through a cycle or rock recentyl taken from the ocean. The new rock from the ocean will have coraline algae and a lot of life on it too. __________________ Click here to Vote for Aquarium Advice on AquaRank . Vote EVERY day! Click Here for a list of commonly used acronyms and abbreviations. ____ Cmor

03-10-2008, 05:44 PM	#6
melosu58 SW 10 yrs and over Community Moderator Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Richmond Va Posts: 12,641 Images: 80	Cmor is right. Live means that it has the nitrifying bacteria on the rock that promotes the cycle of you biological filtration. The live critters are a bonus. __________________ View My Tanks http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...8/melosu58.jpg Click here to Visit FantasyReef

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03-04-2008, 04:25 PM	#3
raidencmc Aquarium Advice Newbie Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 4	That makes a lot of sense hear are the levels Nitrate 40 Nitrite 0 Alkalininty KH 180-30 Ph 8.4-8.2 (I can't tell which color it is closer to on the test kit) Ammonia 0-.25(I can't tell which color it is closer to on the test kit) SG 1.021

03-10-2008, 06:17 AM	#4
stevefromga2000 Aquarium Advice Freak Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Misawa Japan Posts: 247	i've always been under the impression that the rock is never really alive, it's the creatures within the rock. if you want to jumpstart the growth within your rock, you could either remove some of the rock and replace with live rock from your LFS, or you could simply just add some more live rock to your tank now. like i said, i've only had my one tank, but that's something that might work in my opinion to help get everything growing again.

03-10-2008, 08:16 PM	#7
raidencmc Aquarium Advice Newbie Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 4	That is fine. Just wanted to make sure that it did not create a problem that could not be cured with regular maintenance.