Disaster. Everything is Dead. Help.

[Patroklos]

Well, not everything.

So, I wake up on this fine morning, put on my uniform and head out for the day with the sun not even up yet. Upon walking past my darkened aquarium I notice there is some hazyness to the glass. I walk up to inspect and I can feel the heat radiating from the tank. I flip on a light, and am horrified. All my corals are melted, my shimps dead, and the water is a soup of coral slime and tissue debris.

I do a quick inspection of the hardware and instantly find the problem. The water temperature is 85 degrees. I keep it at 72 normally. I take a look at my heater controler and there it is, set to 73 with its "heating" light happily illuminated regardless.

Immediate actions? Ripped the heater out of the wall and smashed into a dozen pieces. I then dumped the contents of my freezer ice trays into the fuge. Before having to leave for work I had the temp down to 83. I turned off all the powerheads, and took my daytime lights offline for the day. My two prized corals, a 30+ head branching australian frogspawn and 6'' in diameter australian wall hammer coral, are a mass of none to slowely desitigrating ooze. My acans look like jelly.

Losses:
Branching Frogspawn - $150
Wall Hammer - $175
Rainbow Acans - $250
Cleaner Shrimp - $30
Fire Shrimp - $30

Probably Losses:
Elegance Coral - $125
Chalice Coral - $60
BTA - $70

Looking Good So Far:
Brain coral
Assorted Zoas/Palys
Bubble Coral
Pipe Organ
All Fish

So all told I am looking at a $890 bath. If I was going to waste that kind of money in one evening I would have prefered to have done so in a bar or brothel.

So now I am at work, helpless to do anything but think about my tank imploding (and murdering the manufacturers of that heater). Not that I could do much if I was at home but watch my favorite corals die.

Well, thats the story so far, what is the advice you guys have for containing this unmitigated disaster? I know I need to get that dead matter out of there, unfortunetly I did a 25% water change last night (what a waste) so I have no water. I plan on just using tap once I get home to do a 50%, whatever is in the tap water can't be worse that what floating in my tank now. I anticipate an algea bloom, but there isn't much I can do about that. I hope the temperature has dropped by the time I get home, but if not I will continue dropping in ice until it has. I am really at a loss...

[Harry Gross]

I feel your pain.Although montarily speaking I had no initial-LOSSES...but have recently inherited a 100g (+) which was sooooo neglected its a COMPLETE rebuild such as yours. ALL of my corals were dead at the time I took over..and the only survivors were 2 clownies anda' chromis. But the silver-cloud is (now) 2 clowns 2 chromis 3 damsels 4 hermitt crabbs 4 snails and 1 orange spotted goby.
Next on the horizion...re-vampimg/redesigning lighting to a more modern up-to-date system...and then re-coralizing the project.
Point being>>all is NEVER lost my friend.Have faith in A/A !!! They'll getcha through it !!

[Tank2379]

Ouch that hurts me just reading about it.... It's scary to.... Sorry for your Loses Man....

[Patroklos]

Thanks.

Update:

Came home for lunch, the death toll now includes:

Sun Coral
Dendros
Talbot Damsel
3 Chromis

That surprised me, I'd have figured the damsels and chromis would be the most likely to survive. My Kole Tang is MIA. I saw him out this morning but I can't find a trace of him this afternoon.

The good news is my PBT, YWG and clown pair are all out and active. I just pulled out everything from the tank that was dead and got in a quick 5gal water change. Emptied the skimmer. The temo is down to 76.

The offending piece of equipment:

FINEX HC-0800 THERMAL-CONTROLER

[melosu58]

Sorry abot the mess. Hopefully you can get the temp back up and those PWC`s will help.

[austinsdad]

Might wanna watch your ammonia for a while with so much dying. Keep making SW too.

I feel for you. So very sorry!

[Ziggy953]

Any particular reason that you are keeping the tank at 72? A reef should be between 78-81ish. My tank hovers around 80 and will hit 85 on a really hot day or if I have the wood stove going a full blast. The giant temp swing could be the cause but I would check you water parameters and look for other possiblities as well.

[Tank2379]

So you have your Temp Controller and it went Hay Wire? (Finex Temp Controller?).. So it wasn't the actual heater that went bad?

[Patroklos]

Any particular reason that you are keeping the tank at 72?

After playing with my parameters during the cycle, that is just where the tank stablized at. I could heat it if I wanted to, but given the room temp (we keep it at 70) the heater would turn on and off constantly giving me 3-5 degree temperture swings either way all the time. At 72 the heater was almost never on.

Until last night

[qute]So you have your Temp Controller and it went Hay Wire? (Finex Temp Controller?).. So it wasn't the actual heater that went bad?[/quote]

It was the controller. The temperature prob hooks straight into it so it has to have been it, the heater just turns on and off as the controller tells it. The heater can't run without power.

Casualties:
Yellpw Eyed Kole Tang
All Mushrooms

Bubble coral is looking bad. Hasn't melted yet but is shrivled.
Pipe Organ is not open.
Brain is melting
Elegance is shivled up

[Tank2379]

WOW, Man I am deeply sorry sound like your Tank has crashed without notice over night.... Dude I feel bad... for ya...

[GhostKnife]

Wow crazy that the controller would do that. Like Ziggy said I would look into other reasons as to why this happened. I would even look into the booklet or online for information on the temp controller. Again like ziggy said 72 for a reef tank is pretty low. I keep my FW tropical tank at 79. I dont have my reef set up yet(soon) however, I have dual 100 watt heaters that I will calibrate durring the cycle period to keep my tank at 80.

[lynxpilot]

85 doesn't sound that bad to me. Shallow reef areas hit that all the time in the real world. Granted 78 - 80 is probably more 'ideal', but I'm stumped why 85 would crash everything like that. Could it be that wherever you were reading 85 was just a cool spot and the core temps were a lot more?

[Innovator]

It is not surprising the inhabitants could not handle the temperature increase by such a wide margin overnight. Heater malfunctions are extremely common with most sticking in the "on" position. All heaters can and will eventuall malfunction, which is why you purchase a separate temperature controller such as a Ranco/Aqualogic Controller. The controllers that are packaged with or made by the same company as the heaters are considered junk and no better than your everyday heater. The Ranco/Aqualogic Controllers are commercialized/industrial (reliable). Always set the Controller 2 degrees higher than your heater. Sorry for your losses.

[mr86mister]

Oh man, thats absolutely terrible. Eeeesh, I don't know how well I could compose myself if that happened to me. Sorry for your loss.

[wun68]

Sorry for you loss, and after reading this post I am thinking about keeping my chiller plugged in year-round.

[the_elvish_misfit]

Oh man I feel your pain. A few weeks ago I came home from work to find the water looking like milk and the temp reading 103 (fresh water tank normally 76). The heater itself had surged or something and went into maximum overdrive for a few hours. So I too threw 2 trays of ice cubes in the tank plus those plastic re freezable kinds. Needless to say all the fish died anyway. Only about a 70$ loss (nowhere near the bullet to your wallet).

Can you pull anything out into a second tank? I don't know much about corals, but throwing them into a bucket of new salt water seems better than leaving them in a gooey hot tub.

Maybe tonight you can hit the bar, with good reason.

[jhampton_wsu]

Originally Posted by the_elvish_misfit

Maybe tonight you can hit the bar, with good reason.

From one AA to another AA. Sorry to hear about your loss.

[MarineFlake]

Vrey sorry to hear. FWIW a temperture controller is worth the $$. These drop in heaters are terrible as you discovered, as long term solutions. Best of luck rebuilding your tank!

[Patroklos]

Thanks guys.

I have lost all the corals and all but 5 fish. I have a coral I had sitting in quarantine at the LFS that I am picking up today as my first step to starting over. We will see how much I can get into this "new" tank, but this coral is already bought and paid for so I will at least pick it up (frogspawn). Maybe I will pick up a couple shrimps, my old ones were always so active and colorful

I have done a 100% water change since the incident. Everything left is healthy though I do have a mild algea bloom.

[gooyferret]

Just from what i have heard and experienced you should have to "smaller" heaters in your tank in case one does malfunction... For example instead of using a 300w heater use 2 150watts instead...If one does malfunction or just stop working it wouldnt be as bad. I am an old school reefer, just what i have always done! FYI. Sorry for the loss!