horrible fish death

[nejsux]

The heating element in my heater seems to have exploded, cracked the glass, and was shotting electricity into my water. I came home from class and found it like that, I grabbed it & shocked myself (duh-should have unplugged it, but I panicked) and my betta died a few hours later. The other fish seem lethargic, but recovering. I got a new heater right away too. BUT OH MAN........ I never expected that to happen. The wiring in my house is all good & surge protected, so I guess it was just that the heater was a few years old and crapped out. What a bummer though. My first dead fishie.

[Grant R]

God, that sounds terrible, but over the fish you should have put your own safety first and not put your hand in grabbing the heater !!

Still, shows you are a true hero and put your fish first - good on you !!

You also replaced it straight away which was the right thing to do. A malfunctioning heater can be devastating.

[Anemoneman]

A broken heater can do a lot of damage. A GFI will prevent an electric shock by tripping in the event of a ground fault.
The copper in the element begins to oxidize immediately and will contribute to the damage. Prompt large water changes and mitigate the toxicity. A friend of mine lost nearly everything to a broken heater, not from the electricity but from the toxicity.

Sorry for the loss. Glad you weren't seriously injured.

Mark

[fishfreek]

Yes I would avocate a plugin GFI adaptor or replacing the electrical outlet that your tank uses to be a GFI outlet. These can be identified by having a two buttons in the middle and are usually installed in the bathroom sink area.

I had a heater explode once when i had a heater accidently exposed to air and then poured water over it. Needless to say the heater glass broke and there was black soot all over the surface of the water and the rubbermaid tub that I was using as a mixing tub.

[Toomanyfish]

First, thank goodness you're okay!!! You could have been seriously hurt there!!!
Secondly, I'm sorry to hear about your betta...it's always hard to lose one of these beauties. I hope your other fish get better. The suggestion to do some water changes is a good one!

[targaboy78]

Hey Nej,

Sorry about the loss but really glad to hear that you are OK.

You are lucky in some respects. I almost burnt my folks house down like that. Heater cracked and must have exploded, cuz the tank broke too. I arrived home in the nick of time as the hood was melting and plastic smoke and fumes everywhere (not to mention 20 gallons of water). I was smart enough to unplug it first, but I totally understand your reaction, not judging you at all. Getting zapped by electricity is no fun at all!

I encourage everyone to install GFI power outlets for your tank receptacles.


One of these days I really have to start a "Tank Disaster" Thread. I've had some doozies, and might save somebody else a lot of trouble.

[Thaiboxer]

Glad to hear you're okay! I made a worse mistake with no duress last weekend and shocked myself on my power bar for my tank... I'd bet it's fairly common when you mix water and electricity

[nejsux]

i did about a 1/3 water change right after and every night since. i did see the oxidation or black soot, and not much of it seems to have leaked out into the tank. the crack was fortunately at the top of the heater, above the element, so that nothing harmful seems to have escaped. Except for the betta, my other fishies all seem okay now, so I'm grateful. The funny thing is, that outlet is GFI. I was wondering if maybe the voltage the heater was giving off is just too low to trip it or if theres something wrong with the outlet too. My house is full of eklectronice, computers & such, and I happen to be a klutz, so everything is GFI and surge protected.