One of my 2 year-old Visi-Therm Stealth plastic heaters ruptured sunday, sending plumes of a black substance into the tank yesterday. Heavy losses.

I suppose it's possible a pump was dropped on it several months ago during cleaning, so I'm not blaming the manufacturer. But the problem didn't start until the heater came on for the first time this year.

I did two 35-gallon water changes sunday evening, and another monday. Two fish survived, a yellow tang and yellow wrasse. Yellow fish must be immune... One snail is still moving around as is a coral banded shrimp. The cleaner shrimp and everyone else has gone to the reef tank in the sky.

I dropped a couple of cuprisorbs into the flow. after a few days I'll try a hermit crab, if he lives I'll get another cleanup crew.

The tank had reached a balanced state - it has a chiller but no protein skimmer for the last year or so, and water changes every 6 weeks when I remember. up till Sunday the livestock was well and happy. I attribute this to zero dosing, light feeding and Walt Smith live rock.

so check your heaters! I may not replace mine, the MH's keep things warm...

Any suggestions or additional info would be appreciated.

Oh man, that sucks. Every time I hear one of these stories, it makes me glad I spent a little extra on titanium heaters.

The heck of it is I own a titanium heater, but it is too long to fit in the sump. I use it to warm my water change water...

How does the water look now? is it clear again? Are you running anything besides the cuprisorb?

The water looks fine, the two fish seem ok. I replaced almost the entire volume of water.

The only cuprisorbs I could find were little 100ml in the bags. I stuck them in filter frames from a HOT filter from an old tank then put them in the sump flow.

I cant retrieve some of the dead livestock which may cause an ammonia spike. Also may need to get a protein skimmer - I lent mine to a buddy which means he probably has it installed on his setup.

i've been kicking around the idea of swapping out the tank for something bigger (or better designed) - but everything would have to work perfectly the first time.

for now, watchful waiting.
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Ah man that stinks. Keep us posted on what transpires.

Thank you everyone for the kind words.

Well, everything seems back to normal, minus some livestock. the corals are OK, and three fish survived. Some new green algae on the glass.

looks like little or no metals released into the water. I added a couple of peppermint shrimp to eat some aptasia, (and as guinea pigs) and they seem OK. I'll wait another week then slowly replace some fish.

I musta dodged a bullet this time.

Cheers,

Bob

So sorry for your losses...

I have two visitherm stealths on my new tank. Could you elaborate on how they ruptured and what caused the deaths? Was it the black stuff or the electricity? What do you think the black stuff is?

That's a realy tragedy - but it sounds like it could have been worse. Kudos to you for taking immediate action. That saved the livestock that survived.