HEELP HEATER BROKE IN TANK!

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H

HrHagel

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Sep 7, 2009
1,639
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Denmark
I was moving some decor when i noticed a HUGE ammonia spike, from all the gathered poo under the fake decor thingys.. I start to do a water change and all of a sudden my 12" Oscar rams straight into the heater and breaks it in half!!
There was a spark and nearly all my fish are dying! Some of them are still breathing on the bottom, some are not!

Im paralyzed?! what to do?!
 

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Yeah obviously and picked it up..

I'm now in the process of gently holding all the fish back and forth..

Some are back on theire feet but some are still paralyzed :(
 
Cut the power. remove the broken pieces carefully. 50% -75% WC. And do all of this w/ as little stress on the fish as possible. And Pray. Looks like they got zapped, They'll either pull threw it or not. the WC is to remove any toxins from the heater that got into the water. so a follow up 50% wc in 24 hours is also a good idea. And rinse your pre-filter pads good but try and leave your bio alone. The idea is to try and get anything the heater leaked gone, w/out wipeing out your bio system. Your fish will need the best water and care for the next few days/weeks if you want any of them to pull threw. I'de also double dose w/ stresscoat or similar water conditioning product, and leave your lights off.

GL, I've had this happen in the past. The fish will be okay w/out a heater for a few days as long as your house temp is in the high 60's low 70's. and invest in a non-glass submersable heater if you can.
 
If you have another tank or even a bucket you could hook up to a filter, i suggest you do so. that tank needs to be cleaned out throughly. the shorter they are in that water, the better. once you get past all this stuff, you will want to buy a metal based heater such as this http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3743+8172&pcatid=8172
they are extremely economical and you know they won't shatter
 
Thanks alot for the great replies guys.. I have moved them into my 160 liter tank.. it's extremely over populated obviously, but atleast the water is perfect and the parameters spot on, so they won't suffer any additional damage. I've emptied the tank completely, replaced the gravel with the leftover i had from bags and i have rinsed all the rocks and the everything in the canister.
I'm gonna give it a few days with 50% water changes every day, and then move them back in it, since the 160liter is WAYWAYWAY too small for even just 1 of my fish, and currently theres about 10 huge fish in there :-/
Dangit!
 
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