Help please! Heater broke water is 100F

[spagetti]

I woke up just now and my tank was literally steam with how hot it was. I had everything going fine for 2 months, i had corals and 2 fish in there and everything is dead. Parts of my rock have turned white, and all my corals and fish died. I took out what was still alive and put them in little containers with the tank water, then put it in a big bucket with cold water to cool them. I just dont know what to do. The aquatop is done for, it keeps reading the water at 72F. I put the rocks in buckets with nothing in them, are they fine in there? I spent nearly $300 on just the rocks and now most of them are white, and then the $200 on fish and corals is ******* gone. Can I even use any of this? I had nassarius snails and they're probably dead in the sand. Do I have to start over? I can't afford to do that right now, I probably couldn't even get a good heater.

How do I fix this? Is this like it for this tank? Do I need to get all new media since the bacteria on the rocks died? I just need some kind advice right now.

 

[blaxsun]

Get a new heater. Eheims are great.

 

[TnFishwater98]

I woke up just now and my tank was literally steam with how hot it was. I had everything going fine for 2 months, i had corals and 2 fish in there and everything is dead. Parts of my rock have turned white, and all my corals and fish died. I took out what was still alive and put them in little containers with the tank water, then put it in a big bucket with cold water to cool them. I just dont know what to do. The aquatop is done for, it keeps reading the water at 72F. I put the rocks in buckets with nothing in them, are they fine in there? I spent nearly $300 on just the rocks and now most of them are white, and then the $200 on fish and corals is ******* gone. Can I even use any of this? I had nassarius snails and they're probably dead in the sand. Do I have to start over? I can't afford to do that right now, I probably couldn't even get a good heater.

How do I fix this? Is this like it for this tank? Do I need to get all new media since the bacteria on the rocks died? I just need some kind advice right now.

Post some pics

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Time for a New heater and a heater controller for starters. I wouldn't matter on brand of heater as much as I'd look for a inkbird or ranco controller. But if that water really hit 100f for any real length of time, all of your stock is kaput.

 

[Cell]

I would remove anything dead and perform a big water change. Buy two half size heaters instead of one full size so if one gets stuck on, it cannot cook your tank.

 

[Sebastiancrab]

Put an Inkbird or Finnex controller on each heater to prevent this happening again.

 

[tharbin]

Sorry for your loses. Most of what survived will most likely recover. Go over the rocks carefully looking for dead organisms and remove them, or just keep them in a fallow environment and watch for dead organisms.

When you have a major temperature change event (either way), bring the tank and inhabitants back to temperature slowly.

Unfortunately heaters are the single biggest cause of system crashes. There just are no fail-proof heaters. Eheim heaters are very good and fail less than many others. There are threads and threads on heaters and redundancy. You can go crazy with redundancy. Failing ON is the most common heater failure so a simple external temperature probe connected to a cutoff switch is a 90% solution. I know someone makes one but I haven't been able to find it now that I want to find it. I'm not really big on using a heater controller to control the heater. I'd rather have a simple voltage cutoff if the temperature goes more than a few degrees over the set temperature. That said Inkbird is very popular and anything RANCO-based is probably as good as it gets.

Give your tank and what's left time to recover. More has survived than you will believe.

 

[Harold999]

Nitrifying bacteria survive 100F perfectly fine.
120F is the max for them.

On Ali i purchased this cheap controller, works perfect so far and the temperature swings are less than with my former Inkbird. You will need a seperate temperature alerting system though, it doesn't have wifi or an app.

 

[Weasel1960]

Definitely agree with the smaller heater redundancy and using a controller.

 

[Idech]

+1 for the Inkbird temperature controller. Pick the one specifically made for aquariums.

 

[elcapitan1993]

I use a bayite controller, (it’s just like inkbird but better) I have had it one my tank for 2 years now and I have had no issues, I’m sorry for what happened, that’s never a good feeling, I would get the heater controller, drain all your water out and put fresh saltwater back in and you probably need to recycle it now to

 

[Idech]

I use a bayite controller, (it’s just like inkbird but better)

I’m curious, why is it better ? Lots of people use the Inkbird, as I do, but I’ve never heard about this one.

 

[emmo]

Time for a New heater and a heater controller for starters. I wouldn't matter on brand of heater as much as I'd look for a inkbird or ranco controller. But if that water really hit 100f for any real length of time, all of your stock is kaput.

A qualtiy heater and controller are often over looked as a solid investment.

 

[Spieg]

Sadly, heater failure is one of the more common causes of tank crashes. Agree with the above (2 smaller heaters with a separate controller) is the best way to avoid these problems.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

You don’t need any new rock or sand, just rinse the sand. I would replace all the water and restart.

 

[Jekyl]

I believe that a heater controller is the most important piece of technology when it comes to reef tanks. Sorry for your losses.

 

[Harold999]

I believe that a heater controller is the most important piece of technology when it comes to reef tanks.

Yeah, but only combined with a heater with it's own built in thermostat, so that you have an extra safety. Some people with controllers use those titanium heaters without a built in thermostat, which is asking for trouble too.

 

[Tamberav]

I woke up just now and my tank was literally steam with how hot it was. I had everything going fine for 2 months, i had corals and 2 fish in there and everything is dead. Parts of my rock have turned white, and all my corals and fish died. I took out what was still alive and put them in little containers with the tank water, then put it in a big bucket with cold water to cool them. I just dont know what to do. The aquatop is done for, it keeps reading the water at 72F. I put the rocks in buckets with nothing in them, are they fine in there? I spent nearly $300 on just the rocks and now most of them are white, and then the $200 on fish and corals is ******* gone. Can I even use any of this? I had nassarius snails and they're probably dead in the sand. Do I have to start over? I can't afford to do that right now, I probably couldn't even get a good heater.

How do I fix this? Is this like it for this tank? Do I need to get all new media since the bacteria on the rocks died? I just need some kind advice right now.

You can still use the rocks. May have to cycle a bit again from die off in the tank but likely the bacteria is alive.

An inkbird aquarium controller is around $25-$30 and you hook a heater to it to help prevent heater failures like this.

Unfortunately almost all heaters are prone to failing eventually.

 

[rd62rdstr]

So sad, get an InkBird 306T with the plastic temp sensors. It’ll protect against this happening again.

 

[Twoddler]

I think you probably get the message about your heater, but I would get the tank back to temp, then test your ammonia and nitrates see where you are before you formulate a plan