need heater help a sap

[jomatty]

I woke up this morning and the heater was broken and the tank had slipped into the low 60's. I have replaced the heater but the fish and corals are not looking good at all. I have a 150 gallon tanks that is basically cycled and I could move the fish to that. My concern is that will be just as dramatic as leaving them in the tank while heating it up. What would you guys do and how slow do I need to go bring it back up to the 76 degrees I usually keep it at

 

[jomatty]

How about feeding? Should I feed them to get them moving around or should I let them stay hunkered down in the rocks and wait this out?

 

[jomatty]

Anyone? I really don't know how much harmful things are in a glass heater. Not sure if I need to panic and move the fish and coral and shrimp from the 40 gallon to the 150.

 

[swannyson7]

I'd keep them where they are and slowly bring the temp up. What size heater are you using? As long as it's not a huge heater (500w+), I'd just set it at your desired temp and let it do its thing. Do your best to get any shards of glass out so that the fish don't accidentally eat them and running some fresh carbon probably wouldn't be a bad idea (although I doubt it's really necessary).

 

[Zivia]

Well I see two options. I've never had that happen to me so I can not comment from personal experience, just keep that in mind. Moving the fish is potentially as risky as leaving them in there because of the stress that you'll induce. If I were you I would probably leave them in there and hope for the best. I think feeding is trivial but honestly I don't see how it could hurt in this situation. The one thing I am unsure of is if the glass heater contains anything that would harm them. That's something I cannot comment on as I have never run into that situation. If you do decide to leave them in there then I would slowly bring the temperature back up. As in maybe only two or three degrees an hour. Others may disagree with me but a friend of mine had his heater go out on him over night. The next day he bought another and did small increments like that and practically everything survived.

 

[jomatty]

Thank you guys for your feedback. I just got a chance to read my posts and I apoligize for some of the grammar and errors. I was using my phone from home and a bit worked up and it is fairly attrocious. Anyways, what I am most worried about now that I've had some time to think is what may have leached out of the heater. I have been told that copper and gasses are present. I am worried that may be part of the reason that the sps's are looking so bad. From now on I will be using titanium heaters like the one in my larger tank. All of the fish except for my 6 line wrasse Cecilia are accounted for, although some are not looking great, they seem to be hanging tough. Mushrooms and zoas look fine, but the sps's, especially the big birdsnest and the big stylophora that I love, are looking really rough. Hopefully their polyps are just retracted and they will bounce back.

Any other input or advice is still very welcomed, especially anything pertaining to what is inside those heaters.

 

[swannyson7]

I'm not sure about the copper, but you could get a copper test kit from the LFS or a piece of polyfilter to see if it changes blue (indicates that it has removed copper). I wouldn't necessarily get too worried about the SPS looking rough... birdsnest & stylophora are both pretty resilient and will look bad due to the temp drop with very little PE. Start bringing up the temp and test for copper before jumping to any conclusions. Moving the livestock to a different tank (especially one that isn't fully cycled) may do more harm than good. If you're really concerned about toxins, I'd definitely run some fresh carbon and get some fresh water mixing for a large water change so you can take more drastic steps if necessary.

 

[jomatty]

I just got off the phone with LFS and she said that those heaters just have alcohol in them and not any gasses or anything, so it should just be temperature I am battling

 

[swannyson7]

Good to hear, but I'd still be prepared with some freshly mixed water just in case. Fresh carbon certainly wouldn't hurt either...

 

[mainereefer]

slowly bring up temp run lots of carbon and start mixing sw for a couple waterchanges

 

[skinz78]

Well I see two options. I've never had that happen to me so I can not comment from personal experience, just keep that in mind. Moving the fish is potentially as risky as leaving them in there because of the stress that you'll induce. If I were you I would probably leave them in there and hope for the best. I think feeding is trivial but honestly I don't see how it could hurt in this situation. The one thing I am unsure of is if the glass heater contains anything that would harm them. That's something I cannot comment on as I have never run into that situation. If you do decide to leave them in there then I would slowly bring the temperature back up. As in maybe only two or three degrees an hour. Others may disagree with me but a friend of mine had his heater go out on him over night. The next day he bought another and did small increments like that and practically everything survived.

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[skinz78]

slowly bring up temp run lots of carbon and start mixing sw for a couple waterchanges

Agreed 100% run some carbon and do a WC or two and you should be fine.

 

[mallorieGgator]

Run carbon and get some water for a water change. Let the temp come up slowly. Good luck and keep us updated!

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[jomatty]

Thanks for the help. Tank is back up to temp and no casualties so far.