# my aquarium exploded



## majstor76 (Jun 11, 2010)

monkeyruler90 said:


> does anybody have any advice on what to do? i'm distraught :icon_frow


Really bad :icon_frow

I would clean mess , document everything and send heater to analysis (not to manufacturer). If analysis says its heaters fault, ask Hydor for damage compensation. If they say no, you say that youll post story on every forum on internet. That will do.

PS. can aquarium be salvaged? Except from back side i suppose


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## boringname (Nov 11, 2010)

Your taking this well. Maybe I'm heartless but if this happened to me I'd be more upset about the water damage than the dead fish.


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## ridewake210 (Jan 12, 2007)

Lucky your house didnt catch on fire with this happening while you were away and the heater still being plugged in. 

Also lucky the wall outlet didnt catch fire, looks like it came in direct contact
with the big spill.


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## tuffgong (Apr 13, 2010)

There is an infamous post on here about the Marineland Stealth Pro's exploding and shattering tanks. The OP of that thread contacted Marineland and they compensated him somehow, IIRC. Hopefully Hydor will respond in a similar fashion. As previously mentioned, make sure you document everything. Keep receipts/invoices for any supplies and repairs needed due to water damage. It will probably take a while but hopefully you get something. Sorry for your loss!


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## mott (Nov 23, 2006)

I am really sorry for you! Its what us aquariust fear most!!! What make of tank make was it? 
If you can prove it was the heater they should compensate. 
I never heard of heaters exploding and busting tanks but you never know until something like this happens.
Good luck with everything and keep us posted on your findings.


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## barbarossa4122 (Jan 16, 2010)

I am really really sorry for what happened to you. Good luck.


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## barbarossa4122 (Jan 16, 2010)

mott said:


> I am really sorry for you! Its what us aquariust fear most!!! What make of tank make was it?
> If you can prove it was the heater they should compensate.
> I never heard of heaters exploding and busting tanks but you never know until something like this happens.
> Good luck with everything and keep us posted on your findings.


I did hear and saw pics about this happening before. I think on APC but, I am not sure.


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## accordztech (Dec 6, 2004)

Man this ultimately sucks. This is why I went with an inline heater


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## Reginald2 (Mar 10, 2009)

When I saw the thread title, I half expected to see an algae bomb. Now, I'm sorry that I didn't. I didn't even know this type of thing was possible. All I can think is: eeek. I feel for you.


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## kevmo911 (Sep 24, 2010)

This comes a bit late, but unplugging whatever it is from that outlet wouldn't be a bad idea...


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## accordztech (Dec 6, 2004)

kevmo911 said:


> This comes a bit late, but unplugging whatever it is from that outlet wouldn't be a bad idea...


That's true, but it did say shatterproof


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## FSM (Jan 13, 2009)

Did you remove the trim from the tank, or was it designed to be rimless?


It looks like the room is carpeted, which means the carpet pad is soaked and is going to start to smell bad soon.


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## Centromochlus (May 19, 2008)

Oh man, i'm so so so sorry... that's really gotta be a bummer. Just stay positive; any sensible company would compensate you for the damages if you can prove that their product was the cause.

And i agree with boringname. I'm sure having all that water soaked into your carpet and under your furniture isn't good... that's going to be a pain to clean up. Keep us updated.


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## Fish4Fun (Jan 4, 2010)

Sorry to hear about the tank, hope everything works out for you.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

This is heartbreaking! I am sorry this has happened to you. I agree with unplugging whatever is still in that outlet. At least until you are certain there isn't damage to the outlet.


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## bnbfishin (Dec 23, 2010)

Next time have the outlets near the tank protected with GCFI outlets. At least it'll save you if it happens again, God forbid that happens! I'm installing those before I finish my tank.


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## kevmo911 (Sep 24, 2010)

The unplugging comment I made was in regards to shorting something out, or electrocuting somebody. Water + Electricity = Bad. Your pic of the damage had something plugged in, and I was wondering if it had been plugged in since the tank blew. And +1, it's always a good idea to have tank gear plugged into a GCFI outlet (which can be installed even if the outlet isn't grounded). And always make sure anything plugged into the outlet has a low point before it gets there (so water running down a cord will drip to the ground rather than follow the cord directly to the outlet).


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## jczernia (Apr 16, 2010)

I am for what happened. 
Don't get your hopes on Hydor helping you I have two heaters from them that cooked my fish when I called them all they told me was to send the heater and if the heater is broken they would replace the heater but nothing for my loss of fish. I will never buy any of there product.


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## LilGreenPuffer (Sep 23, 2010)

Omigosh, I'm so sorry! What a mess - all that hard work, and your poor fishies!


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

Wow. that's a first for me to see that.

You can definitely get money from the heater manufacturer to get a new tank and maybe fix the floor.


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## [email protected] (Jul 17, 2008)

As everyone has said, document every step of the process. Digital film is cheap. 

Check to see if water damage, or specifically aquarium water damage is covered in your home owners or renters insurance. Don't call them until you check your deductible though. It very well might not be worth a claim, particularly in Florida. For some reason parts of Florida get wet. ;-)

40 gallons shouldn't be enough to cause structural damage. Since you're in Florida, if there is a crawl space, do what ever you need to do to make sure termites aren't attracted. Get a fan blowing on the wall. 

As to the water, a carpet shampooer from the grocery store will help in the immediate time frame. If the carpet smells, a decent pet store should have an enzyme product for urine that eats proteins. Marvelous products.


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## LilGreenPuffer (Sep 23, 2010)

OxyClean makes a detergent that eats proteins and works fabulously. You can also get it in a spray form.


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## Da Plant Man (Apr 7, 2010)

My heart just sank. I really REALLY feel sorry for you. Like this makes me sad, like I am crying right now. I have never seen this before :icon_cry:

I hope you get your money back at least. And get a REALLY HIGH QUOTE if you do.


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## ridethespiral (Aug 5, 2010)

HOLY crap man!!! 

hopefully you have homeowners insurance, but that doesn't give you back all your dead fishies :'(


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

sorry about your tank friend, i hope you get everything you deserve. i never used any glass heater and always used rena smart heater, been using it for over 2 years, it looks ugly but i think i will rather take that than shattering heater. hope you get your money from them for all of your loss.


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## ridethespiral (Aug 5, 2010)

If I came home to 40g, or in my case 75g of water no longer in the tank, and no signs of life... I'd probably shed a tear or two or many LOL  . We put our souls into these tanks and our little buddies.


cleaning that much water up... I would have no idea where to start.


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## doubleott05 (Mar 16, 2010)

you can use a wet dry vac or go to home depot and rent a rug doctor and it would pick up most of the water in the carpet.

sorry man that blows


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## non_compliance (Dec 1, 2009)

Are you sure that the back of the tank didn't just bust out and the water drained leaving the heater high and dry and it melted/fizzled/burned/blew up at that time?

Why/how would the heater "explode"? Doesn't seem likely to me. It is probably just a coincedence, or possibly you hairline fractured the glass reinstalling the heater?


Either way, sorry for your loss bro.... real bummer. Looks like the tank was aawesome too.


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## rwong2k (Dec 24, 2004)

Thanks for sharing your story
Hope everything turns out ok for you


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## Bettatail (Feb 12, 2009)

FSM said:


> Did you remove the trim from the tank, or was it designed to be rimless?
> 
> 
> It looks like the room is carpeted, which means the carpet pad is soaked and is going to start to smell bad soon.


+1
I guess the tank is DIY rimless, because the glass is too thin to be a rimless, am I right?
also, heater cracks if there is no water, and the material inside of the heater don't explode, there is no dynamite inside..

I feel sorry for your big lost, weeks, months, of efforts setting up a nice looking planted tank ruin in just less than ten minutes and mess up the room, the furniture. I don't want to see this happen to my tank or any others' , but anyway, sh*t happen..

To find out how this happen, use common sense first, until you can prove the absurdity is actually a fact.

Edit: Don't use hydro heater, I had one, placed vertically in my 9G, 5 hours without filter to stir the water, warm and cold water seperated in the small tank and only 10 degree difference, that piece of [sh*t] cracked. I noticed the weird swimming pattern of the feeder goldfish before I put my hand in the water, and saw the cracked heater..


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

Well just to give everyone an update I was able to contact Hydor and get in touch with their representative. He was very nice about the whole thing. I'm glad i kept track of everything, i took pictures of the accident before clean up. took pictures of the lost livestock, the room, scanned the receipts from the rug doctor, the price of the new glass and silicone and he was able to give me an estimate of how much they would reimburse me. Everything went great, they sent me a new 400w theo heater and a new hydroset thermometer to monitor the temperature. Great company. 










Then I started looking at ways to fix the aquarium, I remember reading about Scolley and his build so I used that as a reference guide. Great article, definitely had some great pointers. 
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/diy/27814-building-75g-all-glass-tank.html



At first I used a cheap silicone from Lowes but I didn't use enough and it turned out to not be strong enough, so I spent another 4 hours scraping and cleaning the glass and then bought Ge's RTV108 silicone. one of the best in the market. I was lucky to find a source in Tampa that was pretty affordable. 

First attempt at fixing the glass.









line of silicone


















After my first attempt, I set up the clamps too tight and the front glass shattered so I bought another sheet of glass, spent another 4 hours scrapping the old silicone off and set off to work. 

2 months later the tank looks great, it's able to hold water and new plants and fish are on the way.








ps. can you tell how paranoid i got with the silicone? those are some thick seams! 

If anybody has any question about the ordeal or has a question about building tanks definitely send me a message. This was a horrible thing to happen and i'll be happy to help anybody else out


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

wow the fixed tank+scape looks great! 

I'm glad they're gonna reimburse you and everything is working out though, hopefully it covers most if not all the cost


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## cah925 (May 18, 2007)

Wow, I'm not sure how I missed this thread when it happened. Good job getting it all fixed up again. Are those the lights you bought from me? Nice work putting them inline like that.
Let me know if you need some more plants. I've got gobs of them and would be happy to help restock.


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## btimmer92 (Mar 12, 2011)

Sorry for this ordeal... btw I like your ghetto rig clamp job  Actually it's not ghetto, it's a pretty good clamp job. 

A little off topic but I would put a background behind your tank just because of your light cords.


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## Aquachic (Apr 6, 2011)

Yipes. I'm now paranoid. I have two of these on two different tanks. Did you have a particular model? I'm just curious as it's possible you ran into a batch which were made wrong. 

That does suck though - your tank looked like it was really neat. I hope they help you out. 

I know that someone mentioned the inline type but I did read another posting on Amazon saying they leak. Does anyone have a reliable inline heater they've tried? I'm new to the whole planted aquarium thing so I'm on a rather large learning curve.

Oh, I forgot to say - cool pictures! It looks absolutely great! I'm also happy to see they helped you out. It must have been a weird fluke.


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## oscarsx (Mar 15, 2011)

I hope everything works out for you man, that sucks... good thing your house didn't catch fire with that heater still plugged in.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Wow.

Serious job at making lemonade out of lemons- KUDOS to you!!!


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## ridewake210 (Jan 12, 2007)

What a come back!!


A+ man!


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## mylittlefish (Oct 5, 2010)

WOW.

My wife will not let the clothes dryer run when we are away, even buying groceries.

She fears a vent fire.

Now anyone with this heater , will become agoraphobics.

Any of those plants come back?

Nice Fresh Start !


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## Jerry23 (Oct 28, 2007)

Sorry to hear that man. Was that a ADA rimless setup? I had a similar issue with salt water leaking under from the black trim onto a old blue extension cord on the kitchen floor. Had a bad electrical smell in there for a couple of days and a fried outlet


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## alan j t (Feb 13, 2008)

what a nice comback.


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

dang dude, that sucks. i feel for you.


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