Fluval 300 watt heater

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Krazykarl

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So I've had this heater for about a year... Lately everytime I'd stuck my hand in mu tank to feed or move something I swore I felt stray voltage. But I'm a nail biter and I only ever felt this stinging on an cut skin... I've had my wife put her hand in and feel nothing. Sometimes I'd feel it sometimes I wouldn't. So today I go to feed the fish and wow, it hurt! So I start unplugging things one by one touching the water like a polock to test it (I'm polish yes) and finally get down to the last thing, the heater. Unplug it and bam it's gone. So I pull it out only to find the thing had shattered. This particular model was guaranteed not to shatter... So I will be emailing the company botching about their product and how it killed some of my soft corals (this of course is fabricated lol)... So to all those with fluval heaters beware....
 
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Gietz

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I've got one on a freshwater tank and I've been kinda noticing the samething WTF??? Had it for about 2 years tho I'm going to look into this thanks
 
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phi delt reefer

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i heard titanium units are not a hundred percent reliable either. Heaters are the deadliest pieces of equipment in a reef in my opinion. Lucky your didnt explode and shatter you sump.

I've been thinking about putting the heater in a pvc surround to absorb the explosion in case it ever happens. I have the ebo jager unit which are supposed to be pretty solid but nothings perfect.
 
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Krazykarl

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It shattered. Ya. But no visible damage to the sump thank god. It was surrounded by rock so maybe that helped. Gotta find a reliable heater now... Over 300 gallOns of water and one single heater. Not good
 
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phi delt reefer

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two 150w ebo-jagers.

heaters are cheap enough that we should be replacing them every two-three years... doubt i will replace mine when the time comes though, lol.
 
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Zakk

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The heater was in the sump and yo could feel the current in the main tank when you were feeding?  That's pretty sensitive. 

I concur with the 2X heaters.  It's funny, I have mine on the apex controller so that it can kill them if they overheat...don't think it checks for stray current though, wonder if there's a sensor for that...
 
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Krazykarl

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Yup any time my fingers came into contact with the surface water I felt a sting. If I left my hand in I coulndt feel it. Glad I found it tho. Before it caused much damage
 
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phi delt reefer

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Zakk link said:
The heater was in the sump and yo could feel the current in the main tank when you were feeding?  That's pretty sensitive. 

I concur with the 2X heaters.  It's funny, I have mine on the apex controller so that it can kill them if they overheat...don't think it checks for stray current though, wonder if there's a sensor for that...
Click to expand...

man i had the exact same though when Karl started this thread but couldnt think of how you would meausre that. is there even a way of measuring current in the tank? Do you just shove some multimeter prongs in and take a reading?
 
Blob-79

Blob-79

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im sure you could incorporate something onto a titanium grounding probe thingy

however say if your powerhead is leaking some voltage...its gonna turn off your heaters :p
 
Blob-79

Blob-79

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lol i owe you one...ive been having the same kinda feeling when i put my fingers in the tank.......so since I read this thead, ive been meaning to check it. Finally tested it tonight, and my return pump is leaking 60v......
 
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Zakk

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60v!!  Wow, everything in the tank must be feeling that.

All I had handy was some stainless steel band clamps, I stretched them out and attached a wire from them to the ground on an old plug I had around.  Reading immediately went right to 0.  I'm going looking for a ground probe, maybe ebay has one. 
 
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shayneh

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To expand on this a little here....While it is nearly impossible to get all sources of electricity out of our tanks this is another reason to use a closed loop design for circulation. The less items in the water the less chance of failure. And althought there is much debate I am pro ground probe and GCFI. I would much rather use the ground probe to deal with the electricity than risk having my hand in the tank and touch the light (or whatever) and have the electricity go to ground through me. 
 
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