[sbclover]

Can anyone tell me if a glass heater has any bad stuff inside them? Have had a few fish dieing for a couple of weeks and have just noticed the heater was broken when I removed it the glass seperated off the heating element (was unplugged), came home and 2 hours later and had a lot of fish dead. Could this of caused it?

thanks Sean

 

[PfunMo]

My only thought would be theory only. There is often some insulation that looks like a form of fiberglass in the heater. That could be a problem for fish if it were to get into gills. ??? There is also the question of the electricity but that is more a hazard to you than to them. Did it not trip a breaker or such when the water hit the controls?

 

[sbclover]

The tank went very cloudy. Removed all fish that were still going and put them into a tub of clean water. Changed about 80% of the water and after a hour or so put the 4 remaining fish
(15 gone $$$$$) back into the tank. The circuit braker did not trip at all.
The heater has gone white up near the tempreture scale.
It has been five days now and the 4 remaining fish are going strong. I have put it down to the heater but still wondering??

opcorn: Had to put this in because my daughter liked it.

 

[adam0444]

Well what did the temperature get to?

 

[PfunMo]

When I mentioned the electrical, I was thinking the glass had broken in the water and one would expest the breaker to trip. If it just came apart as you removed it, it is possible the contacts stuck and raised the temperature neough to kill many of the fish but not all. That also could possibly account for the glass breaking. Some fish are able to deal with high temperature more than others. Even in the same type fish. Size sometimes comes into play but sometimes there isn't any real reason that we can see. Maybe like some of us can hold our breathe longer than others???

 

[BillD]

Fresh water is a good insulator of electricity. I have accidently dropped a lit florescent fixture into a tank, and it stayed lit until I pulled the plug, and the breaker, obviously, didn't trip. It also did not bother the fish.

 

[PfunMo]

When I have dropped water on electronics, it has never been a good insulation for me! I think you may have been very lucky when you dropped the light. I just burned the solder track off a circuit board when I had it fired up and moved it through a drop of water on my bench. The drop of water was off a glass of tea I was drinking.