SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!!

[Baos]

You say you drained the water out from inside it? Where did the water get in, around the top? If the water can get in it DO NOT SUBMERGE IT!!!! Once it's dried out completely I'd use it again but you'd have to make sure it stays out. Whenever you break a heater or drop one in that's a hangon type, ALWAYS UNPLUG it first before you try to remove it.

I have had a "inexpensive" submergeable one which leaked water in . My fish were very unhappy and I had a hard time figuring it out until I reach into the tank while I had a cut on my finger. In the cut is where I felt the voltage. This heater had been putting voltage into the water and the fish were being zapped 24/7. As soon as the heater was out the fish got better. Others will report getting zapped seriously by broken heaters in their tanks.

like any electronic, once it gets wet, its done. for the cost of a new heater vs replacing all your fish and the headache involved, i would spend the money and just get a new one, its good "piece of mind", check the equipment section in the buy & sell

You wouldn't belive the things I've spilled on electronics, and trust me they are currently working today. certain components when bad can be replaced and resoldered with parts from radio shack. If a residue is left behind it can be sprayed and cleaned with circuit board cleaner. If it's just water, after it is dried out, and if it hasn't smoked, it should work. But to be on the safe side monitor the temperature in a bucket of water with the heater inside(hanging off the edge). Also pay attention to weird sounds or smoking.

[Finbert]

I gave up fishkeeping and didn't come back for over a decade because a faulty heater kept cooking my fish. They are simply not something you want to mess with and get wrong, because the consequences are that everything dies. I'm super-paranoid about heaters; even brand-new ones I test in a bucket for 24 hours of temperature stability before they get anywhere near my tank. Broken ones also pack a pretty powerful zap, so if you do decide to plug it in and test it, be forewarned.

[firestorm]

How quick would you say the broken heater would take to kill the fish? I once panicked because I thought mine were submersible and they had that same max water line. I was thinking the same thing about the ones that submersible with the lines. I think they would probably be ok under water because they never killed an of my fish. I would also say to let it dry out, you don't want to mix electricity with water. That can be a bad thing. I would also test it after in a bucket. But for all it's worth you may as well just go buy a new one. If water actually did get in that one I would probably not use it again.

[Baos]

.deleted.

Edited June 25, 2008 by Baos

[Ishkabod]

I just had a brand new heater that i wasn't using so i decided to use it to heat up my buckets of water to tank temp to not shock my fish. I noticed that there was water vapor whenever i turned it on one day. I pulled the electrical components out of the glass tube and used twisted toilet paper to squeeze the moisture out of the cotton like fiber in the bottom of the glass. I've put it back together and it's now perfectly fine and runs with no errors. It's also an elite and hangs off the edge of the tank. As long as there isn't any rust you should be fine drying it out like i described. It's really easy to take apart.

Good luck

Lisa :ml:

[T&J]

Depends on if you look at that line as a maximum depth or a minimum depth... I have always kept my submersible heaters to a depth well above the line on the heater to prevent the glass from overheating and cracking. That's what I thought it was there for.

The line on mine specifically states "minimum depth", as that's the minimum level the heater should be submerged to to prevent the above-water glass from overheating and cracking. I suspect that's what the line on most, if not all, submersible heaters represents.