# Protocol for a shattered heater?



## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

OK, so long story short, I was setting up my 20 gal for spawning imbellis and the stupid hood fell into the water. I hear this sickening ka thunk and I take out the hood and look at the damage. I see what looks like a big crack in the tank. I wince. Where's the leaking water? I look again. Its my heater. The hood cut it in half and there's shattered glass all over my tank. So, my question is what do I need to do to make it safe for fish? Will throwing away the broken glass and thoroughly rinsing the tank work? I know that there's chemicals in heaters that make fishes go to sleep for a long long time/forever. Oh, and if you were in my place, would you put a decently expensive and semi rare fish in the tank after cleaning it or would you test it out with some non rare fish. Thanks for your answers!


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## C. King (Dec 14, 2012)

Betta man, I am unaware of any wierd chemicals in a heater (if anyone knows otherwise, please correct me), just glass, electrical elements, and maybe some metal and glue or adhesive. Of course, I would clean out the tank & remove all glass bits, start with new water. Did it break into large pieces, or tiny little bits? If it shattered to bits, I might toss out the substrate and get new, just to avoid the hassel of trying to clean it. I would think a reasonable amount of rinsing the tank before setting it back up would be sufficient.


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

I would think there would be deadly chemicals in it. I cleaned the tank out and removed the bits of glass. I broke it into little, tiny, big, and huge pieces. It's for spawning betta imbellis which are in the splendens complex and you don't usually use substrate. I rinsed it out well.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

There are metals in heaters, but most don't have thermal transfer fluid (some of the in-line ones do). I toss heaters at the first sign of crack or water in them. Mine have only killed fish by overheating. Time to research.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

there is nothing in heaters that will harm fish...removing the broken heater and cleaning out the glass fragments is all that is needed to be done..set it back up and put anything you want to in it...


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

Thank you! It should be good then.


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