All My Fish Almost Boiled!

[elisew]

Sat having a cuppa this afternoon with one of my friends and heard a strange, quiet bubbling noise. Went to have a look at the tank as I thought it may have just been some air in the filter outflow making the noise but was gobsmacked to see bubbles coming out of the (supposed) sealed, glass casing of my Fluval 300W mirrored heater!! I only bought it 3 weeks ago.

Luckily I had enough sense to switch the socket off first because as I began to take the heater out of the tank, the glass had cracked and broken completely and cleanly in half and the elements started coming out into the water
Can`t believe my fish could have all been boiled had I not been here or had the sense to switch the socket off first.

I`ve never experienced this before with any heater and wondered if this was 'normal'

 

[ellena]

Oh no! Sounds like that was close! I'd say dodgy heater and as it's so new, shouldn't be a problem returning it.

 

[Mo1959]

Strange, I have the lesser wattage model also only weeks old and since I emptied the tank yesterday and replaced gravel with sand and started up again it has started making strange cracking/popping sounds. I have sent away for another heater just in case. Luckily I am in the middle of a fishless cycle so no fish to harm if it does go wrong but I think I will play safe and use the new one prior to putting fish in. Getting a Rena this time.