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My heater was situated horizontally and a little more than halfway down the back of the tank, so this would not happen......
I was doing a 50% water change with cooler water and quit paying attention when it was draining( Us Guys should not multitask!)

Next thing I hear is Bam! and a swooshing noise. I ran over to my river tank and immediately knew the heater had exploded. Water was only half covering it.

I thought for sure that I had killed all of my Zebras!

A week and a half later, I am very pleased to report that my tank is still cycled and all the zebras look happy and healthy

Whew!!!!!!!!

I put my heater and pump on a power strip so that I will just switch them both off when doing a partial water change from now on

Dang...thank God your fish are ok.

i would got get an eheim 2126 thermo filter, i know their not cheap but neither are zebs

either that or get one of the heaters which fit along the pipework between the filter and the outlet pipe...a bit more expensive than your standard heater but worth it in cases like this.

Good to hear they're all ok.

Hi Lyre Tail,

had a similar problem with our heater. Took it out of the water briefly to rearrange something in the tank, and you know how it is when you get sidetracked. The next thing I knew I could smell something like melting plastic. Guess what? It was! The heater was touching the air intake tube for the filter. Remembering the heater was out of water my first reaction was to immerse it back in the tank to cool it down, not an unreasonable idea you might think. BIG MISTAKE, the thing exploded! To compound matters it was our first zebra pleco and we had had it less than 24 hours!!! Fortunately he was fine and seemed to suffer no adverse effects.
We also had another problem with some decor in the tank. We placed a cave network in the tank which we had bought previously for our community tank, thinking it would be ideal. Again BIG MISTAKE! He liked his new cave network and soon swam in. I got up one morning to check everything was fine, and found him in an unusual place at the back. Thinking nothing of it I carried on with my tasks for the rest of the day. However, everytime I did come back he was in the same place, but not having moved so much as a fin. So when the end of the day came I decided to check on him. I nudged the cavenetwork slightly, no respone, I tried again. Still no response. Yea, my heart started racing . I quickly picked the cave network up and he still didn't move. I had a closer inspection only to find him wedged in one of the contours of the cave. I tried freeing him by holding his sides and gently trying to juggle him loose, he wouldn't budge an inch! I tried breaking the cave thing open but only managed on snapping a little bit of plastic off. I tried again with a little more force, another bit of plastic came off and I banged my forearm on the tank. Third time lucky, I gave it a big tug and snapped enough off to free him, but gashed my finger on the jagged plastic! I still have the scar to this day (although my girlfriend says I'm imagining it lol). Luckily he again escaped death and was fine.
It made me think that fishkeeping is more of an extreme hobby than most might think lol. I have been thiinking of calling the fish in question Rambo lol.

P.S. If I can get some pictures to actually upload, I'll try and get a piccy of the infamous cave network.

That's why I only trust the Marineland Stealth heater, it is designed perfectly for aquarium use. No shattering, no thermal shock, and no overheating. But good thing you didn't lose any Zebra plecos; that would've been a costly mistake.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/P ... 004+113767

Pricematch that at your local PetsMart.

Thanks for the tip Raul, does this heater prevent the fish getting burnt on it as well? As I have heard zebras can get burnt while sucking onto heaters.

19wiggles86 wrote:Thanks for the tip Raul, does this heater prevent the fish getting burnt on it as well? As I have heard zebras can get burnt while sucking onto heaters.

"Reinforced, shatterproof plastic casing means no thermal or mechanical shock."

Thanks. I think I'll invest in a few of these for my zebra tanks!

I have not had a "blow out" but have cracked a heater before. I lost five discus fish before I realized what happened. I think electric current got them. Man did I feel bad. I changed to the ehiem thermo filter a few years ago and it been working great . I've changed to a titanium heater in my smaller tanks. No glass...no breakage.

I'm glad to hear no harm came to your zebras.

I notice the link to this Stealth Heater is in US Dollars... which would presumably mean different electricity/plugs. Are they available in the UK?

I do not think that "MarineLand" sells it's electrical products in the UK. At least I have not seen them on UK websites. Some companies like Hagen, Ehiem, and Aquarium Pharmaceuticals are available on both sides of the pond. In the USA we do not get Waterlife, Juwel, or Hydor products