Marineland Stealth Pro Cracked - How to clean ROCK

[old salty]

Over the weekend my Marineland Stealth Pro cracked (see the thread under "emergencies"). Ultimately killed my entire setup. Called Marineland and they told me the heater contains; copper, nickle, magnesium oxide, and some type of epoxy. I pulled all my rock and rinsing it multiple times in R/O water. Any other advice on how to clean it. So far, compared to what the tank smelled like, they smell like rock. I just want to make sure I don't contaminate the new water.

Thanks in advance.

Oh yea, I'm warning anyone that has one of these to please remove it asap and get a different heater. There are multiple threads on this on the net. See my latest thread under EMERGENCIES. I give a link to other reports and some of them are nastier then mine. ie. exploding and breaking the tank. Luckily mine just cracked.

 

[Tazmaniancowboy]

I read your other post and Sorry to hear it happened to you. My concern was that you described it as oily and floating on the surface. wheather you drained the tank or pulled the rock out, the oil probably clung to every nook and cranny on the rock. I am no expert on this and I may be way overboard, but I would probably soak in muriatic acid or vinegar to cut the coating? I thought about boiling, but probably wouldn't do that. I don't remember how much rock you are talking about, but I would probably just get some used rock from somebody and clean up the mess over time. This is a tough one and I am curious what others say as well as what marineland is going to do. Good luck with it.

 

[The_Codfather]

Sorry i never got back to you Salty got a bit side tracked today but.. the epoxy i don't know about and most probably dry.. now the metals on the other hand.. maybe a Metal Water Conditioner
http://www.petco.com/product/107417/Kordon-Rid-Metals-Water-Conditioner.aspx?cm_mmc=CSEMGooglebase-_-Fish-_-Kordon-_-1204912&mr:trackingCode=F3F3EB15-8381-DE11-B7F3-0019B9C043EB&mr:referralID=NA

 

[The_Codfather]

I read your other post and Sorry to hear it happened to you. My concern was that you described it as oily and floating on the surface. wheather you drained the tank or pulled the rock out, the oil probably clung to every nook and cranny on the rock. I am no expert on this and I may be way overboard, but I would probably soak in muriatic acid or vinegar to cut the coating? I thought about boiling, but probably wouldn't do that. I don't remember how much rock you are talking about, but I would probably just get some used rock from somebody and clean up the mess over time. This is a tough one and I am curious what others say as well as what marineland is going to do. Good luck with it.

Good call on the oil I forgot about that.. I think i would do the muriatic acid if i was to go that far.. In fact i just did it the other day to 200lb of rock

 

[old salty]

What is the process for using that muriatic acid? soak, rinse with water? is it that simple? what should I know before I do attempt to do it? any pointers? I am off tomorrow, so I will probably go get some. oh yea, where do you get? Home Depot, Lowes?

Codfather - np about the slow response. I'm looking at an empty tank right now with vinegar water in it...so sad....i hope to have some new sunbstrate and my rock back in there hopefully within two weeks.

Marineland has reimbursed others with the same issue. So, I hope they do the same for me. Like I said before, it could have been 100 times worse. Thanks for the input.

 

[Tazmaniancowboy]

I just bought 3 of the 300w ones because I liked the unbreakable and the visual of the led. This sucks! I wonder if they will refund my money. LOL I also know of at least 2 other people who have a couple. Thanks for passing your info on. I hate passing things on like this because it could be Isolated, but WOW that is a problem and I am going to pass it on. Let us know what happens

 

[The_Codfather]

You can get muriatic acid at Home Depot, Lowes I would suggest to wear Chemical Resistance Gloves.. Mix the acid 1 part to 10 parts water.. when you dip.. dip for 5 to 10 sec you will see the mix fizz when rock is placed.. then take out and rinse.. i would let it soak in tap water for a few days then let it sun dry for a few days then R/O soak then start curing.. that's pretty much how im doing it.. right now im at the tap water soak

 

[The_Codfather]

BTW.. All the rock you'll have at the end will be base rock.. after the curing you can add some live rock to seed it again

 

[The_Codfather]

I just bought 3 of the 300w ones because I liked the unbreakable and the visual of the led. This sucks! I wonder if they will refund my money. LOL I also know of at least 2 other people who have a couple. Thanks for passing your info on. I hate passing things on like this because it could be Isolated, but WOW that is a problem and I am going to pass it on. Let us know what happens

I took my coralife timer power strip back to petsmart after i found out a few caught on fire.. got my money back after i told the manager what happened with them

 

[Tazmaniancowboy]

I just bought 3 of the 300w ones because I liked the unbreakable and the visual of the led. This sucks! I wonder if they will refund my money. LOL I also know of at least 2 other people who have a couple. Thanks for passing your info on. I hate passing things on like this because it could be Isolated, but WOW that is a problem and I am going to pass it on. Let us know what happens

I took my coralife timer power strip back to petsmart after i found out a few caught on fire.. got my money back after i told the manager what happened with them

The problem I have is I bought them separately at 2 different sponsors of the club and another store and have no receipts :-\

 

[old salty]

Mine was the 300W.

You think vinegar water would work or stick the with muriatic acid?

I have a coralife power strip timer. I have the manual version not the digital. I heard the digital ones were the problem ones.

 

[The_Codfather]

I just bought 3 of the 300w ones because I liked the unbreakable and the visual of the led. This sucks! I wonder if they will refund my money. LOL I also know of at least 2 other people who have a couple. Thanks for passing your info on. I hate passing things on like this because it could be Isolated, but WOW that is a problem and I am going to pass it on. Let us know what happens

I took my coralife timer power strip back to petsmart after i found out a few caught on fire.. got my money back after i told the manager what happened with them

The problem I have is I bought them separately at 2 different sponsors of the club and another store and have no receipts :-\

I never had a receipt but im sure if you talk to them they would do a exchange for a different heater if you tell them your concerns and what happened to salty.. plus the LFS can tell the manufacture what's going on.. by the sounds of it what salty says this seems to happened a few times.. at the end of the day is the heater worth the death of the tank?

 

[The_Codfather]

Mine was the 300W.

You think vinegar water would work or stick the with muriatic acid?

I have a coralife power strip timer. I have the manual version not the digital. I heard the digital ones were the problem ones.

I bleached my rock first then muriatic acid only reason was i wanted to get rid of all Organic matter and the muriatic acid just helped me made sure it was all off.. You on the other hand are dealing with a unknown oil.... it's your call or find out what that oil was and find out what will break it down.. I have a gut feeling it was mineral oil based

 

[Phyl]

You wouldn't need vinegar, just soak and scrub. The muratic acid removes the "scrub" part as it breaks down the organics.

One of the 300w heaters we got in the last group buy had the whole end of it crack off. Really aggrivating.

 

[old salty]

Doing the final tank wash and found that the oily substance was on the glass towards the top. Had to scrape off with a razor blade - and wooah what a smell. The only thing I found that cuts through it is windex - takes it right of...so rinsing again.......I think I got it off 99% of everything in the tank. I guess I need to also attack it in the filter too...ugggg...well I got the muriatic acid...going to do the rock next. I assume since its on the inside of the glass I must have some on the rock too. Tank in the AM, rock in the PM.

My wife is looking over my draft letter to marineland.....

 

[blange3]

I just bought 3 of the 300w ones because I liked the unbreakable and the visual of the led. This sucks! I wonder if they will refund my money. LOL I also know of at least 2 other people who have a couple. Thanks for passing your info on. I hate passing things on like this because it could be Isolated, but WOW that is a problem and I am going to pass it on. Let us know what happens

I took my coralife timer power strip back to petsmart after i found out a few caught on fire.. got my money back after i told the manager what happened with them

The problem I have is I bought them separately at 2 different sponsors of the club and another store and have no receipts :-\

I think heaters in general need to be checked from time to time. The only problem I have had with a Visi Therm Stealth is it stopped heating. I have been using nothing but Stealths for 3 or 4 years and plan to stay with them.

 

[old salty]

Sizzled my rock...my "live rock" stunk...feel bad about all my little buggers that were living in there...what can you do...you live and learn! Soaking in tap water now....thanks for all the help guys...will continue to keep you posted.