Penny Posted December 7, 2020 Share Posted December 7, 2020 I woke up this morning to find a patch of bubbles in one of my tanks.. I tested the water and everything was perfect so I scooped out the bubbles and kept and eye on it. Then I noticed the bottom cap had come off the heater. (It's a little 25w glass cheap one, but its adjustable and seemed to be doing the job) I popped the cap back on. Then I noticed the the heater had bubbles all over the under side and it was making a steady stream of tiny bubbles (exactly the same size and consistency as pearling) Turned it off and let it cool in case it was over heating (water felt normal and I didn't get electrocuted) when I removed it the heater I thought I'd find it cracked but it had this weird stuff on it.. only in a patch and only on the underside. It's hard and crunchy like pumice stone. There's no water inside the glass The heater has only been in the water for about 7 weeks. 🤔 Any idea what's up with it? Thank you 😊 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JettsPapa Posted December 7, 2020 Share Posted December 7, 2020 I don't know exactly what happened, but I'd be very hesitant to put it back in the tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Streetwise Posted December 7, 2020 Share Posted December 7, 2020 (edited) Looks familiar to me! This is a failed heater, probably cracked. Edited December 8, 2020 by Streetwise Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee626 Posted December 7, 2020 Share Posted December 7, 2020 It looks like scale formation like what you’d find on the heating element of a kettle, as if the water had been boiling locally around the glass.. but an aquarium heater shouldn’t get anywhere close to hot enough for that to happen... very odd 🤔 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockMongler Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 It could have just been a small leak of current out of the heater. You can do electrolysis of water (breaking it into hyrogen and oxygen gas) easily with just a 9V battery. Over a few weeks, that could give you a build up of stuff from the water, and give you an effect similar to pearling. Might not be enough to give you a 'shock', but enough to break down the water into its constituent elements, and probably do some scaling with the other ions floating around in the water. I would probably not use that heater anymore. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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