Something on my heater

[HoodedWarrior]

I'm on my second heater for my 20gal aquarium (the first one quit on me) and it is getting some type of deposit on it. I noticed this on my first heater and when I removed it, it peeled much of the black "design" on the surface of the heater. I live in the Dallas area and we tend to have hard water. Could these be some type of calcium or lime deposit? They are only appearing on the heater, though, so I guess the heat is causing this. Is there anything I can do to get rid of it?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Sumpin'fishy]

I'm not sure what you have, but my heaters get algae along the top of them and I'm sure if you don't clean this off, it would turn black. This can also cause "hot spots" on heaters and cause breakage. I clean mine when they start getting ugly, just wiping them with a sponge that I use to clean tanks.

 

[HoodedWarrior]

It's not algae, at least it doesn't look like any algae I've ever seen, and it's white, not black. The black "design" was on the exterior of the heater and was supposed to be there.

 

[fishman156]

It's probably calcium build up. Try soaking it in vinegar and then scrubing it with an old toothbrush or the like. Try placing your heater buy a filter output to keep water moving around it and this should keep it from happening to often.

 

[Hebdizzle]

I had the same problem with my Top Fin heater, however I think I caught it at an early stage. Here are the steps that I took to eliminating it (quite simple)

1) Unplug heater... let it stay in the water for approx 10-15 minutes
2) Use white vinegar and gently brush the stuff off in cold water (came right off for me)
3) rinse
4) Put heater back in water and wait another 10-15 minutes before plugging it in (can explode ive heard if you dont wait)

hope this helped.....

 

[AntmanMike]

I just used a buff pad.