While watching my tank this morning I heard a loud buzzing/rattling coming from the sump area, thought it was my skimmer or return pump. Realized it was my Heater?? Here’s what it looked like, any ideas on what might be causing this build up? It’s kind of like salt creep but much harder and more opaque, it’s looks a lot like the marine pure block material. Anyone else ever experienced this?
Noisy Heater???
- Thread starter Sley1
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nautical_nathaniel
Indecision may or may not be my problem.
As far as the stuff onothe heater, it is probably Calcium Carbonate build up. If your heater is making noise it might be telling you it's time to get a new one 
the build up is probably making it work harder than normal due to it having inefficient heat transfer and some of the internals might be going bad, sort of like how a outdoor halide bulb buzzes super loud before it dies.
the build up is probably making it work harder than normal due to it having inefficient heat transfer and some of the internals might be going bad, sort of like how a outdoor halide bulb buzzes super loud before it dies.As far as the stuff onothe heater, it is probably Calcium Carbonate build up. If your heater is making noise it might be telling you it's time to get a new one
Interesting thoughts, the tank and heater are only 3 months old. The noise is completely gone now that I removed all the build up.
Anyone have any ideas why this would precipitate on the heater only and not on any other piece of equipment. Temperature probably driving the reaction but I’ve never seen that before, I have a similar heater in another tank that I’ve had for a couple years and never had any build up on it. The only difference is that black plastic guard/mount on the larger 500 w heater vs the smaller heater?
ylreefer
Active Member
I've experienced something like this on equipment when dosing Kalkasser or other equivalent. However not just on one piece of equipment but yes possibly the heat is attracting the calcium carbonate build up more than cooler equipment based on how much of what if anything is being dosed.
scriptmonkey
Valuable Member
Do you test for MG, would be interesting to see if it is low?
KrisReef
10K Club member
I do wonder what your calcium and alkalinity and magnesium levels are? I have seen similar deposits inside pump impeller housings that were probably warmer than ambient water and inside of gravel beds that fused together to form bricks out of aragonite sand. In both cases I was trying to push Ca towards 500 and Alk to 9+ instead of 400 & 8. I have not had that kind of precipitation since I've moved to the lower numbers.
scriptmonkey
Valuable Member
That's where I was going, looks like precipitation to me as well. If his Mg is low we know he would be more susceptible to it happening.
Not dosing anything as of yet, just got my first group of test corals in about 2 weeks ago and have been watching for any changes in Alk and Ca, none yet but I do 3.5 gallon per day auto water changes which is keeping things steady right now.
ca1ore
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Doesn’t actually look like calcium deposits to me. More like cooked detritus. I get detritus buildup behind the plastic screen on my finnex heaters which requires regular cleaning. Is a particular problem if you keep the heaters in the initial sump chamber and don’t use filter socks. In my case, I stopped using the plastic screen.
Thanks for the info,I kept the plastic guards off and placed the heater back and will monitor to see if build up forms directly on the heater without the plastic screen. I do use the filter socks that came with the Red Sea Reefer V3 sump and I had the heater in the skimmer chamber right before going into return.
