why why why

[sushi]

hello.
my heater has had all these bubbles all over it for the last few days.
When i touch them, they all pop and disappear (i thought they might be gourami bubbles). And there's this brown crusty stuff on the heater under the bubbles .
What is this.
Is it going to affect my heater. ie. stop it working??
Has this happened to you? I dont' want my heater to stop going and all my fish die. I'd cry!!

 

[Crookster]

How olds the tank?

Mine did the same thing for a few days after I set it up. It will go eventually.

The brown stuff will be algea. You can clean it manually or get an aldea eating catfish.

 

[Becca]

Just overly cautious here, but I cracked my heater during a routine water change when I forgot to unplug and let it cool off a bit. When water got into the heater, it turned brown and boiled up a bit.

This probably isn't what you're seeing, but just as a safeguard, I'd unplug your heater for about 15-20 minutes, take it out and inspect it carefully to make sure that you don't have any cracks or holes in it.

It could just be something simple, but if it's not - better find out now than with dead fishies!

 

[bomar666]

just an idea but could the bubbles be fish eggs ??

 

[R3GG]

Mine did this after i put the new heater in, its nothing.

 

[Silly me]

if there is no water flow over the heater it might get some bubbles, on a high watt heater I think its normal, I never had a heater over 200Watt that didnt create bubbles..
Direct the output of you filter over the heater.

 

[cutecotton]

i doubt they were fish eggs tho, most likely something to do with air bubbles getting stuck on your filter and the brown stuff is most likely algae. My tank had that problem but when i put my air pump towards it to make the water flow more it went away

 

[sushi]

hello. thanks.
for everyone that's had air bubble on their heaters, I have questions
Were they big/small
How many were there
COuld it be gourami bubbles?? Tho I think mines a gir

My bubbles are up to about 2 1/2 mm wide. They're everywhere, covering most of the heater, mostly on the under-side (it's on an angle).
Is this what you guys had?

 

[Jaded_Pulse]

Yup, got tiny bubbles on my heater too - I'm fairly sure I've figured out y (in my case at least):

Light + heat makes slimey stuff (assumably some kind of good bacteria or algae) grow on all surfaces, & seeing as the heater would be the warmest place, it grows the most on it. (Maybe in ur case it's the algae growing there). With all the little bubbles in the water from the filter & aerator/air stone, some get trapped in the slime/algae & probably help it keep growing. Or maybe it's the slime/algae giving off some kind of harmless gas, but I'd say first option's most likely. In any case, it's never caused my tank, fish, or heater any harm so I just clean it off once in a while since my lazy snail doesn't eat it that much any more.

Anyways, that's my reasoning, HTH.
Michelle.

 

[plecoperson]

I had those - the brown stuff is algae but I find my pleco doesnt eat it so you probably need to clean it off yourself - plus getting catfish can be tricky if your tank isnt that big! I had bubbles before I put fish in. They covered the WHOLE tank! I adjusted the water output and problem solved. HTH.