Stealth heater?

[Matt Rise]

I bought a Stealth heater last week, and there is a white film flaking off of it in my sump. Anybody have one of these?

[TOURKID]

white film? but its all black plastic right? mine are. never had anything go wrong with mine, i have 4-5 of them.

[Drifter9]

I've had one in my old sump for years. No such issue. Any other changes that could have caused this?

[Matt Rise]

The tank has ben running for two weeks with just saltwater in it. No LR, fish nothing. I have only added RO/DI water, and salt. I pulled the heater out and cleaned it, it seems like either salt or calcium stuck to the black plastic. Strange...

[leeweber85]

probaby calcium, it happens to mine all the time.

[GOLDMAROON]

its more than likely calcium, mine only did that when the calcium level was a tad bit high or when i put in a sealab cube in the tank

[TKByrnes]

I have one and have never had anything flake off it.

[Matt Rise]

I cleaned it tonight, the only way I can describe it is, it looks like something precipitated onto it. Wierd, it hasn't done it since cleaning it.

[Im14abeer]

I agree with GOLDMAROON, most likely calcium precipitating out. Something is out of balance with your Ca/Mg/Alk.

[Matt Rise]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9462950#post9462950 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Im14abeer
I agree with GOLDMAROON, most likely calcium precipitating out. Something is out of balance with your Ca/Mg/Alk.

Pretty strange since there is absolutely nothing in the tank besides water, and salt. I have not added anything else. IN over 10 years I have never seen this before.

[puffer21]

I would think it is salt creep. when i do an acclimation and i dont add the water back the top of my heater gets like that.

[Matt Rise]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9464303#post9464303 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by puffer21
I would think it is salt creep. when i do an acclimation and i dont add the water back the top of my heater gets like that.
Thanx puffer, but the heater is fully submergerd in the sump. I have another older glass heater next to it, but only the stealth was doing this.

Here's my take. Obviously some kind of gritty substance was being drawn out of the water, to the hot part of the heater. I recently added some NSW to boost salinity up a bit. I'm thinking maybe the NSW that had been mixing for two days came in contact with the heater(which was maybe a few degrees warmer) and something (calcium etc) was whicked out of solution onto the heater. KInd of like soldering a joint when plumbing....