Friday night's Karma Question.....

Hello again dear friends. I think you know the deal by now, I will post a question and will give karma to all who play. All senior reefers will give karma to the first person who not only answers the question but is most complete. Each week’s question is posted with years of experience to play. Tonight's question is of medium difficulty so I will increase the years of experience to 3 – if you have 3 years experience or less you are eligible to answer the question.

I am glad to say, I leave for vacation early tomorrow morning but I will be logged online tomorrow afternoon to see how the thread develops and respond. Once again, this is posted in General since its all in the name of fun as well as education. Enjoy....

Please see the picture below (credit’s to be given tomorrow). Please tell us what is on this heater and what caused it. The heater has been in use in a reef tank and working well all the while, about 12 months or so.

 

Film algae. Too low of flow, exposure to lights in the 5000k to 6000k lights, and not properly controlling your nitrates. Boom!

 

Is this game legal?

 

Not only legal….but we are protected by -- Federal Law provides sever civil and criminal penalties for the unauthorized reproduction, distribution or exhibition of 3Reef weekly questions. Criminal copyright infringement is investigated by the FBI and may constitute a felony with a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine.

Plus I was granted the express written consent of the national football league. yup...we're legit

 

A form of algae. Aside from that, I don't know. lol

 

this could be multiple things.

im gonna go with diatoms. the user probobaly just added a new filter or power head. will subside when all silicates are used up.

 

i think you were frying chicken in a skillet and accidentally tossed your heater in. Therefore my answer is grease.

 

It's burned calcium and magnesium carbonate built up on the heater while dripping kalk.

 

Kinda looks like it's baked on due to the heat. Maybe hardened film algae or diatoms?

 

OK, 4am Saturday morning and heading to the airport....but first I'll post a quick answer and others can elaborate for me since I need to move my butt.

Keep in mind that a heater in use will not grow algae.

Calcium Carbonate. Precipitation of calcium carbonate.

Being the educated forum that we are – we all know that our systems are generally supersaturated with calcium carbonate which normally precipitates very slowly mostly due to magnesium ions keeping it in check. From time to time we will read a post along the lines “It’s snowing in my tank” more than likely this is the calcium coming out of saturation because the supersaturation became to high and the pressure too great for the magnesium ions to handle. Various reasons being the culprit, elevated calcium, alkalinity, PH and elevated temperature.

Randy Holmes has explained that a tank with a PH of 8.5 has twice the supersaturation of a tank with alkalinity of 8.2 and the same from 8.2 to 7.9.

As water is heated the equilibrium between bicarbonate and carbonate swings towards carbonate. Thus, heaters (and pumps btw) raise the temperature and the calcium carbonate to come out of saturation and settles directly onto the heater – it also helps that the heater is lacking algae and provides a generally clean surface for the build up of carbonate.

I used Randy Holmes picture from his article on Calcium, no time to research links at the moment....wife is calling me to heft luggage from upstairs. Thanks for playing !!

Oh yeah...I forgot the extra credit question for all you eager beavers....what comes next:
1 11 21 1211 111221 no internet searches....you know it or you don't so no cheating !