How To Clean Your Marine Aquarium Heater and Why You Should Do It Regularly - Safety First

Welcome to Simple Reefs. We are a brand new website designed to take the stress and expense out of starting your very own marine aquarium. With us being a brand new website, we have been looking at some of the basics of Marine Aquarium ownership. One of the big topics that we have been looking at, as of late, is aquarium heaters. Today, we are looking at How To Clean Your Marine Aquarium Heater and Why You Should Do It Regularly.

A Tropical Problem

The residents of your tank are, typically, from tropical locations that are pretty toasty all year round. The sea acts as a massive thermal buffer thanks to its sheer enormity. The changing temperature of the air simply has little impact on it so, it tropical locales, it maintains fairly consistent temperatures. This means that the coral, invertebrates, and fish in your tank would rarely experience significant fluctuations in their natural environment.

When a creature doesn’t experience much variation in the conditions of their natural habitat, they don’t evolve to cope with potential changes. After all, what would be the point? Why waste thousands of years adapting to a situation that you aren’t ever supposed to encounter? This is the exact reason why climate change is causing such a big problem for the world’s coral reefs.

Coral simply doesn’t expect to be hit by such significant changes in temperature. When it actually happens, due to the impact humans are having on the world, it has no way to cope. The coral’s symbiotic algae (Zooxanthellae) will leave in a process known as bleaching and the coral will have little chance to recover.

With all of this being said, it is probably quite easy to see where aquarium heaters come in. You need to replicate that natural environment, sans the catastrophic climate warming, in your relatively minute tank as closely as possible. The way we do that is by using marine aquarium heaters.

A Marine Aquarium Essential

Heaters are an absolute essential part of maintaining a healthy and flourishing marine aquarium. In fact, in many homes and in colder climates, they are a complete necessity. I even talk, in this article right here, about how you should still include a heater in your setup in warm houses and warm climates, regardless of the ambient temperature. You might never need to use it but it could be the difference between your tank surviving a crisis or being completely wiped out.

As with most of the other equipment in your tank, marine aquarium heaters need maintenance. This involves cleaning the heater to remove algae, dirt, and marks. They also need frequent safety checks to make sure that they are remaining in perfect condition.

That brings us to the purpose of this article. How do you clean a marine aquarium heater and how often should you do it? Today, we are going to take you through some steps to guarantee that your marine aquarium heater stays spotlessly clean, continues to work as efficiently as possible, and stays in a useable and safe condition.

Why is Cleaning Your Heater So Important?

I’m not going to lie, I don’t enjoy cleaning my marine aquarium heaters. It’s a pain in the butt, if I am being honest. Turning them off, waiting for them to cool, pulling them out, trying to be gentle. It feels like quite a bit of faff. Particularly in my larger aquarium where my heaters are tucked away on either end of my sump.

With that being said, there isn’t much that isn’t a faff when it comes to marine aquariums. The one undeniable fact is that cleaning your heaters is incredibly important but why is this? Let’s take a look:

Higher Energy Costs: Algae (particularly hard coralline algae), salt creep, and calcium deposits act as an insulator, wrapping themselves around the heater and forcing it to work harder and longer to heat the surrounding water. This not only wastes electricity but also puts extra strain on the heating element as it is trying to work so much harder.

Inaccurate Temperature Readings: This mainly goes for aquarium heaters that feature a built-in thermostat but, considering those are the most popular kind, it’s no less pertinent. The build up of algae, salt, calcium, and dirt can trap heat around the heater’s internal thermostat, causing it to shut off prematurely. This can lead to the tank’s temperature slowly dropping below the set point, stressing your inhabitants.

Equipment Failure and Safety Risks: A constantly overworked heater is more likely to fail. Even worse than that is the fact that hard mineral deposits and thick algae can hide hairline cracks in the heater itself. This is particularly noteworthy on glass heaters. If water enters the heating element, it can result in stray voltage in the tank or even a complete electrical short, posing a danger to both you and your tank’s inhabitants.

Reduced Lifespan: This one’s obvious but a clean, well maintained heater will simply last a lot longer, saving you money in the long run.

Overheating Potential: This is, probably, only applicable to the worst case scenario. A heater covered in hard mineral deposits or encrusted coralline algae may not actually be able to disperse the heat produced by the heat element. This may cause it to overheat, damaging the internals and leading to premature failure.

I am sure you are pretty convinced by this point. After all, cleaning your heater will help you save electricity, help you recognise problems before they happen, make things safer for your tank’s residents, and keep the equipment safe for you, as well.

Take a look at our article on avoiding catastrophic heater failure to see the damage that can come as a result of a poorly maintained heater. There are so many important reasons to clean your aquarium heater which brings us onto our next question.

How Often Should You Clean Your Heater?

This is the obvious follow up question to why you clean your heater, right? How often should you clean your heater. Well, there’s a couple of ways we can look at that. You might actually find yourself in a situation where you don’t need to clean it quite as much as you think. Say, for example, if your tank is not growing coralline algae, yet, or if your heater is in a dark, high flow area so detritus doesn’t settle on it and algae doesn’t grow on it. That leads us onto our next point.

Once a Week: The very first step should be a visual inspection of your marine aquarium’s heater and I would suggest that you do this each and every week. There are a couple of things we want to look for when performing this inspection.

• Look for any coralline algae growth and check how significant it is.
• Look for any hair algae or slimy algae growth.
• Look for any physical damage to the heater itself.
• Look for any damage to the heater’s power cord.
• Look for any salt creep building up around the heater and around the power cord.
• Look for any obvious cracks or splits in the heater.
• If the heater is glass, look for any condensation inside the glass.
• If the heater is titanium, look for any pitting, dents, or corrosion of the metal.

This is also a good opportunity to make sure the heater is accurate by cross-checking it with a good thermometer. You should also check whether it appears to be stuck on or not working entirely.

Make this visual inspection of part of your once a week routine. You can either do this in the water, through the glass, or you can take the heater out of the water to check it. Remember, if you take the heater out of the water to inspect it, turn it off thirty minutes before and let it cool down. Heaters, particularly glass heaters, can crack quickly when removed from water while still hot. They can also cause pretty significant burns.

Warning: If you notice any breakages in your heater’s power cord or any cracks, splits, breaks, or damage to the heater itself, remove it from the aquarium. Take the heater and dispose of it at your local recycling facility and purchase a new one. Please never risk continuing to use a damaged or broken aquarium heater. They can be very dangerous to both you and your aquarium’s residents.

Once Every 3 Months: Once every three months, we are going to give the heater, itself, a thorough cleaning. This means turning it off for thirty minutes, removing it from the aquarium, and taking it to your sink to give it a clean and get rid of all the encrusted algae and dirt.

This schedule will heavily depend on your levels of coralline algae growth. If you find your heater is getting encrusted with minerals very quickly, you will want to up this schedule to once every two months. I find that three months is plenty for most people, though.

How Do You Clean A Marine Aquarium Heater?

Remember, safety is paramount to everything you do involving electrical products and water. Follow all of these steps and you should be able to complete this task safely and without any shocks or burns.

What Do You Need? First, let’s take a look at what you are going to need to help you clean your marine aquarium’s heater:

• A clean bucket
• Old towels or a soft cloth. Avoid microfibre because of the plastic particles. An old 100% cotton t-shirt is absolutely perfect for this task.
• A soft bristled brush (a new, dedicated toothbrush is perfect. Tesco sells basic ones for around 56p that I really like for this task)
• White vinegar or a citric acid solution. Don’t use anything that has any kind of thickeners, dyes, or perfumes. We need a plain, food safe, solution.
• Clean, fresh water for rinsing (RO/DI water is ideal though I sometimes use tap water for a thorough clean and perform a final rinse with RO/DI water)

Step 1: SAFETY FIRST – Power Down and Cool Down: This is the most critical step and can’t be skipped. Unplug the heater from the power outlet but leave the heater submerged. Never remove a running heater from the water, as we mentioned earlier, as they can crack.

Allow the heater to sit in the aquarium, unplugged, for at least 20-30 minutes. This allows the heating element, as well as the glass or titanium tube, to cool down gradually, preventing the sudden thermal shock which can crack the glass.

Step 2: Remove the Heater: Once cooled, gently detach the heater from its mounting suction cups and carefully remove it from the aquarium. Place it on a towel to catch any drips. You really don’t want to soak the floor outside of the tank like I always seem to do.

Step 3: Initial Inspection: Before you begin cleaning, give the heater a thorough inspection just as we suggested above for our weekly checks:

• Check the Heater : Look for any cracks, chips, damage, or deep scratches.
• Check the Power Cord: Inspect the cord for any kinks, frays, splits, breaks, or signs of saltwater damage (salt creep) near where it meets the heater body.
• Check for Moisture: Look for any condensation or water droplets inside the glass tube.

Warning: Again, allow me to reemphasise my earlier point. If you notice any breakages in your heater’s power cord or any cracks, splits, breaks, or damage to the heater itself, remove it from the aquarium. Take the heater and dispose of it at your local recycling facility and purchase a new one. Please never risk continuing to use a damaged or broken aquarium heater. They can be very dangerous to both you and your aquarium’s residents.

Step 4: The Cleaning Process: Here comes the fun bit. We are going to actually clean the heater itself. Now we can do this using water in our bucket or we can take the heater to the sink. Please be cautious if cleaning a glass heater in the sink as they are quite fragile. Dropping it into the sink or inadvertently exposing it to concussive force may break it. Once you are ready to clean, we can get started.

• For light build-up: Often, a simple scrub with the soft-bristled brush under running fresh water is enough to remove soft algae and light salt deposits. You might be surprised at just how easily algae and dirt will come off of the heater’s surface. Use your soft cloth to give the top of the heater a wipe and give the power cord a very gentle wipe too without pulling on it.
• For stubborn build-up (Coralline Algae & Calcium): This is where vinegar comes in. We need something that is going to actually loosen the build-up and break its seal to the surface. Let’s put together our solution.
  1. Create a gentle acidic cleaning solution of one part white vinegar to one part fresh water (a 1:1 ratio) in your bucket or a tall container. We need to be able to submerge the body of the heater but not the top part where the power cord is.
  2. Submerge only the glass or titanium tube of the heater in the solution. NEVER submerge the top of the heater where the controls and power cord are located. The solution will really eat away at the plastics and could cause a weakening of the cord or structure.
  3. Let the heater soak for 10-20 minutes. You may see the calcium deposits begin to bubble or dissolve and this is when you know it is really working.
  4. After the soak, use your soft-bristled brush to gently scrub away the loosened coralline algae and mineral deposits. They should come off much more easily with very little effort. Although it is pretty tempting, try to avoid scraping and scratching at it. Let the cleaner do the hard work. Too much scraping and scratching can weaken the heater’s structure. If it needs a little more soaking, don’t be afraid to scrub it a little then place it back into the cleaning solution for a little longer.

Step 5: Rinse Thoroughly: Once the heater is clean, we are going to want to rinse it thoroughly with fresh water to remove every trace of the vinegar solution. Any residual acid can negatively affect your tank’s pH and alkalinity and we definitely don’t want that. Rinsing with tap water followed by RO/DI water is the safest bet.

Step 6: Reinstall and Power On: Carefully place the clean heater back into your aquarium, securing it with its suction cups or mounting bracket. Ensure it is fully submerged to at least the minimum water line indicated on the device. Be careful not to drop your plug into the water if you are placing it in your sump. I have seen people do this more than a few times.

Once you are sure it is fully held and submerged, dry your hands thoroughly and then you can plug the heater back in and turn it back on. Only after the heater is back in the water and fully submerged should you plug it back into the power outlet.

Know When It’s Time To Replace

Unfortunately, marine aquarium heaters aren’t really lifetime devices. Many, especially glass heaters, will need replacing fairly frequently. I would suggest having some funds set aside to replace your heater every 2 to 3 years. I know, it’s frustrating, but it is better to replace before you need to rather than waiting for it to break. The low cost of a heater is much more palatable than losing an entire tank full of valuable and precious livestock.

Titanium heaters tend to be the most robust and don’t tend to break in the same way as cheaper heaters. You should still be making them a part of your routine replacement schedule, though. As a rule of thumb, I would suggest replacing your titanium heater every 4-5 years for maximum safety and efficiency.

With all of that being said, the most important step of all of these is the weekly visual inspection. Keep checking for damage, breaks, splits, cracks, and problems with the power cord. Coupled with a concise and frequent cleaning schedule, you should have your heater for a decent length of time. Thanks for reading and spending your time at Simple Reefs.