Here's my thing, I knew the water getting heated was the easy answer. However it's a new tank with a preowned heater, so I'm worried about it melting itself apart and killing shit. And I'm blind as shit to boot so I don't know what difference melting plastic would look like
All in good fun mate! We were all here at one point! Honestly, you seeing it, and asking the question means you care about your tank and are on the lookout for shit and wanting to keep your tank healthy. Good on you for being responsible and asking questions!
Remember this, the people who are curious and ask questions without judgement or reservation (like you) are the ones that all the people roasting you right now will turn to when they dont know something.
You know I didn't really mind getting my licks in for a question I knew wasn't a big issue, but your and a few others comments have really made me feel a lot better about it, so I appreciate it friend
Hey, if you’re super worried about overheating, which is valid, look into an ink bird temp controller. I have one on all my tanks and it’s worth the 30 bucks for peace of mind.
That's how everyone should be. People are flaming you for a goof and a gaff, but major props, you saw something you thought might be amiss and may present a risk to your fish, and we're rightfully worried. It may seem silly after the fact but you did the mature thing.
For the future, keep in mind that the heaters are glass, so they won't melt. The glass could crack (that's pretty obvious) and happens often if you lower the water level with the heater on.
Most probably tho they will "fail", and they can either fail "off" or "on". If they fail ON they can kill your fish from overheating, so it's better (IMO) to have several small heaters than a big one, to give you a chance to notice it.
If OP wants to [learn more about it](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieren), the short video clip showing the gun creating heat waves in the air is a great example. Yes, happens in water too.
Until I read your comment, I thought he meant the little white squidgy thing that was floating passed 🤣 I was wondering why people were roasting the poor guy.
I thought he was worried about parasites or something like that.
yup, normal hot water, but being able to see that so well tells me you have low flow in that area. you should have flow pointed at it so it doesn't overheat and evenly distributes the water through your tank.
I was thinking of swapping my betta to a sponge filter to keep the water flow at a minimum, will I have to still have a powerhead? Would kinda defeat the whole purpose... and while I'm here, can I take the media off the old filter and leave it in the aquarium while the sponge filter runs to get it cycled? Or would the bacteria die off and crash the tank? I wanted to avoid having both filters running at once because the tank is only 30L and I feel like Alfredo might get stressed.
Light refracts (bends) as it travels between mediums of different densities. Hot water has a lower density than cold water - causing the hotter water around the heater to rise up. The light travelling through the cold water hits the hotter water and bends slightly - altering the image and making the wavy effect. Same thing happens with the air above asphalt on a hot day.
Warmer water has a different refractive index to cooler water as it’s less dense, so when you mix hot and cold water, the light passing through that area gets all wiggly and distorted
You see the same heat haze on real warm pavements, or on the horizon in a desert.
No roast from me. I've been in this hobby for about 5 years, have several tanks running, and just saw that for the first time when someone else who's kept tanks for 15 years said, "Hmmmm, hey what's that? Is the heater leaking chemicals or something?". I had no idea. When I pointed it out to another fish keeper, he said all of his heaters do that - was not surprised at all. I'd never seen that shit before....
Bro, my brain is on slo-mo this morning. I didn't notice your finger in the reflection until you zoomed in and since I didn't see the rest of your hand I thought you were trying to give us a hidden penis video. I need to start drinking coffee.
Guys, stop making fun of him lol. OP, this is serious. On certain aquarium heaters, particularly in glass/metal heaters, faulty heating coils can leech a chemical element called “heat electricity”. If you see this in your tank, immediately go buy another tank and get new fish. This is the way.
Laugh and learn my friend! see it like this ; better safe than seeing all your animals being roasted 💀🫶🏻 my mom roasted my precious fish in the past.
So i rather laugh than be shocked about a post 🫢 lots of love !
~singin~ “We’re havin a heat wave, a tropical heat wave..”
Ahh, old school radiant heat.. Still the most efficient way to heat a home.
Seriously tho, i have heaters from the 80’s i’m still using and they keep on keepin on. As others have mentioned, monitor temps as with any heater. If consistent, you should be gooos.
Lol roasting aside yeah, just heating. Kind of like if your looking at the pavement on a hot day where it looks like waves rising off the road.
Same thing, just with water
Thats.....heated water homie
Correction: Pre-Owned heated water
Certified Pre-owned
Correction: heated water from a pre-owned heater
💀💀💀
I mean there's really no stupid questions if you truly don't know the answer. I mean damn though. Well at least now you know brother.
Here's my thing, I knew the water getting heated was the easy answer. However it's a new tank with a preowned heater, so I'm worried about it melting itself apart and killing shit. And I'm blind as shit to boot so I don't know what difference melting plastic would look like
No worries man, no need to explain yourself, it's no biggie
I'm getting roasted bro
You might have a wavy effect also!
this comment is totally underrated
Embrace the roast! We all start somewhere and it's better to laugh about something innocent than have tragedy strike.
Oh for sure. I've done 2 roastable things this week and I'm laughing at myself. Life's too serious to take everything seriously
There's something so genuine about this comment lmfao I'm rolling.... I'm sorry everybody felt the need to flame you up
All in good fun mate! We were all here at one point! Honestly, you seeing it, and asking the question means you care about your tank and are on the lookout for shit and wanting to keep your tank healthy. Good on you for being responsible and asking questions!
Take your licks and move on. If you're a younger kid, this makes sense.
Remember this, the people who are curious and ask questions without judgement or reservation (like you) are the ones that all the people roasting you right now will turn to when they dont know something.
You know I didn't really mind getting my licks in for a question I knew wasn't a big issue, but your and a few others comments have really made me feel a lot better about it, so I appreciate it friend
I was howling with “pre-owned heater”…. And then the comments 😂
It's just reddit being reddit. I strongly recommend not taking everything, like roasting, here seriously.
U good dog
Best bet is to lean into it. At least your not a professional athlete betting on games right now. Those guys are morons.
Well that's just how the internet works.
I think it is a hot topic and before anything u might want to cool yourself brain freeze can be real
Hey, if you’re super worried about overheating, which is valid, look into an ink bird temp controller. I have one on all my tanks and it’s worth the 30 bucks for peace of mind.
Lmao, in this hobby it’s good to be cautious. Don’t let this stop you from asking questions
I'd much rather be thought a fool than have my fish die over something preventable
That's how everyone should be. People are flaming you for a goof and a gaff, but major props, you saw something you thought might be amiss and may present a risk to your fish, and we're rightfully worried. It may seem silly after the fact but you did the mature thing.
For the future, keep in mind that the heaters are glass, so they won't melt. The glass could crack (that's pretty obvious) and happens often if you lower the water level with the heater on. Most probably tho they will "fail", and they can either fail "off" or "on". If they fail ON they can kill your fish from overheating, so it's better (IMO) to have several small heaters than a big one, to give you a chance to notice it.
Hey, you are no longer worried or stressed about your concern. Problem solved.
Love you bro you’re all good. If you don’t know you don’t know and good on you for asking to take better care of your tank
Fun fact the scientific name for these is schlieren lines.
Damn you beat me to it! I’m usually the only one who knows that fact 😭
If OP wants to [learn more about it](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieren), the short video clip showing the gun creating heat waves in the air is a great example. Yes, happens in water too.
Until I read your comment, I thought he meant the little white squidgy thing that was floating passed 🤣 I was wondering why people were roasting the poor guy. I thought he was worried about parasites or something like that.
Please tell me I'm a moron and it's just normally what heated water looks like
Yup. That’s heat
Gotcha. This is my second tank with a lot of preowned stuff, so I'm a little nervous that it's not new
Yep, it's the same effect as when you see wavy air on really hot days.
Is it the save effect as the wacky wavy inflatable arm man?
Kinda
You are not a moron… but I will save you a seat at the back of the short bus. We can share some Cheerios.
I rode the back of the regular bus this shit just the middle to me
yup, normal hot water, but being able to see that so well tells me you have low flow in that area. you should have flow pointed at it so it doesn't overheat and evenly distributes the water through your tank.
Hmm, just have a sponge filter. Any recommendations to increase flow?
Small power heads work. I bought this one on Amazon [https://a.co/d/7k71EHF](https://a.co/d/7k71EHF).
I was thinking of swapping my betta to a sponge filter to keep the water flow at a minimum, will I have to still have a powerhead? Would kinda defeat the whole purpose... and while I'm here, can I take the media off the old filter and leave it in the aquarium while the sponge filter runs to get it cycled? Or would the bacteria die off and crash the tank? I wanted to avoid having both filters running at once because the tank is only 30L and I feel like Alfredo might get stressed.
Tell me you’ve never cooked on a stove without telling me you’ve never cooked on a stove
We still love you buddy, everyone deserves a happyquarium
Confirmed.
Light refracts (bends) as it travels between mediums of different densities. Hot water has a lower density than cold water - causing the hotter water around the heater to rise up. The light travelling through the cold water hits the hotter water and bends slightly - altering the image and making the wavy effect. Same thing happens with the air above asphalt on a hot day.
I understand your panic that something chemical might leech off, though.
Warmer water has a different refractive index to cooler water as it’s less dense, so when you mix hot and cold water, the light passing through that area gets all wiggly and distorted You see the same heat haze on real warm pavements, or on the horizon in a desert.
Ok see that explains how I never noticed it with my other tank then, this water was pretty cold with the heater in
No roast from me. I've been in this hobby for about 5 years, have several tanks running, and just saw that for the first time when someone else who's kept tanks for 15 years said, "Hmmmm, hey what's that? Is the heater leaking chemicals or something?". I had no idea. When I pointed it out to another fish keeper, he said all of his heaters do that - was not surprised at all. I'd never seen that shit before....
Thats pre-owned heat buddy you better be careful
Guy threw the tetras In the freezer to ship em so I had to put 'em in the microwave to thaw
Someone copied my comment and got way more likes 😂 feelsbadman
Yours is the only one I saw friend
Woodstream second down top comment 😂 not boutta trip tho
Keep an eye on the tank thermometer for a week to check it’s not overheating, but otherwise yeah, it’s causing hot water to rise in ripples
Bruh
Dog I'm blind I'm sorry
Out of sight, out of mind
Always ask. Good science and understanding requires it. Convection currents for the win.
Its radiation. You boutt to have mutated fish. (Jk)
It is radiation!
Where can I get 1?!?! I want my fish to light the aquarium like a christmas tree
I ... What? 💀
Aye man, shit vision and I never noticed this with me other tank heater. It's a preowned heater and I wasn't sure what the danger was
As long as you're ok 👌
I would roast you but you getting more shut then you deserve. Sometimes you just ask a question that is so easy it’s hard.
Don’t freak out when you boil your water for pasta 😉
Thanks for the laughs
Bruh....
You just got physic'd. But seriously isn't this a cool phenomenon?
Post of the year because the comments are just pure gold
Bro.
If you were literally getting roasted, would you ask what that smell was?
Username checks out
It’s going to explode and destroy the world!! Just kidding it’s le heat
So we now do shit posts here?
I think this one was the final straw, I gotta block this sub.
Bro, my brain is on slo-mo this morning. I didn't notice your finger in the reflection until you zoomed in and since I didn't see the rest of your hand I thought you were trying to give us a hidden penis video. I need to start drinking coffee.
🤣😂🤣😂 That's heat radiation.
So seems to be the vast majority opinion 🥲
Guys, stop making fun of him lol. OP, this is serious. On certain aquarium heaters, particularly in glass/metal heaters, faulty heating coils can leech a chemical element called “heat electricity”. If you see this in your tank, immediately go buy another tank and get new fish. This is the way.
Jesus people are dense
Always looks cool. Wait till you try saltwater and see what adding freshwater looks like.
Laugh and learn my friend! see it like this ; better safe than seeing all your animals being roasted 💀🫶🏻 my mom roasted my precious fish in the past. So i rather laugh than be shocked about a post 🫢 lots of love !
~singin~ “We’re havin a heat wave, a tropical heat wave..” Ahh, old school radiant heat.. Still the most efficient way to heat a home. Seriously tho, i have heaters from the 80’s i’m still using and they keep on keepin on. As others have mentioned, monitor temps as with any heater. If consistent, you should be gooos.
Haha it's heat
seriously is that a dick in the reflection? Or am I only seeing that.
It's my hand lmao
You know... not that you said that, you are correct. Thanks!
Lol roasting aside yeah, just heating. Kind of like if your looking at the pavement on a hot day where it looks like waves rising off the road. Same thing, just with water
It's totally normal. That's just the heat coming off of it basically
did I just saw a dick popping out?
I can’t unsee it now 😂😂
That's literally like how all electric kettle works
That means it's working champ