Grey fuzz on heater?! Help!

[goodeyesniper]

Hello everyone,

I was just looking at my betta fish's tank a few moments ago and I discovered some odd grey fuzz growing on the heater's temperature adjustment knob as well as the suction cups holding my heater to the back wall.

I've never seen it before today and I'm always checking my fish tank. In fact, I just did a water change a few hours ago and didn't notice it then.

5g hex tank, filtered with two baffles-- one for the intake and outtake--which gives little water movement. Temperature stays around 76* give or take 2 degrees.

He eats one pellet a day, so it's not from excess food.

Here's a picture
http://i55.tinypic.com/30ie6b7.jpg

is it dangerous to my fish?

 

[TotallyCoral]

I have the exact same heater and mine has that stuff on it too (in the exact same place.) I wouldn't worry about it too much considering I've had it ever since my tank was set up. To be honest, I think it's some sort of algae but not really sure... From my experiences, it's completely harmless. If you're really worried about it (like I was when I first noticed it) you can always wipe the knob with a paper towel. But eventually it will come back.

 

[goodeyesniper]

just looked at my filter pad under a light, looks like there's some greenish/brown algae growing on the pad as well. should I replace it?

I'm going to undo the baffle on the intake to see if that helps things

 

[TotallyCoral]

Hmm, not really sure but you could swish it around in some tank water to get all the algae off. I don't really have any experience with pads so I couldn't tell you for sure.

 

[Flossie]

Same stuff here... I posted a thread about it as well...