nick45

So I have all this white powder in my fish tank filter and the water is fairly cloudy. I have been doing ~30% water changes 2x a week and w/in a day its back to . My fish are behaving fine, but there is some white discoloration on the back fin of my gold gourami. I took pictures. Any help would be apprecited.

Also, I have had the tank for almost a year and have been having this problem since June. I loose a fish ~ once every two months, just never put 2 and 2 together. Fully cycled, and no salt added. THANKS!!!!

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Shawnie

hey nick!! welcome to fishlore if I missed it before!!

when you say you "clean" it often, do you completely wash out the filter?

the white looks like water hardness deposits..which is an eyesore, but doesnt hut alot..and the cloudyness looks like a bacteria bloom ...almost like you are having a mini cycle from cleaning out the filter media too much...

when you say "fully cycled", what does that mean? and what test kit are you using?

nick45

I just do a partial water change, but I leave everything else basically the same. The water is not the problem. I have two tanks, which both use the same water, the other tank is perfect. Also, this stuff is almost like a flour consistency.

I use a liquid test kit, for ammonium, nitrites and nitrates, which all are zero.(nitrates are very low due to all the water changes). I know it looks like a bacteria bloom, but with the levels being zero, the fish developing a few spots and the frequency of the water changes I think it has to be something else, but what I have no idea.

I really want this to stop because my tank is really beautiful and I love the fish, but this makes it look horrible. I really just don't know how to solve this problem

Thanks in advance for the help. I really appreciate it.

nick45

So I think its def a fungus infection. Any info on how to proceed would be appreciated

clinton1621

It looks extremely hard water to me... fungus is not powdery, its actually slimy.

Shawnie

im sticking with the water hardness as well the white stuff that is... sorry nick...and a 0 nitrate isnt good as you need some to have a completed cycle...you mention your fish have a few spots, is it ICH you think? how strong is your filter and what fish are in the tank? what size is the tank? all this info could help ...

clinton1621

Unless the color of your pics is bad... the water cloudiness looks like its green, that would be caused by an algae bloom (also known as "green water")

So my conclusion would be that you are having an algae bloom, and the white powdery stuff is lime and calcium deposits from hard water which is unrelated to the green cloudiness.

The spots on the fish could also be related to having an algae bloom... as this indicates you have a water quality problem in the tank, which would make the fish more open to disease.

rileyrk190

honestly the only time i have seen my tank become cloudy is when the tank began a mini cycle. if it is ich, make sure you raise your temperature in your tank, and do daily water changes. Also depending on your fish you could add some aquarium salt.

nick45

The thing is, is my gourami has a small cut on his one side, that is then surrounded by this white stuff. Also, I had a fish die about a month ago who had the same thing occur, the sore just kept getting larger. The that white stuff is also growing on the outside parts of the filter and in places that water doesn't directly touch. In those places it almost resembles a spider web. Finally the bulb is only 15w and the tank is 26 gallons. There is no window near it at all, so I don't think that it is algae, there is none on the glass or anything.

I have two whisper power tanks set up, one is the whisper 30 the other is the 40(I just had an extra one so I threw it on there). It is a 26 gallon tank with 2 gourami, a paradise fish, 2 kribensis, an african leaf fish and 3 tetras(I forget the name of the red ones, but all are similiar in size to my black skirt tetra)

The thing that really makes me think it is not hard water is that I have a second tank that is perfectly fine, if it was the water wouldn't I be experiencing the same type of problem with that tank.

I just wanted to thank everyone for their help, it is really appreciated

RandomKayos

You have multiple issues here. That is a fungus issue. The white powerder are spores. You also have a cycle crash. Probably form the excessive partial changes and filter changes. And you have stressed out fish with weakened immune systems from the cycle crash and bad water.

First, that tank needs cleaned from top to bottom. Including the hood. Get rid of all those spores. Put the fish in a bucket or hospital quarentine tank setup and medicate for fin rot and that near ich fungus I can't remember the name of right now. Since you have another tank that is healthy, You should be able to recover this one quickly. Once cleaned, Set it back up and use the filter pads from the healty tank in this one and replace that one with new. I would also get some kind of floating plant like cobombia, Hornwort or anubis. Even if you pull that out in a couple weeks it will help get the cycle back quicker.

Once set back up with dirtly pads and plants. DON't change water for a few days. Keep an eye out for that powerder or the spidery looking webs. Clean them at the first sign. You should be able to put the fish back in within a week. Test your water after the first few days. You should see some bad levels and then it will cycle thru and be steady. That's when the fish can go back. Keep checking but don't change out water or filter pads for the first week after the fish are back. From that point, you should be able to do a water change every couple weeks and change the pads on a week you don't change water. Tank should stay stable.

Oh yea, without live plants you may have to do water changes more often than that but smaller and more frequent is better in that case. And don't react to bad readings immediatly. Check again in a few hours and you should see improvements.

Good luck.

clinton1621

The green water could still be caused by an algae bloom... algae does not have to have high light to grow, it only needs a source of light if there is excessive waste or uneaten food in the tank. This would also account for the fungus... fungus needs an excessive amount of waste or uneaten food to take over a tank. So even if you remedy the current problem as RandomKaos suggested, you need to take a look at the cause of your problems.

1. Dont overfeed your fish, this is the number one reason for both algae and fungus...

2. Weekly water changes with gravel vacs to remove waste is a must, lack of doing this on a regular basis is the second biggest reason for both algae and fungus...

3. Proper filter maintenance... changing out your filter pads constantly, or rinsing them with tap water that isnt dechlorinated kills about 90% of the bacteria in your tank. Even though you may not notice a significant mini-cycle, that doesnt mean that all that waste that the bacteria would have been eating has magically disappeared... its still in there and is readily available to algae and fungus.

So as you can see, even if you fix the current algae and fungus issues, they will return (and most likely end up happening in your other tanks) unless you find and fix the source of the problem.

EDIT : Overstocking the tank is also another big issue that causes algae and fungus... I forgot to add that one in