Maintenance help please

My tank is 1.5 months up and running, cycled, with a betta. I have swished out the filter media once in this timeframe and do pwc (15-20%) every 6 days. I'm noticing when the water gets stirred up lots of white-ish particles float around. They appear to be coming off the gravel, fake plants, and rock decor. Some in thin flat sheets and others in small irregular pieces. Is this algae or bacteria? Is it bad? It ultimately settles, but it makes me feel like the tank is not clean.
Also, should I be removing decor/fake plants and rinsing them off as part of my regular maintenance?
Newbie questions continue

 

I have no idea what the white stuff might be, but most problems come from some issue with water quality or lighting. What are your water parameters? Also, when you switched out the filter media, you probably destroyed your cycle. Most people here only recommend switching out the media when it is literally falling apart. Did you have a reason to switch it?

Rinsing plants and stuff is really a personal preference. If they have a bit of algae that's bothering you, or have a piece of fish poop stuck on them, go ahead and wash. If not, then don't bother unless you want to.

Is this your 10 gallon?

 

Yes it's my 10 gallon. I didn't switch the filter media I just swooshed it out in old tank water (sorry I mistyped before). I tried to get a picture but it doesn't come out clearly. My water tests at 0, 0, 5.0. I'm not sure how else to describe it.
Thanks for responding though.

 

Hmmmm…. Is it slimy? Hard? Rough? Soft?

 

It definitely appears soft and breaks up even smaller if disturbed. I don't see it in the tank until the water gets disrupted. Then it floats until resettling. I'm having trouble posting a couple pictures.

 

Could it be leftover rotten food?

 

Nope. I only have the one betta and he eats his pellets right away.

 

Do you use a gravel vac when doing a water change? I suppose the white stuff could be left over dust from the gravel

 

Actually, I just saw some of this in my betta tank. Close inspection revealed them to be what I believe are bits of fin! This was really upsetting for me. I didn't realize just HOW fragile his fins were. They were concentrated around the offending fake plant (I hate fake plants but it was an emergency type of deal) which I prompted removed.

I should note, I am 99% certain they are fin pieces yet I cannot tell from where they were nicked, you might not be able to either.

I'm not certain this is what's going in your tank, but it sure sounds a lot like what I just discovered in mine. Scour your decor VERY closely and check your betta over for any signs of fin rot or simply injured fins. I've got Kordon's Fish Protector in the tank and am watching closely for any signs of infection now, even though I'm not sure where the pieces are missing from (he has those naturally jagged fins and so much of them I'm not sure what's what).

I'm not saying this is for sure what's going on in your tank, but since you seem to have narrowed down all other options and it sounds SO similar to what I found in my tank, you may want to consider it. Even if his fins are colored, it's possible this color would disappear on dead fin tissue and appear white (Virabhadra's fins are multicolored including white, the fin pieces were pure white). The pieces were also very soft and fell apart very easily on contact.

I hope this isn't happening with your boy. But I thought I'd put it out there just in case.

 

I do use a vacuum when I do my wc. I do my wc about every 6 days. I've noticed this stuff increasing over the last several weeks. At first I thought it might be a bloom of some sort because my water was a little cloudy. Now my water is very clear but if I stir up the water near my gravel line it looks like it's snowing in my tank.

This stuff can't possibly be fins/scales. My betta looks better today than he did when I got him and there is way too much of this stuff to be coming from his little self.









Finally got some pics to upload




These were taken right after I used my net to stir up the tank water.

Any thoughts?

 

I do use a vacuum when I do my wc. I do my wc about every 6 days. I've noticed this stuff increasing over the last several weeks. At first I thought it might be a bloom of some sort because my water was a little cloudy. Now my water is very clear but if I stir up the water near my gravel line it looks like it's snowing in my tank.

This stuff can't possibly be fins/scales. My betta looks better today than he did when I got him and there is way too much of this stuff to be coming from his little self.

Oh yeah I only found a couple pieces and I cannot figure out where he is actually nicked. If there were that many, you'd see it.

Sometimes organic crud just lumps together like that. When I gravel vac, I sometimes see clearish clumps just come on up. Especially with live plants, if you have any. It's an ecosystem and sometimes there are organic by-products that just...happen haha. I seem to notice it appears more when nitrates are kind of high. There IS a type of bacteria that breaks nitrates into organic components, I believe, but it's very very slow and doesn't do much.

How's your filter sponge? Could it be pieces coming off of the sponge?

What about some kind of aquarium pest?

Are you adding anything to your tank besides conditioner? Something like VitaChem which I will never ever add to anything but the food again ha. It made a big mess.

Do you feed any loose food like daphnia or bloodworms?

Now I'm just shooting off ideas.

 

Thank you for trying to come up with ideas. I had been using Paraguard for two weeks to clear up his fin rot, but other than that the only thing that's changed is the tank is two weeks older. Ha
I'm due for another wc tomorrow. I think I may pull some decor out and just vacuum real good in places I can't easily get to.
Also I've been seeding some new filter media for almost 3 weeks. I may pull out the old stuff and look at adding some seachem purigen.
Know anything about it? I heard it really helps clear water.

 

It won't help with mechanical filtration, though…

These things look like a broken up oil slick. If you look on the top of your tank, is there a film? If so, maybe increasing surface agitation would help.

 

I don't have a film, but I do have small dust/particles. They appear to be different from the free floating stuff in question. I have a surface skimmer to clear them up, or keep them in check, because they never go away.

Still at a loss and surprised more people haven't come across this issue. Hoping that wc and some deep vacuuming will help.

 

How thick is your substrate? Looks like white mold to me.

 

That's quite common with newly established tanks. It's slimy and you'll see more of it if you try scraping off surfaces. If you slack off on maintenance it will turn into fungus like cottony growth. Tetra Pond Sludge Reducer helped me a lot when I had this. I don't use it often anymore but helps a lot during emergencies when I miss a maintenance schedule. Poop also breaks down faster.

 

I think I've blown my cycle. I did a 20% wc removed several decorations and vacuumed the tank thoroughly in hopes to clear these whitish floating particles. This morning my water tested: .25, 0, 0. What happened to all my nitrates? I didn't touch my filter.
What do I do now? Start completely over with TSS?

 

Oh no!! I'm sorry to hear that.

You could invest in some TSS--it's great stuff. You could also wait a day and see if it's just a minI cycle.

 

If it is a mini-cycle, will it jump start on its own? I wouldn't do any maintenance for another week normally. Other than continuing to test my water is there anything else I could do to help matters?

 

I think I've blown my cycle. I did a 20% wc removed several decorations and vacuumed the tank thoroughly in hopes to clear these whitish floating particles. This morning my water tested: .25, 0, 0. What happened to all my nitrates? I didn't touch my filter.
What do I do now? Start completely over with TSS?

If your readings are .25,0,0 you can just add the entire bottle of TSS.

 

You may have caused a mini-cycle. Hopefully it will be short lived. Just keep an eye on your parameters and do daily partial water changes with Prime until you get the tank cycled again. It may only take a couple of days. As to where did your nitrates go, you probably removed enough of them with the water change that they are so low they are not registering.

 

I would do a 100% WC, rinse all gravel, decorations and tank real well, add tap water, add Prime, wait 24 hours and add TSS. Return fish from QT as directed on TSS bottle.

However, if your Beta has fin rot it needs larger daily WCs. Best treatment for fin rot is clean water.

Yes, you should regularly remove all decorations from the tank, rinse them in used tank water and most importantly vacuum real well the area under them.

Good luck and keep notes to share with the next generation of Betta newbies. I am wondering whether your tank was actually cycled.

 

Thanks for all the responses.
Fin rot is cleared up and new growth is present. He looks better now than over the first month I had him.
I'm not understanding the benefit of 100% wc as I felt I did a thourogh clean yesterday.
My tank may not have been fully cycled although for a month or so my numbers were reading 0, 0, 5.0. I'd started the tank with TSS when bad advice to put a feeder fish in with betta (to increase ammonia) caused betta to get ich. Many wc were done while treating with rid ich so cycle was probably stalled. Anyway, all that cleared up and water tests were good until I started dealing with some whitish debri. In the hopes to clear that this past wc and major vacuum has caused my ammonia to reappear and nitrates to disappear.
My plan was to wait, keep testing, and go with TSS if numbers don't seem to improve.
I still struggle with how to maintain filter/filter media over time, but I feel I should focus on water first. No?

Sorry so long...

 

Thanks for all the responses.
Fin rot is cleared up and new growth is present. He looks better now than over the first month I had him.
I'm not understanding the benefit of 100% wc as I felt I did a thourogh clean yesterday.
My tank may not have been fully cycled although for a month or so my numbers were reading 0, 0, 5.0. I'd started the tank with TSS when bad advice to put a feeder fish in with betta (to increase ammonia) caused betta to get ich. Many wc were done while treating with rid ich so cycle was probably stalled. Anyway, all that cleared up and water tests were good until I started dealing with some whitish debri. In the hopes to clear that this past wc and major vacuum has caused my ammonia to reappear and nitrates to disappear.
My plan was to wait, keep testing, and go with TSS if numbers don't seem to improve.
I still struggle with how to maintain filter/filter media over time, but I feel I should focus on water first. No?

Sorry so long...

Whenever you use medication to treat an illness/injury, remove the carbon from the filter. Carbon will remove the medication from your tank. If or when you have an established tank with live plants you no longer need carbon.

Dealing with filter maintenance, never do anything to the filter on the same day you clean your gravel. Other than that just take the media out of your filtration unit, swish it around in some removed tank water during a partial water change. You don't need to do this weekly either. How long between filter swishing is determined by volume of filtration media, bio-load that I know of. Typical signs of a filtration unit needing to be cleaned is reduced water flow.

Also, it isn't a bad idea to have a replacement impeller, o-rings, and even a new pump in your closet in case mechanical maintenance is required.

imo, filtration capability, and water readings are equal.

 

I just had a minI cycle from over cleaning. Here is what I did...it started at nitrites so I didn't have a minI ammonia spike but...

As soon as my levels hit .25ppm Nitrite I did a 40% WC, just water no gravel vac no filter swish. After that I left it alone, continued to do level testing and re dosed with Prime every 24 hours until nitrites were gone. It took a week to resolve. First day it hit .25ppm and after the WC it never came back up.

If you have prime and your levels stay down then give it a minute before you go back to TSS. If your levels really start to climb then you can consider it but if you have prime and a test kit I would say try to let it resolve itself first.

But why are all your nitrates gone? What were your nitrates before the 20% WC? Nitrates don't go anywhere unless you have lots of live plants or remove them yourself so they should only have dropped by 20% unless they were so low going into the WC that now they are not reading at all but they would have to be pretty low for that.



The only thing to note is that the smaller the tank the less stable the cycle. Things can go south fast so watch your fish and watch your levels if you do it my way.

Edit: Be careful with the use of purigen. It removes ammonia, nitrite and nitrate from the water which can starve out your BB so when it wears out it's possible you will see a spike in those levels. I bought some for use in uncycled QT but am not planning to use it in my main tank. Other members have had success with it though. It's just easy to miss the part where it says it removes that stuff. Lastly you cannot use it with any amine based products which many slime coat products are so be aware of that as well.

 

Thank you, wow.

I will follow the test and redoes with prime regiment for a bit. My nitrates were probably low to begin with. Darker than 0 but not a strong 5.0

All you guys are such a huge help!

 

Of course you don't have to do a 100% WC, but if I had white stuff in my tank and were starting over, I would have gone for a completely and totally fresh start. I would have thoroughly washed, cleaned and air dry everything. Why start a new cycle keeping remnants of the old issues intact?

 

Sounds good! Trust your gut, if you feel it climbing quickly and cannot get a handle on it then use the TSS. It certainly won't hurt anything. But I was glad to give my tank a chance to fix itself before I intervened. If the levels are manageable then no big it can resolve on its own.

I think this mysterious white crud shows up in new tanks. I kind of found some in mine today under some decor. Even if you start over it will probably just appear. It's an ecosystem and in tiny closed ones you are far more likely to see organic byproduct. Probably a clump of food and waste tissue cells and bacteria all building up. I did see one member suggest that sludge clearing stuff. If you are really bothered by it you might try it. For me it builds up a little on airline tubing. My goldies love to snack on it. They are moving into a 75 gallon this weekend so I am honestly not too concerned with it.

 

Simple solution I used for my new 55 gallon tank.

- Buy new, clean it a few times
- rinse, rinse, rinse, and boil your substrate (not 'established material)
- Clean everything that goes into the tank
- Add water and prime, let stand for 24 hours
- install established filter media
- Add fish and bottle of TSS

I did the above and only issue I had was air bubbles on the tank walls lol. 24hrs later my readings are the same they were for my old 29 gallon tank. Not really old, the 29 gallon is only 4 weeks old. I did this during the middle of a TSS cycle.

 

I tend to agree with delta5. Although I have never boiled gravel I never had any white crud in any of my five tanks. I did have "snow" one s in my 10G. The older filter was disintegrating from old age, but by that time I had the second filter seeded.

 

remefrank - I wanted to make a correction on my information about Purigen. It says on the bottle that it "controls ammonia, nitrites and nitrates" by removing nitrogenous organic wastes that would otherwise release these compounds. Mamajin is a member who first recommended Purigen to me as she uses it herself and is an experienced fish-keeper. She told me that, while what "nitrogenous organic wastes" is a little undefined, Purigen has never interfered with her cycle, even in cycling a tank from the beginning with it, and her water looks extraordinary.

I want to do a little more research, but I feel a little better about it and wanted to share the correction with you.

 

remefrank - I wanted to make a correction on my information about Purigen. It says on the bottle that it "controls ammonia, nitrites and nitrates" by removing nitrogenous organic wastes that would otherwise release these compounds. Mamajin is a member who first recommended Purigen to me as she uses it herself and is an experienced fish-keeper. She told me that, while what "nitrogenous organic wastes" is a little undefined, Purigen has never interfered with her cycle, even in cycling a tank from the beginning with it, and her water looks extraordinary.

I want to do a little more research, but I feel a little better about it and wanted to share the correction with you.

Thanks for the follow up. I'm a little gun shy on using anything to clear up the water just yet. The large cleaning that disrupted my cycle cleared up most if not all of the "debri". Time will show if it comes back. I need to get my cycle in check first. Pwc and re-dosing with prime for a couple days.

 

Good luck with whatever you decide. Just keep us posted. FishLores's learning curve never ends

 

My best guess on the white stuff in your tanks is diatoms. I had similar type stuff when I restarted my 20H aquarium. I used well established media (over 2 years old and originally from this aquarium), added some fish, and soon after had a nice colony of diatoms for 2 months. These were mostly brownish in color, but the ones that formed on my java moss were more white in color.

 

I've decided to go ahead and re-add TSS. So here is my question:

Should I change my filter media to a new cartridge? I have the original one (carbon removed, 2 months old) shoved in the back of a newer pad (no carbon, approx 3 weeks old).

Just swish both out? Remove the old one and leave the newer? Or leave them alone and use TSS?

This morning my ammonia is b/w .25 and .5 and my nitrates are more than 0 but not quite 5.0

 

I've decided to go ahead and re-add TSS. So here is my question:

Should I change my filter media to a new cartridge? I have the original one (carbon removed, 2 months old) shoved in the back of a newer pad (no carbon, approx 3 weeks old).

Just swish both out? Remove the old one and leave the newer? Or leave them alone and use TSS?

This morning my ammonia is b/w .25 and .5 and my nitrates are more than 0 but not quite 5.0

If you're adding TSS you can put a new one in. If you have a bubbler in there I'd swish the old one in a bucket of water from your tank, then lay it over your bubbler. This way its still somewhat working, and you can remove it after the 14 day tss and your new filter should be good to go.

 

If you're adding TSS you can put a new one in. If you have a bubbler in there I'd swish the old one in a bucket of water from your tank, then lay it over your bubbler. This way its still somewhat working, and you can remove it after the 14 day tss and your new filter should be good to go.

Sorry, I don't get it. Put my old filter media over my bubbler in a bucket?
If I'm starting over why do I need to save the older filter cartridge? This would leave my tank wo a bubbler. Is that right?
Is it bad to just keep the older filter media in place? So confused.

 

Since you will not be able to do any filter maintenance for 14 days after adding the SafeStart, I would just swish both out pretty well in some old tank water. There should be no reason to replace the old media with new media.

 

Sorry, I don't get it. Put my old filter media over my bubbler in a bucket?
If I'm starting over why do I need to save the older filter cartridge? This would leave my tank wo a bubbler. Is that right?
Is it bad to just keep the older filter media in place? So confused.

You can keep the old. I meant with bubbler in your tank with the old filter over it in your tank. This is what I am doing and is working out just fine.

 

Ahh gotcha ya. Thanks again!