Tropical Fish Forums

kevin c · New Members Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Location: Nor Cal USA

I've noticed little white spots on tank walls and bottom decorations for about a week now. Not on fish and fish all seem healthy and happy. The spots 'pop' off when poked with a dowel. Seem a little crusty/mineralized.

Going to add new fish in the next week or so and have been trying to prepare by adding "blackwater" extract and reducing nitrates by stepping up to 5-10% water changes daily and adding kordon amquel.

Not knowing if it might turn out to be Ich, added aquarium salt and nudged up temp to 81F.

55g tank w/black ghost, neon tetra x8, balloon ram x2, dwarf puffer, bumblebee goby x2, freshwater crab.

Water tends to be hard, alkaline. Is that enough info? Thanks for any help...
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They say I'm gonna make it. If I'm not careful, it just might work. Then again, they can't stop me. They can barely slow me down.

Minsc · Regulars Joined: 03 Jan 2006 Location: Framingham, Mass

Ich will never show up as spots on anything but fish. You either have some tiny form of snail, or some sort of precipitation or debris. Nothing to worry about.

kevin c · New Members Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Location: Nor Cal USA

Thanks. I thought it might be some lifestage of Ich where they were cysts, on tank bottom, etc. Pretty sure they're not snails. Too small, don't move, and react like a crunchy 'flake' to being scraped. I've never seen this before, so I'm really curious as to what it could be. Whatever it is, it seems to prefer only the least porous or most smooth surfaces as well...

I forgot to mention in the first post that I do have some floating plants (anacharis) and I feed black worms supplemented by a variety of flake, disc and crisp feeds.

Thanks again anybody for any info on what might be going on.
_________________
They say I'm gonna make it. If I'm not careful, it just might work. Then again, they can't stop me. They can barely slow me down.

lenoirj · Regulars Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Location: Yakima, Washington

Could they be hard water deposits?

kevin c · New Members Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Location: Nor Cal USA

Hmmm. I suppose it could be...

I would think that I would have seen this before though. I've maintained aquariums off and on for 15 years using the same water source. Also, they appear near the bottom of the tank as small circular flakes. My experience with hard water deposits in the past has been at the waters edge, as more of a uniform 'shoreline'.

Isolating any recent changes: I guess there could be some factor from the combination blackwater extract and/or amquel+ that creates a "seed" effect for the crystalization process. Still seems like it would happen more randomly and not just near the tank bottom.

I just hope this is really only a maintenance nuisance and not a danger to our critters.

Lots to ponder.
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They say I'm gonna make it. If I'm not careful, it just might work. Then again, they can't stop me. They can barely slow me down.

lenoirj · Regulars Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Location: Yakima, Washington

My tea kettle that I use to boil water on the stove gets hard white deposit spots in it over time and I have to use Lime Away to remove them. They are hard, sometimes flaky white dots all over the inside of the pot. They don't seem to affect the water put they don't look very nice.

As for your tank, that's the only thing that came to mind. We have hard well water so every appliance that uses water and anything that holds water in it either gets the white "shoreline" or the white dots.