Background information:
Fish: 1 male betta (bought mid-June 2022)
- mild fin rot (from pet store) is being treated with Microbe-Lift Artemiss
Diet: Currently eating ~4 or 5 thawed SF Bay frozen brine shrimp every 2-3 days using a wide-tipped pipette.
Tank:
- 5.5 gallon Aqueon rimless tank with added glass top
- Aqueon OptiBright adjustable LED light fixture
- Aqueon 3 gallon Quietflow filter + included cartridge (no other media)
- Aqueon 5 watt mini flat heater
- Imagitarium black aquarium sand
- Imagitarium air pump (2.5 watt), tubing, and air stone
- Spring water from Walmart throughout the whole aquarium (this was only because I had triops in the tank previously so it could be changed)
Decorations:
- [T-rex skull]
- Pen-Plax artificial fish breeding grass
- I used to have [this] in the tank and the glosso was sprouting really beautifully before the plant portion was suddenly covered by a cotton-like moss.
Does anyone recognize the white flakey junk on the sand and floating around in my betta's aquarium? It has been appearing consistently for the last month and a half despite my best efforts. The only thing that briefly controlled it was doing a complete water change (much to the chagrin of my little guy) and re-washing his sand all over again. Initially, I thought it must have been excess thawed brine shrimp or uneaten blood worms (he will not go for any food that floats and won't take anything from tweezers either. he sees it, but he just doesn't care), so after that whole ordeal I was extra careful to make sure he ate each shrimp as soon as I dropped it in (as well as spacing out his feedings - both for water quality purposes and because he gets fairly bloated after eating them).
And yet, only two weeks after the water change, it's building up again/fogging up the water. What IS this stuff??? It's driving me insane. I'm not new to keeping fish by any means, but I have never seen anything like this. I've considered getting a bigger/stronger filter, but my guy didn't have the best pectoral fins when I got him and I don't want to make things harder for him when swimming past that corner. I have also tried dosing the water with Accu-Clear both before the water change and now, but there has been no noticeable change. I tested the quality with strips before changing out the water and the results were actually good, which was surprising considering how gross it looks.
Any help with solving this would be amazing. Let me know if I need to provide more info for anything.
** The LAST picture is how the tank is supposed to look (minus the bubbles - this was when I was still cycling it/had just put it together)
Every other picture was taken seconds ago after swishing around the water a bit. **
Fish: 1 male betta (bought mid-June 2022)
- mild fin rot (from pet store) is being treated with Microbe-Lift Artemiss
Diet: Currently eating ~4 or 5 thawed SF Bay frozen brine shrimp every 2-3 days using a wide-tipped pipette.
Tank:
- 5.5 gallon Aqueon rimless tank with added glass top
- Aqueon OptiBright adjustable LED light fixture
- Aqueon 3 gallon Quietflow filter + included cartridge (no other media)
- Aqueon 5 watt mini flat heater
- Imagitarium black aquarium sand
- Imagitarium air pump (2.5 watt), tubing, and air stone
- Spring water from Walmart throughout the whole aquarium (this was only because I had triops in the tank previously so it could be changed)
Decorations:
- [T-rex skull]
- Pen-Plax artificial fish breeding grass
- I used to have [this] in the tank and the glosso was sprouting really beautifully before the plant portion was suddenly covered by a cotton-like moss.
Does anyone recognize the white flakey junk on the sand and floating around in my betta's aquarium? It has been appearing consistently for the last month and a half despite my best efforts. The only thing that briefly controlled it was doing a complete water change (much to the chagrin of my little guy) and re-washing his sand all over again. Initially, I thought it must have been excess thawed brine shrimp or uneaten blood worms (he will not go for any food that floats and won't take anything from tweezers either. he sees it, but he just doesn't care), so after that whole ordeal I was extra careful to make sure he ate each shrimp as soon as I dropped it in (as well as spacing out his feedings - both for water quality purposes and because he gets fairly bloated after eating them).
And yet, only two weeks after the water change, it's building up again/fogging up the water. What IS this stuff??? It's driving me insane. I'm not new to keeping fish by any means, but I have never seen anything like this. I've considered getting a bigger/stronger filter, but my guy didn't have the best pectoral fins when I got him and I don't want to make things harder for him when swimming past that corner. I have also tried dosing the water with Accu-Clear both before the water change and now, but there has been no noticeable change. I tested the quality with strips before changing out the water and the results were actually good, which was surprising considering how gross it looks.
Any help with solving this would be amazing. Let me know if I need to provide more info for anything.
** The LAST picture is how the tank is supposed to look (minus the bubbles - this was when I was still cycling it/had just put it together)
Every other picture was taken seconds ago after swishing around the water a bit. **
