White substance

[Fishyfanatic]

Our water is basically liquid rock and is high in calcium/lime. In the tank is Lava Rock, Driftwood, Live Plants, and Sand. Over the past few days I have noticed some white deposits forming on the glass. After scrubbing them off with an algae scraper, they were pretty much gone. There were a few patches on the back glass left, but not much. One morning when the lights kicked on I saw this:





It was like it happened overnight. The timers are set for 5 hours on, 1 hour off, and 5 hours on. Water changes are done weekly at 35%. The only thing that is in this particular tank that is not in any of the others is the live plants. I am not dosing with ferts. The tank does not receive even the slightest bit of direct or indirect sunlight.

I thought about scrapping it all off with a razor, but I don't think the fish would appreciate white chunks in the tank. The substance is very hard and bumpy. It's not a smooth surface. Tomorrow I am going to do a massive water change (about 60%) and scrape the substance off into a container so it doesn't get into the water. But that is just a temporary fix. I want to get to the bottom of what is causing this buildup so I don't have to do this every few weeks.

Can anyone give some insight as to what is going on?

BTW- It's not a reflection at the top of the first pic. It really is a big sheet of the white stuff.

 

[Jchillin]

FF - I know you have a pretty high ph and you recently posted your water supplies tests and no unusual minerals other than fe were noted. You also recently moved as well.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Yup, I should have mentioned that. We moved 4 months ago . Our pH is 8.2, GH 358, KH 268.5, and Fe 0.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

any ideas?

 

[tropicfishman]

is it a well water supply? I've heard that sometimes well water has minerals in it that standard test kits don't detect

 

[greenmaji]

It looks like high calcium content (or even ash or lime) in the water supply to me. :?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I'm on the city water supply.

It does not make sense as to why this is happening in ONLY this tank. The other four do not have the slightest bit of it.

 

[QTOFFER]

I agree that it's lime deposits. I've never heard of white algae, and fungus is not a hard substance. I wouldn't worry too much about getting scrapings in the water since it's already in it anyway.

What's strange is that you haven't been seeing this in your other tanks. Do you have lime deposits in the sinks, tub, and toilet too?

If it is lime, the best long term solution is a RO unit. Household water softeners would work too, but they generally replace Mg and Ca with Na, which could cause other problems.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

We have to use lime away about once a month or so in the sinks to keep them looking nice. I figured that it was excess lime, but wondered why it is only in this one particular tank. The only thing different with this tank is the live plants. Could that be enough to cause this to happen?

 

[CGGorman]

I would guess tha tthe live plants are absorbing enough calcium, magnesium, iron, etc. to throw the balance off and allow the lime to precipitate out of solution.

Could also be temperature or agitation/aeration related. If the temp drops or agitation stops, solubility will decline...allowing minerals to precipitate.

You should STRONGLY consider getting a whole house water softener....for the well-being of your plumbing, your health, your detergent bills, your water heater, and your fish.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

A water softener is pretty much out of the question. We rent an apt and I don't think the landlord would approve of us installing one. Besides, we don't drink the water anyways. The city water tastes really gross, undrinkable IMO. But I am used to bottled water so my taste buds are probably biased. I am more of a fan of well water. We take our laundry to my parents house since we don't have a washer/dryer in the apt. They are on well water. Man, I sure do miss that. City water IMO does not taste very good and I've lived in 6 different cities. None of them can compare to well water.

Your theory is pretty much what I was thinking Gorman. The plants must be absorbing something in the water to cause the lime buildup. Otherwise it would be present in the other tanks.

 

[Jchillin]

The only thing about that is I don't believe their are enough plants in the tank to actually be a concern...though it does appear that the plants are the only variable. It is strange.

 

[bman]

With a pH of 8.4 that is very basic, actually ten times more basic than a 7.4. This makes the water condition very scaling. This means that the water will try to precipitate out what it can to get to an equilibrium.

I work for a swimming pool store and service company, and there is a formula called the Saturation Index which is used to determine if water is balanced. It factors pH, temperature, Alkalinity, Calcuim Hardness together to give the water balance level. All of these factors are proportional to each other. This means that if your calcium level is high, one of the other factors will need to be decreased to maintain equilibrium.

(Technical nerd knowledge section)
In fact, water company's have used this formula to change the water going through pipes to form a scaling condition that deposits a scale on the inside of all water pipes that protects the pipes from corrosion.

 

[greenmaji]

Just wait and see.. when I lived in hard water area's it took some tanks longer to get the lime but they all did eventually. That and the more evaportion that is allowed to occur in the tank with less % of water per water changes greatly effects how fast this develops IME.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

My pH is actually 8.2. But thanks for the info bman!

I did a large water change yesterday of about 80% or so and scrubbed the walls. The razor blade took off the deposits easily. I did such a large water change because as I was scraping the deposit, some was falling into the water. The fish did not take too kindly to that so I figured I'd diilute it as much as possible. I also did filter maintenance. Suprisingly the canister tubes did not have buildup. I think I'll just wait and see what happens. But so far, none of the other tanks show any signs of the buildup.

 

[greenmaji]

80% isn't all that bad.. I did 75% weekly on my FW setups..
It would help prevent this (not to mention alot of other problems), this mainly from evaportation mineral buildup.