What are these white pellet-like things on the bottom of my aquarium ?

[aquarium2012]

They look like pellets. They do not move. I vacuum them all up then they re-appear. I do partial water changes once a week or a larger change every 2 weeks.


I have one Platy, one Mollie, four Ghost Shrimp and two snails in a 10 gallon tank. No real plants, I have a LED light and Penguin 100 filter. Water is clear. I have black sand.

Only thing I can think of is I noticed them after I put a air stone in the tank. I thought these were pieces from the airstone but it is a black air stone and these are whitish.

I feed them flakes once a day. Sometimes twice. The food gets eaten up.

My filter is filled with "goop" I have rinsed it off in the aquarium water when doing changes. But would I need a new filter, ever ? I had the same filter for about 8 months now. I read to just rinse it and not change it.

Thanks

Pictures are attached....

 

[MrsFreshwater]

If they are very small and have like fluffy bits around them. then I think they could be fresh water hydra. They are very small and are like sea anemone. If you look really close and they have branches like a tree, they are tentacles, just like a sea anemone. The could be embedded into the substrate. If you have gravel then I would take all of it out and soak it. You may need to replace it and give your tank a really good scrub. I would see if it's in your filter too.

 

[librarygirl]

Are they hard or soft? Do they move? Could be uneaten food that's decomposing or maybe calcium deposits from your water or ferts you might be dosing? Not sure, just taking some wild guesses lol

 

[abstract373]

are you new to black sand i noticed something like that when i change to black sand it turned out to be the poop! never saw it in the gravel bed...good luck on your search and sorry if i was no help...

 

[aquarium2012]

Thanks for the replies. Yeah I cant find any info or images that look like what I have. They look like dandruff. I have not touched them, I have no idea what it is, so dont want to catch anything

It cant be food or waste, there is too much of it - it is scattered all through out the tank. There is none in the filter.

I will be starting a 20 gallon and would like to know what this is. I dont want to transfer this over to the new tank.

Will do a thorough cleaning this weekend and leave the airstone off and see if they come back.

 

[aquarium2012]

I cleaned the aquarium - water change, sand, decor and filter on Thursday. I took out the airstone. Those "pellets" are gone - it's been about 3 days now. I will try the airstone again within a few days and see if they come back.

 

[MrsFreshwater]

Oh and By the way they are 1 zebra angelfish the biggest at about 2.5 inches maybe and 2 orange marble angelfish at about 2 and 1.5 inches