White flakey stuff on air tubing???

[MonkeyMonk86]

My 29 gallon tank was stripped, cleaned, Cloroxed for 2 hrs 49 days ago, to remove snails. I am not using CO2 at the present time.

A week ago, my tank was fully cycled and when I was changing the water I found a white substance on the airline tubing to a sponge filter. ( Both were placed in new after the cloroxing ) Some of it flaked into the water. The rest i removed with paper towels. I only ran the lights 3 hr/day while cycling. I am using an Aquaclear 50 HOB with a sponge intake sock to prevent fish getting sucked into the filter.

I waited until the next day to add my 4 fish and airstone inside a Buddha head. I've been running the lights 6 hr/day and the tank is lightly planted.

Today, one week later, I found the white flaky gunk covering both air hoses. Some flaked off while doing a 33% PWC.

( Back stepping a few months. When I originally had many plants and natural CO2 setup. I would find white gunk on the Co2 tubing and a thick moving white gunk on the outlet where the Co2 joined the diffuser. I was using a Fluval U4 filter)

Weirdly, my pH always goes from 7.4 to 8 - 8.2 just in this tank.

Does anyone know what this white flakey stuff is?


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[PB_Smith]

If I were to venture a guess, I would say a bacterial film, same as coats the inside of filter hoses. unsightly but harmless.
but that's just my guess based on what you say

 

[Mebbid]

If its flakey rather than gooey id hazard a guess at it being mineral build up rather than bacterial. Still harmless either way.

 

[Bloodroot]

If its flakey rather than gooey id hazard a guess at it being mineral build up rather than bacterial. Still harmless either way.

Agreed! I would check you GH and KH... I have that issue as well but I have extremely hard water.

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[MonkeyMonk86]

Thank you

Will do and post results of GH & KH

I touched it with my fingers today and it's slippery, but I wouldn't call it slimey.

BTW. Since my original post, I saw one danio likes to eat this stuff when it's floating in the water.


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[MonkeyMonk86]

Thank you a hundred times over!!! That film must have been beneficial bacteria b/c I changed the water Saturday and today had close to .25 ammonia, which I would not have caught had you not asked for the KH & GH. So, I changed 2/3 water, 1/3 at a time. And, since I removed all the white from the tubing, I'll be testing daily again. I can't thank you enough for asking me to test for KH & GH!!!


KH is 6
GH is 9
pH is 8.2
Ammonia was .25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5


Friend of Bill W.
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