White Clusters On Tank Silicon And Filter Tubes

I have had my tank for about a month now, and have in it: 4 drawf gouramis, 3 xray fish, 2 mollies, 2 guppies, and a julli cory (these are still alive). I started to notice these white spots occuring on the tank, just at the top of the water line on the silicon of the tank. Then I started to notice it in both the intake and outake tubes of my canister filter. Then my two swordtails got white spots on their fins... which i knew was ich.

I went back to that pet shop... explained it to the guy and bought the treatment for my tank. I treated them all on Monday, and Wednesday the venus tailed guppy died, this morning my swordtail died.

Both of my fish did the following before dying; floated up near the surface behind the spray bar so they wouldn't have to swim as much just floating at the water line and within 24 hours they are found dead at the bottom of the tank.

This morning, after I fished out the swordtail I looked at the rest of my tropical community, and both my mollies, swordtail, guppies, and xray fish were doing the same! So I, not sure if this was the best thing to do, did a 40% water change and used a paper towel to scrape the white spots off. I may have given my fish a death sentance, I am not sure. But at the moment, the only one still at the top is the swordtail and the others are now swimming around the tank as normal.

I am starting to wonder if the tank i bought isn't new, but was used and sold as new. I would like to know how something like this comes to be? Is it perhaps my own fault?

Please look at the pictures and let me know if you have any ideas on how I can cure my tank. I am thinking about taking the tank apart and cleaning the filter tubes... but any ideas would be helpful.

I also just added bog wood, and had to take it out for the ich treatment because it can dye ornaments but I noticed like little hairs growing off that in the water, from the ends the wood was cut. Could this be something to do with it? It has been out of the tank since Monday.

Here is the details about my tank:

I recently bought my tank from an aquarium shop. It is an aqua one 165 litre tank with an aqua one CF-1000 canister filter. My NO3 level is a tad, high at 10, my NO2 is at 0, my GH has always been very high but I was told that wasn't a concern by my local pet shop, my KH is at 6 and my PH is at 7.2

You added to many fish to soon.
Have you increased aeration with the med.
It sounds like a conbination of things way the fish died, bad water quality due to a cycling tank.
Once whitespot affects the gills they don't survive.
Whitespot dosn't survive without a host so I doubt its the tank.
Did you steralise the tank before you filled it up.

when you say you scrapped the whites spots off, do you mean off the tank or off the fish?
do the spots on the fish look the same as whats growing on the tank?

Wilder said:

You added to many fish to soon.
Have you increased aeration with the med.
It sounds like a conbination of things way the fish died, bad water quality due to a cycling tank.
Once whitespot affects the gills they don't survive.
Whitespot dosn't survive without a host so I doubt its the tank.
Did you steralise the tank before you filled it up.

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I know it seems that way but i was left without a choice... originally I only had a 60 litre tank... and it broke! It was a disaster if you can imagine but luckly i was able to save the fish... I had no choice.

The only thing that I didn't add is that I got mature filter media from the same shop I bought the tank from. So I left the tank to cycle only a few days with the mature media before adding my fish back in. It was an emergency situation for me. I didn't increase the aeration because I didn't read anywhere that I should. The only thing that I have is a spray pipe off the outake to break the surface water.

if you used mature media in the filter then the tank should be cycled, but sadly if you got that media from your lfs chances are its brought in some nasties

Spishkey said:

when you say you scrapped the whites spots off, do you mean off the tank or off the fish?
do the spots on the fish look the same as whats growing on the tank?

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Sorry... off the tank... and no the spots aren't the same at all. The ones on the tank are bigger, about 1/4 of a peas size and the ones on the fish look like they were sprinkled with salt... also I just noticed that the spots on the fish are gone... but there is still an incrediable amount in the tubes.

The stuff that I took off the tank was very soft and white to yellow in color... it almost reminds me of a wet, sticky mold.

does sound like a mold or fungus of some sort

Not eggs are they.

Wilder said:

Not eggs are they.

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No I don't think they are eggs because they are also on the outake pipe from the canister filter... they wouldn't make it through all of those filters... I think it might be a mold... but don't know what to do about it,... still puzzled.

Never seen yellow mold. But it could be. Just clean it off.

Wilder said:

Never seen yellow mold. But it could be. Just clean it off.

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My other swordtail is dying now... I removed him from the tank and put him in quarintine for now to see if there is any improvement. I am half tempted to move all of my fish and start over again.... I guess I just have to wait and see what happens.

And would you clean the pipes as well? Should I use a solution of 10% bleach to kill the mold?

I have no idea what is the problem but it doesnt look good at all. The filter tubes look truly bad from the pics you post. If possible I would have all remaining stock out of the ill tank ASAP to save it and into quarantine. Maybe LFS will quarantine for a small fee? From their I would replace the filter tubes and all media and sterilise the rest of the equipment in 10% bleach as you suggest and give it a good rinse. I'd then go about cycling the tank from scratch, that way you know you arent adding in anything untoward into the filter which is where it looks like this white stuff has come from?. This sounds extreme and probably is, but it is safer and healthier than what you have now...

BenPursglove said:

I have no idea what is the problem but it doesnt look good at all. The filter tubes look truly bad from the pics you post. If possible I would have all remaining stock out of the ill tank ASAP to save it and into quarantine. Maybe LFS will quarantine for a small fee? From their I would replace the filter tubes and all media and sterilise the rest of the equipment in 10% bleach as you suggest and give it a good rinse. I'd then go about cycling the tank from scratch, that way you know you arent adding in anything untoward into the filter which is where it looks like this white stuff has come from?. This sounds extreme and probably is, but it is safer and healthier than what you have now...

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Thanks for the advise... and I think that is what I plan to do. The unusual thing is my female mollie just had 10 babies... I thought that if conditions were bad enough that she would abort. I was able to capture them and have them in a fry tank for now.
I spent the entire evening and did the following; cleaned out my canister filter completely, and then I disconnected the in and out tubes and with a pipe cleaner... scraped the inside of them and was able to get rid of most of the buildup. I don't know the best way to describe it... but it was a thick coating on the tubes with white bumps. I am going to let it run overnight and see if it will balance itself out & will just watch my fish closely for the next 24 hours. If I have to I will shut the whole thing down and clean it like you said.
I guess I am just hoping for a quick fix really... some sort of meds you could throw in and forget about, but in my case that doesn't seem to be the answer.

Thanks very much for the advise though... I think it might be something that I will have to do.

Update... I went to my LFS and described what was going on with my tank. I am going to bring a sample of the water to them for an in depth analysis... more testing than just the NO3, NO2, PH, GH & KH. Hopefully they will be able to shed some light on the situation... If I find anything out... I will be sure to post it just in case someone else has the same problems that I have.

Thanks to everyone for all their help & input.

JmeSomers said:

more testing than just the NO3, NO2, PH, GH & KH..

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your water dosn't get tested with the dip strips do they? they are nowhere near accurate, i made that mistake once, never again, liquid tests are the only accurate way to test water.


Tom