Help! White particles on top of water, cycling new tank

Hi everyone I’m cycling an old tank it’s about the 3rd day I’ve added fish flakes and now I have these white particles on the top of the tank. Some are collecting on surfaces but mostly on the top of the tank. Does anyone know what this is and or if it is normal?

It might be from the flakes.

Derekshatch said:

It might be from the flakes.

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Do you this it’s a fungus or bacteria? Like a living multiplying substance? Or just debris from waste. I had an issue about a year ago where I had a weird white substance grow and multiply in my tank and I bleached everything and it set everything aside to dry out. I’ve set the tank up again a year later and I’m seeing these particles, could it be the weird particles coming back or is it just normal particles?
This was the tank a year ago when I had the outbreak. This is the weird white particles I’m hoping won’t come back and I’m hoping this isn’t.

Does it look like this?

Derekshatch said:

Does it look like this?

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Yes it looks just like that, and it’s not bubbles, I can touch it.

They are bubbles in my tank and they are only there because proteins in the water make it so that the bubbles dont pop. Are you sure they dont pop when you touch them? If they are not bubbles it is probably just debri from the food but keep an eye just in case it gets worse.

Derekshatch said:

They are bubbles in my tank and they are only there because proteins in the water make it so that the bubbles dont pop. Are you sure they dont pop when you touch them? If they are not bubbles it is probably just debri from the food but keep an eye just in case it gets worse.

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Yea I’m sure, they sink if agitated, they’re almost Star shaded like not round

It could be from the hardwater.

Derekshatch said:

It could be from the hardwater.

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Yea I have extremely hard water, would hard water/calcium deposits form and multiply in the water Column? Is that normal I’ve only ever seen it form around the water level

Kristin919 said:

Yea I’m sure, they sink if agitated, they’re almost Star shaded like not round

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Star shaped? Could you get a close up? That's odd

JuiceBox52 said:

Star shaped? Could you get a close up? That's odd

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I tried my best to get a picture. You can see them at the surface of the tank. They’re like whitish clear but they aren’t circular they’re organically shaped. I upped my airation overnight to see if they would go away and they seemed to lessen on the surface but I think they just sank to the bottom of the tank.

Kristin919 said:

Do you this it’s a fungus or bacteria? Like a living multiplying substance? Or just debris from waste. I had an issue about a year ago where I had a weird white substance grow and multiply in my tank and I bleached everything and it set everything aside to dry out. I’ve set the tank up again a year later and I’m seeing these particles, could it be the weird particles coming back or is it just normal particles? View attachment 108815
This was the tank a year ago when I had the outbreak. This is the weird white particles I’m hoping won’t come back and I’m hoping this isn’t.

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In my opinion this is a picture of calcium / magnesium carbonate precipitating out of the water. This can happen with very hard well water. The well might be tapping into CO2 rich water. CO2 rich water is acidic and will resolve limestone rock which is mostly calcium carbonate with some Magnesium carbonate. Once you put the water in the tank the CO2 outgassed and some of the carbonate precipitated out of the water forming the white particles.

The best way to deal with this would be to reduce the harness of the water by mixing it with pure water such as RO.

Derekshatch said:

They are bubbles in my tank and they are only there because proteins in the water make it so that the bubbles dont pop.

Click to expand...

Kristin919 said:

I tried my best to get a picture. You can see them at the surface of the tank. They’re like whitish clear but they aren’t circular they’re organically shaped. I upped my airation overnight to see if they would go away and they seemed to lessen on the surface but I think they just sank to the bottom of the tank.

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However I cannot tell from the picture if you have bubbles on the surface or some flakes of carbonate. I would increase the flow from the filter to prevent any protean film from developing on the surface so surface bubbles will not linger. And also find a way to reduce your water hardness. If you can get the harnesss down you to less than 200ppm before you put the water in your probably will not get carbonate precipitation.