White stuff on glass?

Hi there,
Have been cycling a new tank without fish but with plants for like a week and today, after a water change I noticed there is transparent/white/cloudy stuff on the inside of the tank walls, from the substrate all the way up to the water line. When I wiped it off it floated into the water as tiny white specks and sort of disappeared, leaving the water cloudy but only mildly so. Today was the first time I used an actual ph kit and added the ph Down powder (yes planning to do this more regularly), and a cpl of new plants, could either of these things have caused it? Anyone know what it is- maybe mineral build up or algae? And how worried should I be? Ph 7.5ish, no ammonia or nitrite or nitrates, 130L 26 degrees c.
Tia

Was the white stuff fuzzy?

Can we have a picture?

It might be a bacterial bloom which is quite normal if you use bacteria in a bottle stuff.

Please don't use pH down. The fewer chemicals we add to a tank the better. The type of fish that need a low pH are also fish that need soft water and low TDS (total dissolved solids) Adding chemicals to the water raises the TDS, the opposite of what is needed.

GH is more important than pH, get fish that like your hardness and let the pH be what it wants to be.

Not really fuzzy, it reminds me of like evaporated salt water residue sort of, except of course it's under water..

Does it come off easily? Or do you have to scrape it off?

essjay said:

Please don't use pH down. The fewer chemicals we add to a tank the better. The type of fish that need a low pH are also fish that need soft water and low TDS (total dissolved solids) Adding chemicals to the water raises the TDS, the opposite of what is needed.

GH is more important than pH, get fish that like your hardness and let the pH be what it wants to be.

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I see... Yeah so, the person I bought my initial 16L betta tank from (pet shop) said don't worry about doing water changes or ph or anything while you're cycling, just come back and we'll test for you here. Then I had a guilt wave and bought a 130L tank, from a different store, and they said change the water every cpl days and add fish food to get ammonia going. The people I bought plants from the other day tested my water at the same time and it was bright blue with zero anything else and didn't test the hardness (though my area generally has hard tap water), but he said its fine I should buy a fish and take it home, and I said no I want to wait for beneficial bacteria first and plus, I don't think bright blue ph is good, as I'm going for a 7 to meet the needs of the fish I want, anyway he said I should stop using fertiliser because that's making my ph high. People I bought plants from today said test the ph every few days and use the powdered stuff accordingly and water change weekly, and fertiliser has nothing to do with ph. But it's not just shops, everyone has a different idea and a different system and the whole thing is soooo confusing lol aghhh

PheonixKingZ said:

Does it come off easily? Or do you have to scrape it off?

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I just swipe the magnetic thing over it and a lot of it comes off and sparkles into the water then dies down again?

My best guess is it’s a bacteria bloom. I have had one before, but have no suggestions on how to treat it, sorry...

(I do know however you should remove and dead/dying plants and leftover food. Also do a substrate clean)

Thanks for trying... I'm just worried if it's dangerous. I am encouraged by this little stowaway on one of the plants (now named Muprhy - my first creature! So excitedddd) who seems to be active and having a great time, it makes me think it can't be too lethal whatever it is?

PheonixKingZ said:

My best guess is it’s a bacteria bloom. I have had one before, but have no suggestions on how to treat it, sorry...

(I do know however you should remove and dead/dying plants and leftover food. Also do a substrate clean)

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And see, I was told to put food in the tank, and evem inside the filter itself, every few DAYS and leave it there to decompose to produce ammonia to start the cycling process?

*Murphy the snail, not muphry

If you have a lot of plants in the tank (looks like maybe you do?) you can do a silent cycle. The plants will take nutrients (like ammonia) out of the water column which will keep your water safe for fish. Using this method you just plant your tank heavily with fast growing plants - floating plants are the best for keeping water clean - and once they are healthy and growing, you can add in your first group of fish.

A silent cycle removes the need to actively cycle your tank. The people who said to use fish food to cycle the tank mean well, but if you want to actively cycle the tank you would want to use ammonia drops, not fish food, as it's more accurate. But it isn't recommended to use both plants AND add ammonia to cycle - pick either actively cycling or simply adding enough plants to maintain water quality.

ETA: bacterial blooms are common in new set ups. I'm guessing that's what's going on in your tank. Usually they resolve themselves within a few days.

Keenamoss said:

though my area generally has hard tap water

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If your tap water is hard, it is likely that KH will also be high. This buffers the water against pH changes. When pH lowering chemicals are used, the pH drops but quickly returns to the old pH. This yoyoing pH is bad for fish. Fish which need hard water usually prefer a high pH so altering the pH is not necessary.

The white stuff in the tank water is likely to be a bacterial bloom.

Perfectly normal during the cycling process and will go away on its own accord during the cycle when the bacteria and tank settles.

But please do not add any chemicals other than dechlorinater / tap safe and the right amount of ammonia for the cycling process.

And please do not add food as a source of ammonia. This is a very ineffective way of adding ammonia, and there are bad side effects of adding food when there’s no livestock to eat it is planeria worms or bad water parameters. Simply not worth it.

Not sure if you’ve already read this or not but certainly worth reading and studying if you haven’t.