Help! White particles in tank multiplying and wont go away

[Retired Viking]

Very hard water-calcium deposit? I use to live where we had very hard water which left white calcium deposits on everything even in my filters. I would end up with a little snow in my tanks, not this bad but maybe the calcium built up more in your filter/ tank

 

[RenC]

Interesting, I never had the problem before with this filter it was only after I added the bag of rocks did the “snow” like particles happen. But in general when you fill up a fish tank is it normal to have white particles floating around and settling at the bottom of the tank? Keep in mind I have very hard water

It could be bacteria that’s in the rocks that multiply, I’ve heard of that. And yes I do always have a few white particles that settle after a few minutes when I fill up my tank but not even close to that bad

 

[Kristin919]

Very hard water-calcium deposit? I use to live where we had very hard water which left white calcium deposits on everything even in my filters. I would end up with a little snow in my tanks, not this bad but maybe the calcium built up more in your filter/ tank

It could’ve been that, it multiplied like CRAZY over a 24 hour period so i dont know if calcium does that but an interesting idea. So far my tank seems to me free of the white stuff for now

 

[Kristin919]

So this is my tank now. There’s these tiny white particles on the surface of the tank, they’re not bubbles. Does anyone know if this is normal/what it could be?

 

[StevenF]

Check your water GH (general hardness). your water might be supper saturated with calcium and magnesium and maybe CO2 right out of the tap. Once you put the water in the tank CO2 levels drop and then Ca and Mg precipitate out of the water and it could look like snow.

If your tap water comes from a well the water might be in a limestone layer of rock. and rain will carry a lot of CO2 into the reservoir . Calcium and magnesium carbonate only dissolve in acidic water and the CO2 will make the water acidic. Also the very high GH and CO2 level would probably kill your fish. I have seen something similar in another forum and I recall that was traced to Ca and Mg deposits.

Note bleach will resolve calcium and magnesium carbonates by converting them to calcium and magnesium chlorides which are water soluble.