New Tank - White Stuff Floating Around.

[Wippy M]

Hi there.

I bought a 96 litre tank about a week ago (this is my second tank), and filled it with water (with the correct water treatment). I added some gravel, plants and wood ornaments. One of the plants died, and a couple of leaves have gone from some others, but for the most part they are in good condition. For the first few days it was fine, but now there are millions of little white particles floating around, and some bigger ones on the surface of the water. The filter has been running the whole time and they're just not going away.

Can anyone work out where they are coming from?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

is the tank cycled?

could just be a bacteria bloom if the cycle is kicking off.

 

[Wippy M]

is the tank cycled?

could just be a bacteria bloom if the cycle is kicking off.

I don't know - at the start the water went cloudy and then settled. Is that a cycle?

 

[Helen G]

Have you disturbed the gravel at all???

I had the same problem when setting mine up. I got a polyester insert for in my filter which is designed to remove fine particles.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

it can be a sign of a cycle. it could just be that the gravel wasn't rinsed well enough!!

However if you're not sure of the cycling process then it's something you should read up on as it's the cornerstone of sucessful fishkeeping. There's loads of pinned topics in the New to the hobby section which will give you some more info

 

[Wippy M]

Have you disturbed the gravel at all???

I had the same problem when setting mine up. I got a polyester insert for in my filter which is designed to remove fine particles.

I only touched the gravel when planting all my plants at the start. The thing is, the problem has been getting gradually worse every day; I can't work out what the source is.

Ok thanks Mrs Wiggle. I'll also try getting a polyester filter as recommended by Helen - do I just sit it on top of all the other filters?

 

[waterdrop]

I still think you should be more descriptive about what you are observing - try to give us some different types of descriptions. Can you make out individual white spots? etc etc

Wippy, how about if you look at the top of the "New to the hobby" forum we're in here and click on the Beginner Resource Center link. Look down the column of authors and see if you can find "AlienAnna" - click on that article and see if you see the little green alien to verify you are in the right place. Give that article a quick read and then report back here whether that information seemed "old hat" to you or whether some of it was surprising.

There's a very good change Miss Wiggle is right and you are observing a "bacterial bloom" as that would could be about right timing for a tank that's had water for a week. There are a lot of unknowns for us here, only reading a newcomers first paragraph or two.

~~waterdrop~~