White spots on silicone?

[Koglin]

My g/f has been cycling a new 8.75 gallon tank for shrimp for a few weeks now. After a green hair algae outbreak during cycling, I suggested we try a blackout treatment while it continues cycling (worked for me before). So we covered the tank, unplugged the light, and left it in the dark for 1 week (added small amount of flake as determined by readings 1 time to supplement ammonia for the cycle a few days ago, at this point the cycling may be finished per today's readings down below).

We took the towels off today and plugged the light in, and noticed small white spots present on the silicone seams of the tank.

ONLY on the silicone though, not on any suction cups, not on the filter, walls, substrate, or thermometer. Just the silicone (attached pics). It has never had any fish/shrimp/plants.

Here is everything in the tank:
1. Slo-Flo filter (custom filtration, new bio cubes w/ x2 biocubes from an established tank that has no issues).
2. A thermometer
3. Seachem fluorite substrate (x1 root tab in there too I think)
4. RO/DI water (have not remineralized for shrimp yet, she's still debating which shrimp she wants and we'll adjust from there).

That's it. It has never had anything else in there except the bit of flakes we supplemented the cycle with as needed (same as my other cycles).

Water parameters are:
pH: 7.0
Am.: 0
Ni.: 0
Na.: 5ppm
Gh.: 3°dkh
Kh.: 4°dkh

*There is a light but the white spots happened during blackout.

Any ideas what these spots are? I wanna clean them off today - any advice? Don't wanna have to restart the whole cycle - just can't find anything to suggest what these are. Never seen it before. And like I said it is ONLY on the MFR silicone.

Here is a link to the tank setup (we didn't use the supplied substrate due to reviews on it).

Aqueon LED 8.75 Gallon Shrimp Aquarium Kit | Petco

Aqueon Designer 8.75G LED Shrimp Aquarium Kit presents a unique viewing perspective into the aquarium. This glass aquarium features an angle top pane of glass allowing for unobstructed top down view into the aquarium.

www.petco.com

Any thoughts or advice appreciated!

 

[seangee]

Does it wipe of easily?

 

[Koglin]

Does it wipe of easily?

Not really, i tried rubbing some off with my finger a couple swipes but only a few of the spots came off. They stayed in tact and started floating though so I netted them.

Really hard to get them to wipe off though, haven't tried my algae scrubber yet doing other tanks' maintenance first (figure I'll do this tank last and soak/clean my scrub set afterward to prevent transporting possible nastiness).

 

[Koglin]

So we turned off the filter, scrub them all off with a toothbrush, then vacuumed out all the floating bits/substrate we could alongside 95% of the tank water. Refilled with more ro/di water and a tiny sprinkle of crushed flake again.

Looked inside the filter but saw no white spots.

I've kept some of the water with the white bits in it, might take to a lfs and have them more thoroughly test the water than I have the kits for. Don't wanna add anything unless it doesn't come back for an extended period of I can find out what it was.

Hopefully it didn't screw the cycle but we'll see, tanks empty anyway.

 

[Colin_T]

It's probably dead algae spots. If they wipe off it's fine and nothing to worry about.

 

[Koglin]

It's probably dead algae spots. If they wipe off it's fine and nothing to worry about.

Forgot to update this. That's what my buddy at an lfs thought too, had him test the water it's totally fine.

Appreciate the feedback.