Mysterious White Powder

[grasshopper_green]

A few days ago I looked at my planted tropical community tank and noticed a white powdery substance floating all over the surface.
There's plenty of surface agitation, the tank has been running and stable for several months, the water column was clear, and the substrate is just regular gravel that has never clouded the water.

I use flouish excel almost daily and flourish liquid fertilizer twice a week. 40-50% water changes twice a month.

I examined the substance under a dissecting microscope and determined that the particles I was seeing were actually clumps of very small particles which were so small that no features were visible using the dissecting microscope. The very tiny nature of the particles ruled out any kind of shrimp eggs, which my girlfriend thought might be the answer since an amano shrimp recently rid herself of a load of eggs.

I searched for others with this problem, but couldn't find any.

My only suspect was pollen from a recently opened anubias flower, though I've had flowers open before without this problem.

I got rid of the stuff quite easily: I cut a rectangle of microfiltration pad and placed in a net. I simply glided the net along the surface until all the white stuff was gone.

Just wanted to share, and to see if anyone has had any similar experience.

 

[Spishkey]

havent a clue what the powder could be but thanks for the pad and net tip! ive been trying to find a way to rid my turtles tank of dust particles floating on the water and that sounds like it will do the job great!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

It might be limescale dust thats come off the lighting in the tank? Happened to me once.

 

[Schmill]

Does the tank have any kind of 'hinged' lid? By this I don't mean it has to use actual hinges, just anything that rotates against another surface? If so and you don't have a condensation cover (or some kind of barrier), it's possible that this slight 'wear' is producing the power you then see in the tank.

 

[aaronnorth]

it could be a precipitate that is created when phosphates & iron react to form insoluable iron phosphates (which plants cannot use). But i doubt it if you are only dosing the flourish & excel and no other products.

 

[grasshopper_green]

some kind of precipitate was my only other guess other than the pollen, but it's still a mystery to me.

the idea of lime flaking off the underside of the tank cover is a good one, but the cover has only been in use for about 7 months and it just wasn't that dirty.

the hinge idea is a good one too, but the hinges on my tank cover are soft rubber, and nothing is scraping.

oh well, i'll keep an eye on things and let you all know if i figure anything else out...

 

[grasshopper_green]

darn, the stuff is coming back.
just wanted to bump and see if anyone has had any experience like this.
i can't figure it out.

 

[doresy]

there's a guy at the end of our road that might take it off your hands

 

[Syphoniera]

Hi, grasshopper_gree...
I've no idea if what you have bears any relation to this, but -
I took a single small pond-snail out of a small tank containing a betta undergoing treatment and have been keeping it separate in a plastic disposable glass, of a sort I often use as a temporary holder for excess pond snails and those needing temporary accomodation due to such causes.
That's the only one, however, to develop tiny white specks on the water, possibly because there is only one and the tiny pellets I drop in for feeding them, even though only a single one every few days, isn't eaten rapidly enough.
Because I think it's some type of mold, and I can recall having something similar - and persistent until I chucked ALL the duckweed in the tank - on a patch of floating duckweed in an aquarium a year or two back, which at the time I attributed to dust-sized, invisible fragments of flake food being trapped on top, although that was the only tank with the problem and others had duckweed and flake fed as well.
I suppose if a biofilm, even if invisible, forms on the water, the mold can form on that.
Unless it's somehow related to the tiny fragment of cuttlebone I dropped in the glass with the snail, I can't think what else it could be - but I have cuttlebone in with other snails in such glasses and jars, and no such issue has appeared...

If it should be mold, perhaps a bit of Pimafix might kill it off without harm to tank inhabitants?
I, of course, just transferred the snail into a new glass, but plan to try that if it reappears, as I expect I'll likely have carried it into the fresh water.

 

[grasshopper_green]

well, if it's mold, then it's a microscopic sort of mold with no hyphae visible even under some magnification.
i'm watching the stuff increase daily, until i have time to clean it all out this weekend.
meanwhile, the fish are all happy and healthy, with the exception of the otos, which i have a very hard time keeping healthy, but that's a topic for another thread...

 

[limerickbandit]

If you have an external filter just fit a surface skimmer