Iāve been in the hobby about 6 months now; I had a 70l for two months that I transferred into a 240l which went through a mini cycle.
I have recently noticed a lot of white specks floating around, like loads, making the water look really unclean. This is despite a 70% water change last night. Is this normal? Is it algae? I get quite a lot of algae on the walls, mostly brown that appeared after the initial cycle, Iāve tried not to clean it all off in case I lose bacteria.
The reason Iām curious, weāll a few reasons:
- I donāt know if it was there all along or whether Iāve just started noticing it
- Iāve had some undiagnosed sickness so wonder if this could be related, I also spotted a few tiny white spots at the end of a guppyās tail, I assumed ich but have since wondered if they are calcium deposits and thatās what is in the water.
- my ammonia the last couple of weeks has been persistently above zero, Iāve kept it below 0.5ppm with water changes and been using Prime too, (tap water is zero) but havenāt worked out why yet; Iām only feeding once a day, I lightly clean the top filter wool pad in tank water every couple of weeks but leave the rest untouched, Iām siphoning poop out a couple of times a day to try and reduce this and yet itās still happening.. (Iām not overstocked) so I wondered if this stuff in the water is related or are these white particles normal?
The substrate is river sand and it is lightly planted.
If a photo would help (Iām unsure how clear it could be) Iāll need to wait until I switch the light back on in the morning as I always assume itās not great to mess with their day/night clocks.
Edit to add nitrates are kept below 20
I have recently noticed a lot of white specks floating around, like loads, making the water look really unclean. This is despite a 70% water change last night. Is this normal? Is it algae? I get quite a lot of algae on the walls, mostly brown that appeared after the initial cycle, Iāve tried not to clean it all off in case I lose bacteria.
The reason Iām curious, weāll a few reasons:
- I donāt know if it was there all along or whether Iāve just started noticing it
- Iāve had some undiagnosed sickness so wonder if this could be related, I also spotted a few tiny white spots at the end of a guppyās tail, I assumed ich but have since wondered if they are calcium deposits and thatās what is in the water.
- my ammonia the last couple of weeks has been persistently above zero, Iāve kept it below 0.5ppm with water changes and been using Prime too, (tap water is zero) but havenāt worked out why yet; Iām only feeding once a day, I lightly clean the top filter wool pad in tank water every couple of weeks but leave the rest untouched, Iām siphoning poop out a couple of times a day to try and reduce this and yet itās still happening.. (Iām not overstocked) so I wondered if this stuff in the water is related or are these white particles normal?
The substrate is river sand and it is lightly planted.
If a photo would help (Iām unsure how clear it could be) Iāll need to wait until I switch the light back on in the morning as I always assume itās not great to mess with their day/night clocks.
Edit to add nitrates are kept below 20
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