What the heck is this white stuff?

[Dave-T]

I'm not sure where I should post this question but I'm posting here because it looks like precipitate. I've noticed flat white particles that accumulate on the bare bottom of my frag tank, and on top of monti caps in the frag tank. They are very white, and range in size from the size of a pinhead to a few millimeters in diameter. I managed to grab one of them and look at it under a microscope. Here's a picture. It doesn't look white in the picture, but it is when you look at it with the naked eye. There is some detritus on it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Are you dosing anything to this tank?

 

[Rick's Reviews]

I'm not sure where I should post this question but I'm posting here because it looks like precipitate. I've noticed flat white particles that accumulate on the bare bottom of my frag tank, and on top of monti caps in the frag tank. They are very white, and range in size from the size of a pinhead to a few millimeters in diameter. I managed to grab one of them and look at it under a microscope. Here's a picture. It doesn't look white in the picture, but it is when you look at it with the naked eye. There is some detritus on it.

A bigger picture might help (I appreciate the magnifying)

 

[Joe31415]

For reference, this happened when a calcium dosing line moved and went unnoticed for, I don't even know how long, probably a few days at most. Hard to see in the picture, but it was 'fluffy' looking, but it was the same white particles you see when you dose calcium or alkalinity.
The upside was that I realized just how dead the area behind that pump is.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Looks like magnesium hydroxide from adding alk without mixing it in fast enough. Might also be calcium carbonate if the magnesium hydroxide stayed around long enough.

 

[Rick's Reviews]

Sorry I don't use 'imugur'
So can not see photos, I assume some type of copepods, if bare bottom I'm unsure if these would survive solely

 

[Dave-T]

I'll try to get a big picture but I don't have any particles at the moment that I could get a good picture with. Some should accumulate on a monti cap by tomorrow.

I am dosing kalkwasser, from a kalk stirrer. I'm dosing the clear solution, not slurry. I don't dose alk. These particles are not fluffy, they're flaky.

 

[Rick's Reviews]

Quick interrupt, why kalkwasser please

 

[Dan_P]

I'll try to get a big picture but I don't have any particles at the moment that I could get a good picture with. Some should accumulate on a monti cap by tomorrow.

I am dosing kalkwasser, from a kalk stirrer. I'm dosing the clear solution, not slurry. I don't dose alk. These particles are not fluffy, they're flaky.

A precipitate can develop mixing kalkwasser (which is very basic) with seawater unless the kalkwasser is added in a high flow area. I would expect a dust-like precipitate though. Formation of flakes is not easy to do by precipitation.

More pictures of these ”flakes” needed.

 

[Dan_P]

I'm not sure where I should post this question but I'm posting here because it looks like precipitate. I've noticed flat white particles that accumulate on the bare bottom of my frag tank, and on top of monti caps in the frag tank. They are very white, and range in size from the size of a pinhead to a few millimeters in diameter. I managed to grab one of them and look at it under a microscope. Here's a picture. It doesn't look white in the picture, but it is when you look at it with the naked eye. There is some detritus on it.

Looks biolgical.

 

[Dave-T]

Quick interrupt, why kalkwasser please

Are you asking what kalkwasser is used for? If you google it, you can find many articles and videos about it, but basically - it's a way of replacing the calcium and alkalinity your corals consume, in a way that's balanced. Its advantages over the alternatives is that it's cheap, and it has the added benefit of boosting your PH. The amount you can dose is limited by your evaporation rate, so if you need more calc and alk than that, you need to supplement it with two part dosing or a calcium reactor.