FishProfiles.com Message Forums

i have some off white deposits on my substrate that looks like calcium my tank is quite well planted i use easy carbo to feed my plants all my water params are OK apart from hardness do to the local water (but this has not been a problem before) my filter flow is OK with general maintenance the only other alteration i have made is adding a jbl phosphate removal bag which has lowered the level from 10 down to 1-2

anyone any ideas
thanks
papasan.

Get yourself a GH test and post the results. Let's find out if it really is calcium before you do anything else.

Hi,
Joe is right. I don't think I have ever seen water so hard
that Calcium has precipitated out of solution onto the
gravel. Usually, hard water deposits, which do contain
calcium, are found along the plastic tops of our tanks and
can encrust things such as the heater at the surface level.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

what conditioners and additives are you using....... that may be a cause as will. Powders tend to recrystalize. Just a thought

Djrichie
"So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish" Douglas Adams

That's a good point, DJ. I know a lot of phosphate removers contain lanthanum (a rare-earth metal), which binds to phosphate to make the insoluble lanthanum phosphate molecule. Lanthanum phosphate precipitates as a white powder or crust. If you had a lot of phosphate in there, it could possibly be that, which leads right into my next question: were the levels of phosphate you reported in ppb or ppm?

thanks for your replies the phosphate level is measured in ppm so as a test i have removed my phosphate removal bag and my active carbon ( the phs bag was added as an answer to a thread i posted about bb the results where high phosphate level and or overfeeding) but i only feed my fish once a day so i went for the high phosphate level hence the added bag the strange thing is my soninlaw has my old 120l tank and he lives about 100yards from us so the same mains water his phosphate level is off the scale he does not feed his plants and apart from scraping the front of his glass every now and again he has no algae problems whatsoever and to add insult to injury he has only had the tank the less than a year (do you ever get that feeling your not as clever as you think you are or you are trying too hard)

any info gratefully acepted

cheers
papasan.