please help white and alkalinity?????

[djm32189]

I have green algae and no corals, and now on my heater and rock, not live, a white substance is forming on them. After reading posts, I saw it may be calcium carbonate, which is from high alkalinity. I think mine is a little high, but have not tested it for a while. I only have 2 fish and 5 inverts (shrimp and 4 hermits). Should I worry about this white stuff, or will it need to be taken care of.

 

Thank

 

P.S. don't know how the weird smiley got on the subject thing!!!!

[Zillian]

no live rock???

[djm32189]

yeah, I never added it..levels are

 

salt : 1.023

ph. 8.2 or 8.3

temp: 78

ammonia 0

nitrite 0

nitrate 15-20

[Zillian]

O well

 

No srry don't know about the white substance, hopefully somebody else does

 

Greets!!

[djm32189]

thanks anyways, I am sure it is probably nothing for the tank is fine. Thanks anyways though and happy holidays.

 

maybe somewhere out there someone knows the answer!!!!!

[bobioden]

So what is your Alk levels? Have any pics? You have no live rock? What are you using?

 

???

[The Empiricyst]

I have a lot of white stuff I'm fairly confident is simply a form of coralline algae... perhaps you shouldn't be so worried? Then again, I don't see how it would be introduced without live rock. What do you mean haven't tested it for a while? If you've got a kit, test it again. Or how about a calcium test? Caclium is important anyways, so if you haven't got a test kit, get one! Can you get a picture of the stuff? It also helps to know how long you've been running this tank.

Hope these questions help answer your question

[djm32189]

well lets see...i tested it and the alkalinity was like 250-300. I don't test for calcium, no corals to see why and would assume salt mix makes all levels fine. I do use instant ocean and read that it does cause high alkalinity. I have been running the ten gallon since around middle of June, 2004. The algae has gone from brown, to red, to blue-green to now green with a little bit of white under the green around the top of a rock and around the heater a little. Certainly nothing that can be noticed when one first looks at the tank. I would post pictures, but don't know how to put them in a post.