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White Fluff!

815 views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  GTZ 
#1 ·
Hi,
I've had my tank setup with 12 cichlids for the past month (yellow labs, afra coubes, demasoni) The tank is fully cycled. Amonia and nitrite are 0 and nitrate is 20-30

today i cleaned the filter for the first time but when I connected it all back, it started spitting out white fluff. I'm not sure what that is but the fish seem to be doing ok, the fluff settled down after some time and it's now clear again. Perhaps I didn't clean the filter properly. I used tank water to clean it.

The tank was used for cichlids before it was mine. I am wondering if it's maybe some old bacteria or something...

Has anyone seen this? What can I do to fix it?

Thank you.
 
#2 ·
I found this online in another forum with someone with a similar problem. http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthrea ... -out-stuff The concensus is that it is some type of bacterial growth similar to what grows inside the filter. This stuff just collects in the tubes and clumps together. Then after shutting the filter down and rushing water through the tubes, it kicks loose some of this stuff. Read the info, they have ways of combating this when cleaning.
 
#3 ·
Thank you for the link rgr4475. This is exactly what I was looking for. I did search before posting but never came across this.

Basically it says it's a bacteria buildup (good bacteria), the same one that's inside the filter but it's building up in the hoses. The solution is to do hoses cleaning and put the output hose inside a bucket when connecting back to get most of the white fluff.

Thanks again!
 
#5 ·
I get this from my XP2 canister hoses occasionally.
About twice a year, I take the media and baskets out and put them in the tank. Then I run the canister cycling a bucket of hot (but not too hot) water and bleach for about 30 minutes to clean everything out. Run another 30 minutes cycling clean lukewarm water and dechlor, pop everything back in and back on the tank.
 
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