Originally Posted by
Lionheart
Ok, so I called my city's water quality lab because I read on their site that it might be calcium carbonate. It is, in fact, not calcium carbonate, but rather alum, potassium aluminum sulfate, a chemical that is added to the water to remove dirt buildup. I live near lake erie and with seasonal algae blooms affecting our drinking water, the city combats this by increasing the amount of alum in the water. This explains both why this suddenly starting happening in the past few months when I had not changed anything, and also why it builds up over time (the alum clings to dirt and materializes in the water as white crystals over time).
So, now that I know what it is, a rather harmless chemical that also contains clumps of dirt (yay!), I am wondering what to do about it. Eventually the city will lower the dosage back to normal, but that could be another few months. I don't like the idea of using water that will build up with clumps of dirt over time. In the meantime, I have water changes to do. My filters do not seem to be catching it all. I have prefilters on all the intakes and they catch some of the particles, but not all of them.
Any thoughts, aside from praying and waiting?