Question about white stuff in water.

[aXio]

So I have a 40 gallon breeder that I'm currently growing out 8 Discus in. I do water changes at least once a day sometimes twice. They get fed about 5-6 times a day. I used aged tap water with my water changes with Prime and Discus Buffer. Filtration is two Hydro 3 sponges. Which I switch off rinsing off every other day or so.

So my problem is I've been getting is over the past 3-4 weeks I been noticing a good bit of floating white stuff. It's a looks a little stringy and slightly puffy. Most of it seems to build up on the top of the water column in clumps but I do see some floating loosely. I do my best do clean as much of it out with my water changes but it always comes back. Now I don't have a cover on my tank but I didn't think that it could be dust/dirt building up at such a rapid rate... also this didn't happen for the first 2-3 months of the grow out tank running. Just started appearing over the past month. My discus don't really seem to care about it or show any signs of sickness or anything else... but it still getting me a bit worried.

[Skip]

what are you feeding the fish?!

you don't really need the discus buffer..

[aXio]

what are you feeding the fish?!

you don't really need the discus buffer..

I feed mainly NSL Discus Pellets and Hikari Discus Pellets. I supplement with Hikari Frozen Discus Food, Hikari Frozen Bloodworms, and freeze dried black worms from Bugman.

I use discus buffer because the water out of the tap is 8.0+ ph. So I use it to keep it low when I do my water changes. Is there a better way to do this? I have an R/O system that will be set up later next year when I move but until then I've been using the buffer. I know lots of people say to just leave it alone and let them get used to higher PH. But I have no issues keeping a stable pH using the buffer.

[Skip]

i just go straight tap.. what ever my ph is.. last year i checked.. it was about 8.2.. and after 24 hrs in tank.. its like 7.8..

i don't mess with water chemistry.. i just use clean water.. consistency of water is the key..

i asking about food.. cuz sometimes that messes with water clarity.. maybe you are feeding too much or your leaving too much food left over from feeding..

[Jason K.]

could be leftover FDBW's...

[TNT77]

could be leftover FDBW's...

+1

[Northwoods Discus]

If your water is really hard and you add the discus buffer it precipitates out minerals such as calcium. This may be the white stuff you are seeing.
If it is floating it may be fat from heavy feeding. Other than that those are my 2 guesses.

[Brokenrack]

If your water is really hard and you add the discus buffer it precipitates out minerals such as calcium. This may be the white stuff you are seeing.
If it is floating it may be fat from heavy feeding. Other than that those are my 2 guesses.

1+

[aXio]

Thank you for all the fast responses. I barely feed the FDBW so I don't think that is the issue. I'm usually pretty good about not over feeding either. I managed not to do so in the first 2-3 months, so I believe I've been pretty good about it. But the buffer forming it might be more likely. Since the discus are getting bigger they are eating more so I've been doing more/bigger water changes. In turn I've been using more buffer then at the beginning to keep pH where I want it.

So I might try just doing with out the buffer and see if anything changes. I'm also going to pick up a glass cover for the tank this week at work, although I highly doubt that dust/debris could build up on the surface at such a rapid rate... I'm not that dirty *grin*

[afriend]

could be leftover FDBW's...

About two months ago I started to feed frozen california black worms and about a week after starting this I noticed white stuff floating in the water. I immediately stopped feeding them FCBW and it took about two weeks to clear this condition up. I determined that it was white slime building up in the filter and the vinyl tubing between the filter and the tank. I don't know for certain that it was caused by the FCBWs. Do you know if FCBWs cause slime?