# White buildup on silicone of tank



## zyntec724 (Sep 7, 2014)

Hello everyone, Ive had a 10g tank running a little over a month now with no issues. My first real aquarium setup. I currently have 5 glofish zebras. I do my partial water changes every other week, and I did a deep clean about a week or so ago, took out about a quarter of the water and cleaned part of the rocks with a gravel vac. The reason for the deep clean was i noticed some sort of white buildup in the corners of the tank, and on the suction cups and air line. I did some research and couldn't really find anything on it. The buildup wiped off instantly with an algae sponge, and so far it has not reappeared. A few days after cleaning the white stuff off i noticed the fish started to develop constipation, they will all still go after normal food, which is a pellet, but i have fed them broken up peas. They are now starting to seem better. They all seem to swim just fine, but one of them likes to troll around the bottom of the tank. One of the fish started to have the raised scales, but no swelling, after feeding peas the scales appear to be going back to their normal position.Currently the water temp is at a solid 80°F. I just ran a water test and noticed the nitrite levels are high. Here is what my test results showed
PH: 7.6
High range PH:7.4
Ammonia 0.25 - 0.50
Nitrite 0.25
nitrate 5.0 to 10
So i have a couple questions for all of you, one is it possible that what ever the white stuff is caused my fish to become sick, or would it be due to the high nitrite and ammonia levels? and what should i do to get the ammonia levels and nitrite to drop?
Not really sure if i posted this in the right thread, although i am a beginner so i thought it would be the right place. If needed i can post a couple pictures of what the white build up looked like.


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

The white stuff (looks like ectoplasm) might be diatoms or simple mold. Just wipe it off and it should go away in time.

Sounds like you're cleaning too thoroughly and are killing off your bacteria colonies that keep the ammonia and nitrite low. When I clean, I scrub but I only do it once monthly and never change my filter media unless it is basically falling apart. You want your tank to "gunk up" a little so that you have a good biological filter to handle the ammonia and nitrite.


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