Hi all...

I have a 1.5ft tank (maybe about a few cms shorter than 1.5ft). I have nana plants in it, and marimo balls. I started the tank last Friday, and have noticed that there's a dust like substance on the plants and my marimos are slowly turning white.

I have a fan to make the water cool (it's at about 28-29 degs), an 8w light (turned on 8 hours a day, with a two hour interval in between; 4:2:4), 3-4mm gravel and a black sponge filter. I top up the water each time the water level in the tank drops. Read I shouldn't change the water in the tank until it's cycled.

I also have a dolphin 3000 hang on back filter, but it's currently running in my already established goldfish tank. Im seeding the filter media with bacteria from my established tank. I'll probably fit the hob filter a month later as I've only just had it running in the established tank a few days back.

Read that the dust I see in the tank are from the drift wood? And it'll clear after time? I cleaned the plants out properly before setting up the tank. Swished in dechlorinated water in a pail.

Anyway, after I started my tank on Friday, I've seen dust on my plants. Three days later I added a leopard Cory to get the cycle running. I don't have tests...so I just do everything without it. Same goes for my goldfish tank which I've had since June this year.

Today, I just couldn't stand the dust, and washed my plants in dechlorinated water. Much of the dust got washed off, some are being circled by the current in the tank. However, I didn't rub the leaves and just swished them in the pail of dechlorinated water. So some of the leaves still has dust on them. My black sponge filter is white from filtering the dust. My drift wood that the nana is tied to is turning dusty white in a small area.

What should I do? Tear the tank down and clean it up again? Or leave it? I'm in desperate need of your expertise...

When I used to start a tank with just plain sand I would get a very cloudy tank that cleared up in a couple of days. (no filter no circualtion not even an air stone).

And there would be a dust on all the plants. Which I presume had dropped out of the water column from that initial cloud.

then 3-4 weeks later after adding fish all the plants would be clean.

I guess the fish just pushed the dust off the plants and it fell to the substrate.

So I would not worry about initial dust on plants. It hopefully won't stay there long.


my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

Welcome to the site.

Did you put some type of gravel in the tank? Did you rinse it good? A Cory is not a good fish to cycle a tank with as they are pretty sensitive.

Gee anyone know what kind of sand is used in planes?

(edited thought it was funny though)

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

Thanks for the feedback guys...could it also be caused by artificially coloured gravel? I washed them well in a strainer and washed small amounts at a time.