White flakes coming from return

[Fish Tank Travis]

My 220 has been up and running for a few months now and I never had this problem until the past few weeks during water changes. After I drain and refill the tank, I turn the pumps back on in the sump and all these white flakes come out of the returns. They clear up within a few hours but then they are stuck in my mechanical filtration pads in my sump. Do any of you know what this could be and how I can stop it from happening?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Grinch]

Limescale?

 

[twentyleagues]

What do you have your water returning to your tank running through? ie ribbed hose, clear vinyl, pvc? I've seen this on ribbed hoses usually and only ribbed its a build up of bacteria. Its dead and it falls off hose wall when power is cut then when pump is turned back on it gets pushed into tank. I started having same issue with my hoses on my fluval canister filters. I didn't know what was going on, lfs said to use clear vinyl and it stopped happening. The bacteria colonizes the inside of the ribs and builds up and then dies. No ribs nowhere to colonize.

 

[MrsE88]

It looks like lime or calcium buildup to me from hard water.
I'd use a net to get some of the bigger pieces out.
How to stop it, clean everything more often with vinegar? Lol
This doesn't look like bacteria die off to me. That I thought looked more tan/brown and softer. This looks white, ridged, and flaky.

 

[esoxlucius]

It's totally harmless, just unsightly. You've done your maintainance, tank nice and clean, switch your return pump back on and a sudden flush of flaky gunk spoils all your good work. It clears up pretty quick like you say. I used to experience the same thing and the way i stopped it was simple. Every once in a while, maybe once a month say, take your return line off and clean the inside of it. I thread fishing line attached to a lead fishing weight down the tubing and i have a small rag tied to the other end of the fishing line. A couple of passes with this wet rag and you're good to go.

 

[twentyleagues]

My only thought is that tank has only been up a few months. You'd have to have some pretty hard water or be dosing calcium or kalkwasser to get that kind of build up in that short of a time. It doesn't look like saltwater I don't see corals that would need that kind of dosing. So with limited info I went with best guess. Fish tank Travis, any more info? And either way I totally agree with esoxlucius just clean your hoses out say every other filter maintenance.

 

[nossalucard]

It's just sloughed bio film from the hoses, nothing to be concerned about. It will breakdown/ disappear....

 

[Drstrangelove]

Yup.

My first thought was lime. Do you have hard water? Do you get difficult to clean rings in your toilet or scales in your shower? I do and it's lime deposits.

In theory, you should be able to siphon it out when it's in the tank, but it will gradually build up on anything where the water has time to dry.

There are cleaners for it, which I would assume is toxic, so when it does build up you can use those on tubes and pipes as long as you remove them from the filtration and then rinse them thoroughly afterwards.

 

[MrsE88]

Vinegar. It breaks it up and you just need to wipe and rinse. And you don't need to worry about harsh chemicals then.

My water is very hard and leaves deposits on everything. The more you stay on top of it the easier it is to clean.

 

[johnny potatoes]

My returns drop straight down into the tank. I hang a filter sock under the returns to catch all this stuff. I also stir up the sump as best as I can to get some of that out of the system as well. I'm sure with a little thought you could rig up a filter sock even if it returns below the water line.