White spots on tank wall

[Duster]

I have a 12g w/ LR, running for six months, stocked for four months w/
three little fish, two shrimp, and several crabs and snails. About one or two months ago, little white spots began appearing on the back wall and filter components. The spots are small, hard, and vary in size a little.
I scraped them off a month ago, and a day or two later numerous spots were back. I've let it go for a month now, and the number of spots has increased of course, but isn't out of control. What are these? Calcium deposits? Eggs? Because of the large bio-load and no protein skimmer, I do very frequent water changes (1.5g every 3-4 days). Could it be excess calcium or trace elements from new saltwater being introduced every few days? I do not supplement calium or anything else.

 

[Joew]

Sounds like coraline algae, they can vary in diffrent colors. Harmless except for the cleaning. Just it it grown on the 3 sides and cleanit off the front.

JoeW
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Honda CBR1000F

 

[Duster]

Thanks Joew
I actually thought about the possibility of it being coralline algae, but I'd only heard or read of the colors being green, orange, purple, and pink. The other reason I thought it was something other than algae is that it's only really appearing on the back wall. I have dark purple and pink coralline algae developing nicely on my LR, so it seemed weird that the white stuff only appears on the back wall.

 

[tarnold]

I also have them on the back of my 75g. I don't think it's coraline algae but I could be wrong.

 

[supergiantrobot]

Do you have nassarius snails in your tank? Mine lay little white egg sacks every night. Each sack contains a handful of eggs, and each sack looks like a little white dot sticking out at a 45 degree angle from the glass.

 

[tarnold]

I have seen the eggs, but these are individual dots that are flat against the wall.

 

[supergiantrobot]

Do the dots have spindly, thread-like legs? I also have hydroids, which appear as white dots, but with little thread-like radial arms.

 

[tarnold]

no legs, just plain dots

 

[Anonymous]

If you look really really closely you'll see tiny, nearly microscopic fans. They're a type of featherduster. They could also be baby Vermetid Snails but they don't grow quite as fast.

 

[SkankinSurfer05]

From what it sounds they are little feather dusters, not corallines. I have tons of them on the back of my tank, i mean hundreds. Perfectly harmless, and if you dont like them just scrape them off with an algae magnet or pad.

Alex

 

[Joew]

Dosen't sound like a duster to me.
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Speedball

 

[shellshocked]

My bet would be coraline algae. It can be almost any color and white is common. If it were feathers you would see some structure in the spots.

 

[iphy]

Well, another kind of white spots might be theses: Go to the hitchhiker FAQ http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/pages/main_pages/faq_rock3.htm and search down the page for "tiny grindstones" and check out the picture to the left. I have those. They move around some, but never get larger than a tiny spot.

 

[HisKid]

Do the dots have spindly, thread-like legs? I also have hydroids, which appear as white dots, but with little thread-like radial arms.

My friend and I both have this exact same thing. When you look closely the dots have like 5 tiny thread-like anchors that hold the dot to the side of the tank!

I have no idea what they are so I am a bit apprehensive. My friend had an outbreak of flukes just after we noticed this phenomenon. Granted it was probably coincidental but I am still looking at my fish with scrutiny.

What are hydriods? Should I be worried?

 

[CC-Star]

I have this as well only on my back wall close to my filter and protein skimmer.

-they are hard to scrap off
-they are flat and small
-they are white
-they are spirals

The LFS guy (so take that into consideration ehhe) said that they were Calcium deposits. I had not been using RO water until now.

But the white spots developed once I bought 3 turbo snails. Now a couple weeks later there is little white snail looking characters w. out shells strolling around at night.

 

[CC-Star]

Also found a good link titled "White Spots on the Walls":


http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-02/rs/

 

[Mihai]

OK, the sprial thing is a tiny feather duster. I have tons of them! No harm, on the contrary - they eat stuff from your water.

M.

 

[CC-Star]

GOod ...as long as its not harmful it can stay eheh

 

[Oceans Ferevh]

Nerite snail eggs look exactly like little white dots of paint. They are hard, appear in clusters, and are uniform in size. Mine only appear on the back wall because I do not scrape the algae off the back. They only lay where there is a food source I've noticed. I also have those little calcurous white spirals. They only appear on powerheads (plastics) and the under side of rocks. This is only what I've observed though I've begun to experience a plague worth of baby snails in my tank so I guess my snails are feeling happy...very happy :wink:

 

[Mihai]

Nerite snail eggs do not have the spiral (they are not harmfull either, and do not multiply like crazy).
I stand by the tiny duster (may not actually be related to dusters, it's just a worm-like animal that filter feeds).

M.