Lighting Requirements for 125 gallon Planted Aquarium

desico

No - it's not bubbles. I have lots of those too. When I rubbed it off it felt gritty.

Christople

Okay then we will have to ait for byron.

desico

There's a lot more bubbles on the areas that I rubbed clean. My bigger sword has this stuff too on the tops of the leaves but on the underside it's all bubbles and no white grit.

Byron

I've never seen this, but I am leaning toward thinking it may be from the mineral in the water. Is this white stuff on anything other than just plant leaves?

And while we're talking water hardness, do you have the numbers for GH and KH? The water supply people can tell you this, they may have a website with water stats posted. And what is your pH and temperature?

Byron.

desico

My GH is 340ppm, KH = 160ppm, pH = 8, temp = 80 (this is because of the sun today mostly, the room gets really warm)

desico

It's on other things as well. The glass and rocks.

Christople

do you have any calcerous rocks in there. hat would ring up the pH or is that just your pH range for where you are

Byron

Having calcareous rocks would make things worse. The water is already very hard from your numbers. As I said, I've never seen this, but then I have very soft water, and always have, which is why I think it is likely related to the hardness. Having it on everything and not just the plants would support the hard water/mineral cause. Usually it is something one sees as water evaporates, leaving behind the mineral deposits; having it occur in the tank like this is different.

I am certain that I have read something about mineral deposits in relation to planted aquaria, but going through my reference works just now I cannot find it. When you want something...

There are many members here with similar hard water, so if any of them see this thread they may be able to confirm, or alternatively tell us what it is if something else.

Byron.

desico

I re-checked my kh and gh again as the numbers I gave you were from an earlier reading.
Today my GH = 280 and the KH = 130. I checked it against water straight from the tap to see if anything in my tank might be making the water harder and the numbers for GH were identical and the KH was 150 (actually higher than my tank)
Do you think I should re-post this problem as a new thread so that the others with hard water might comment?

Byron

Yes, that's a good idea. And in the Freshwater Aquarium section where it will get more action.