What is this white thing....

[elcid]

Well, I was able to decrease the growth of the green algae due to the intense light, but now I started to notice that some white stuff is growing in the back of the aquarium. The parameters are good, except for NITRATE which is way off aprox 100, my pH is 8.0 (I have to increase it to at least 8.2) but I am starting to worry about the WHITE STUFF. Any thoughts??

 

[elcid]

Well, I do not really know what is going on but here is the info. I used to have green algae problem, I have the algae growing all over the aquarium, the walls, the sand, the rocks.....all over the place, so I decided to reduced the amount of hours of light. I went from 12 to 8 (2-55w, 50/50 lights for the 55 g) and I started to notice that the algae was not propagating as much as it used to, but now, I am starting to see some weird white stuff growing in some small spots of the back wall of the aquarium as well as the heater (temp is 80-82). I do not know if the phosphates has something to do with it or what, I do not think that I am overfeeding the fish. The water parameters which I indicated in the first post look decent to me, except the NITRATE and the pH. 5 days ago I did a 10% water change and even though the nitrate went down, is still too high >80. I have 2 damsels, 2 clowns and 20 blue leg crabs. The tank has been set up for around 2 years (I used to have an aggresive set up). I do not have any live rock but I am planning to. Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks

 

[bubbatrev]

"I am starting to see some weird white stuff growing in some small spots of the back wall of the aquarium as well as the heater"
If they are indeed small dots, They could be baby feather dusters. I added a little extra live rock about a year ago, and my tank exploded with them. They were everywhere heater, powerheads, you name it.
Hope this helps...Bubba

 

[elcid]

It could be but the way that it looks is more like the same green algae that grows because long hours of light and high phosphates, but the difference is that it is white, it looks like white algae, BUT if you get very close to it, you can see white grains, but the thing is that I do not have any live rock yet, so I do not think that they are feather dusters. I apologize if I still not very specific but I do not know how to describe except that it looks like the green algae but white (powder looking though). I was thinking that when I placed the sand in the aquarium, it took 2 days to settle, after that, heater and the skimmer had a film of white sand attached to it, I guess it could be a lot of things.

 

[elcid]

I hope my last post helps, if not well I am sorry, this is the best that I can describe this thing . This hobby can be pretty frustrating but it is AWESOME