# White powder substance on plants?



## Daisy Mae (Jun 21, 2015)

I once used a Nat Geo white sand that made my plants and hardscape look like what's in your pictures. I rinsed it very well, but it still threw out particles like that. I changed it to a much coarser sand, rinsed everything, problem gone. 

Does it come off easily with a little bit of wipe with fingers? Or water movement close to the surface of the affected item? That's how it behaved in my tank.


----------



## loach guy (Jun 2, 2014)

Looks like debris from the sand. Adding a powerhead is a good idea. I think the problem will go away after some water changes as the fine particulate should get vacuumed up. Unless of course all of your substrate is that fine.


----------



## WaterLife (Jul 1, 2015)

Don't know about the white particles.

But I am fairly certain most Dracaena (the one with the green leaves with white tips/edges) are terrestrial plants only, meaning they can only be grown above water, if the leaves are submersed, it will die shortly after since it's not a aquatic plant.
Most plants that have variegated leaves are usually not true aquatic plants (there are some, but not commonly found in most stores)

Not sure what Spathiphyllum you have either, but I remember hearing it might not be a true aquatic plant either, but can survive months under water, and can live for longer if the leaves can get out of the water.

The other look fine being submersed. Dwarf Hair Grass might not grow so well with that set up.


----------



## jahmarley420 (Sep 16, 2015)

Thank you for your comments! After reading your comments I believe you may be right which is a relief. Daisy Mae, I never thought that if you buy your sand from a pet store that you have to still go through the cleaning process of it. Tonight I am going to drain a good portion out of the tank. I shall be receiving the Python 25 foot vacuum and going to stir the sand up and keep filling and draining about 7 times or until water is clear. If it doesnt get clear I guess drain all water and go the bucket route. Loach Guy, I am hoping the powerhead that I bought is a decent one I was reading online about them and said they were really good. Just hope its not too much for my little Cory Catfish.

WaterLife: Yeah I think I may just end up pulling them out and doing more research on plants. Do you have any recommendations? I really like the amazon sward but will that be to cluttered in a small tank like this if thats all I do? I have noticed the dwarf hair grass was brown but now green is starting to show a lot more since the new light was installed. Ill be posting a build thread here soon.


----------



## Mariostg (Sep 6, 2014)

Welcome aboard.

Sand or gravel, whatever the source of supply must be rinsed prior use in the tank if you want to minimize dirty/cloudy water.

If you have terrestrial plants in your tank, lots of them will be happy with just their feet wet. Many people like me use shower caddies to hold plants. Search the forum for ideas. 

I have and amazon sword in my 75 gal. They get big if you let it go like I did. it could fill in a good portion of your tank if not all.


----------



## mattinmd (Aug 16, 2014)

Others seem to have covered the white detritus...



jahmarley420 said:


> Test Strip results.
> Nitrate(No3):1 Safe Maybe 5


I wouldn't really trust a test strip's numbers at face value, particularly when testing nitrate where tests are so notoriously miscalibrated (I have one liquid test kit that reads 6x the actual levels when tested against a reference solution!)...

That said a NO3 level of 1 or 5 is probably too low for plants, particularly without any kind of dirt or substrate fertilizers. Once you get more stock this should remedy itself, but I wouldn't call this level 'Safe' for plants.. Most aim for 20ppm in planted setups.

Non-planted folks try to keep nitrate and phosphate down as low as possible to suppress all plant life, since the only plants they have are undesirable algae, but that doesn't work out so well in planted tanks.


----------



## Maverick2015 (Aug 8, 2015)

I find that otos will help clean off the sand as they clean the leaves. But I agree that it is just sand particles.


----------

