Tons of white flakes suddenly in tank

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Oscarmk

Today I was looking at the tank when suddenly the return pump started spitting TONS of white flakes ranging from 3/4 inches to 1/16 inches, it seems that it is the calcium that was accumulating in the return pump pipe, I am using a braided vynyl tubing, and I can see it has gone from looking whiteish, to almost completely clear, I am guessing this is what the flakes are?. I did a small water change after seeing those to remove as many as I could, and then removed several more with a fish net. Fish look good, but not sure if this is something to be concerned of. Mainly I don't understand why it suddenly cleared up the tube of all those flakes, I read that it could be PH dropping, but I tested it and it is at 8.0 PH, which should still be acceptable, the tank did drop to 74 F today though... so I connected the heater - I usually leave it disconnected on the summer to prevent any possible issues, and my house is at a pretty steady temperature all the time, but today it dipped too much. Anyone knows what this flakes are?, or why this happened now? I don't dose anything to the tank, I only do weekly water changes, I am running GFO and carbon in 2 separate reactors, and SSS-150 Protein skimmer.
 
Perhaps the flakes came off the heater. Or you had some precipitation from two part dosing?
 
@Marc wrote:
Perhaps the flakes came off the heater. Or you had some precipitation from two part dosing? said:
The heater was definitely clean, I do not currently dose anything to my tank, unless you are referring to the GFO and carbon, still waiting for it to be more stable before adding corals. It is mostly cleared up now, the fish seem unaffected, although they try to eat the flakes and spit them out. I am now almost a 100% convinced it was the calcium in the braided vynil tubing in the return pump, it was almost all white, now it is mostly clear again, and I can even see parts that are white still with flakes almost coming off, but still attached to the tube. Still not sure what triggered everything to come loose in the tube though, only think I can think of is that it is related to the temp swing to 74 F, or the GAC on the reactor which has only been there for a week, triggered something that causes that calcium build up to lossen from the vynil tube.
Click to expand...
 
Well it is definitely the build up in the return pump tube, this time after cleaning up the tank, and turning on the pump again, the lower half of the build up came loose... so again tons of white flakes in the tank, fished as many as I could with a fish net. It is pretty annoying, but well at least the tube is clear now... although I can see it is starting to build up again in the upper half which is the one that caused the first flakes. Is there any way to prevent this?, hopefully it doesn't happen again, it is very annoying, although it seems to have no negative effects, other than being a pain to remove. I am not dosing anything other than having a GFO and carbon reactor, and my ro/di water reads 0 TDS.

Certainly all return tubes build up this over time, but why does it come loose?, anyone else see this problem from time to time?, tank has been set up for 4 months, which is the time it took for it to build up nicely, till one day it just came loose.
 
It's rather odd, honestly. Perhaps using PVC would be better than flexible tubing in your case.
 
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