White stuff on filter

Question
I had a bad ich problem that killed off all my fish in my 29 gallon tank so I had to start over. I took out all the water and washed everything (tank, gravel, plants, decor, filter, heater, etc.) basically starting over. I started over two weeks ago by using 100% spring water and added all the necessary chemicals to start my aquarium. I went into the pet store a couple of days ago to get my water tested and they said my ammonia levels were perfect but my pH was too high so I added a pH neutralizer to get it at 7.0. The tank then became foggy the next day but today(2nd after pH neutralizer) the foggy water is not as foggy and I noticed this white stuff forming around the holes in the filter tube that sticks into the water. Some of the white stuff has small white streamers going from hole to hole. What is it and should I worry?
Note: Ran tank cold for two weeks then turned the temp up to 80 degrees to make sure ich did not survive. I haven't added any fish yet. I have a Marineland Penguin 200 BioWheel filter. Considering cranking up heat to 89 for a few days before I put fish in to ensure all ich that I didn't get dies off.
Thank you.

Answer
Hi Charlie
When you washed everything, how did you wash it?  Any chemicals/soaps used, if so what?  Ich is usually pretty easy to treat.   

I suggest buying your own test kit.  It's nice having the store do it for free, but they're giving you some bad advice.  First, did you put anything in the fish tank to start ammonia?  If there's no fish, and you didn't add anything, there's no ammonia.  So the cycle process won't start.  Hence why your ammonia levels would be good.  They should've asked you more information on the tank.

They shouldn't have advised you to change your ph either.  When you get into messing with the ph, you really need to know what you're doing(and I don't so can't explain it that well lol), like knowing the hardness of the water, and buffering capacity of the water.  Just putting those chemicals in isn't good.  Eventually what will happen, the ph will crash and will stress/kill your fish.  Most fish we buy these days, are tank bred, meaning they're bred from breeders.  Very few are wild caught, unless you get something somewhat exotic like elephant noses, some discus, etc.  Those exotic ones will need the proper ph, but tank bred fish can adjust to pretty much any ph.  The only time I ever messed with my ph, when I had an African cichlid tank.  I bought them from a store that specialized in African cichlids and kept their ph at 8.0.  So I did the same.  A stable ph is much better and tolerable for fish then one that fluctuates-which is what will happen when using the chemicals to alter it.  Plus, there's natural ways to raise or lower ph, like using crushed coral or peat moss.  But again, you have to be careful because when you do water changes, that will alter the ph.  Best just to leave it be.

That white stuff on the filter intake, no idea what that is.  Could be a mixture of the chemicals you added to the tank, or if you used any to clean the tank.  Did you use a bacteria starter or something like that?  Way back when I first started a tank, I seem to recall something similar in my tank.  I think I was using one of those bacteria starters, and just attributed it to that.  Try taking the tube off and cleaning it.  Check your filter too see if it's accumulated on there also, if so just try rinsing it off.  Try adding some aquarium salt to the tank, see if that clears it up.  With you cleaning everything, I doubt it's anything bad-like I said, just a mixture of all the chemicals in the tank possibly.  

For ich, sounds like you've read a little bit on it.  I like to use the salt and heat method for treatment as opposed to chemicals.  The chemicals can be pretty harsh, and can burn some fish like loaches, tetras, catfish, the scaleless ones in particular.  Salt can be stressful for some of those fish as well though.  Ich can survive the cold water, so that didn't help, and for heat, it's recommended to raise the temp to at least 82-84 F, some suggesting even 86 F.  Some fish won't be able to tolerate that high temp either though.  And, it's recommended to run it with the salt and heat, or meds for 14 days.  Ich has several life cycles, and it's only killed off at certain stages.  That's why they recommend 14 days, so you get it at every stage.  

If you cleaned your tank that good, you're probably fine for the ich problem.  Ich usually comes out when fish are stressed, from transporting, poor water conditions, overcrowding, etc.  So, you can do all this stuff, be ich free, bring home 1 fish from the store and it'll have ich-brought from the store.  When you purchase fish, be sure to check the fish in all the tanks, make sure they all look healthy.  A lot of stores have one big system running their tanks, so if one tank has ich, they're all most likely sick.  

Hope that helped!  Let me know if you have any more questions!!

Christy