Anyone know what this is?

[nuclearbroccoli]

Does anyone have a clue what I'm looking at in these photos? This stuff is on EVERYTHING! Everyone I've asked doesn't have a clue. The only suggestion I've had is maybe it's fungus, but the fungus treatment (API liquid fugus cure) doesn't seen to clear it up at all, and it doesn't vacuum up easy.
As well, my filter was completely clogged with some blackish crap... and I mean the ENTIRE filter. Tubes, sponge etc.. I had to take it off, disassemble it, and rinse (In aquarium water) the entire thing.

Tank Size: 18 Gal
Filter: Aquaclear 20
Plants: Plastic
Decorations: All fake.
Other: Air stone
pH: 6.5
Nit: 0
Ammonia: 0.25
I use "AquaPlus" for chlorine/chloramine removal. "Prime" (usually) for ammonia control, and recently "Step 3 waste breakdown and algae reducer"
Tank contains 1 angelfish.

 

[rob28]

looks like some wierd algae to me.

 

[nuclearbroccoli]

That's kind of what I'm figuring.. If it is, and ideas what I can put in an 18gal tank with an angelfish that would help with that? I want something that won't bother my angelfish (little nervous about plecos..), but that my angelfish won't try to eat?

 

[CTD]

Try Binox!

 

[Zagz]

I think it may be an algae. Does it rub off easily with your hands? Stop using the waste breakdown and algae remover. They don't work. All you need to use is prime. What kind of lights do you have and how often are your lights on a day? How often do you do water changes and how much each time? How long has the tank been set up? Since you have ammonia present I am suspecting the tank is new and not cycled or going through a mini cycle from the use of the fungus meds.

 

[nuclearbroccoli]

- Basic fluorescent lights - probably on waaay too long - about 14 hours.
- 25% water changes weekly.
- Tank has been running about 6 months.
- Very light ammonia reading is due to ammo lock. For some reason, just adding it makes even ammonia free water register at almost 0.25. Don't know why, it just works out that way. Strange product. I tested that this evening.

 

[gzeiger]

There's no reason to be using ammo lock. Even chemicals designed for use with fish are not part of your fish's normal environment and really shouldn't be added unless there's a good reason for it. Remember they breathe that stuff.

I have had algae similar in structure to what your pictures show. Mine was brown where yours seems to be more green, but I've also seen the greenish version in ponds. In my case snails and ghost shrimp seem to eat the stuff, although it can take a large population to start to make a dent in an algae colony that well established. Mechanical removal can obviously help at first (take the plants out and clean by hand). I'm pretty sure an Angel would make short work of shrimp of any kind, but snails should be ok.

 

[gzeiger]

Also I think I should mention that you clearly have the best user name on this site.

 

[Johnny Tuttle]

Otos would certainly not attack your angel, and you would be able to house a few safely without upsetting your bioload.

 

[bs6749]

There's no reason to be using ammo lock. Even chemicals designed for use with fish are not part of your fish's normal environment and really shouldn't be added unless there's a good reason for it. Remember they breathe that stuff.

I have had algae similar in structure to what your pictures show. Mine was brown where yours seems to be more green, but I've also seen the greenish version in ponds. In my case snails and ghost shrimp seem to eat the stuff, although it can take a large population to start to make a dent in an algae colony that well established. Mechanical removal can obviously help at first (take the plants out and clean by hand). I'm pretty sure an Angel would make short work of shrimp of any kind, but snails should be ok.

I strongly disagree with your position that ammo lock shouldn't be used in an aquarium. In the wild fish have at least millions of times more volume of water to swim in and in many cases there is a "continual water change" such as all of the water flowing in the Amazon River. When we remove fish from their natural habitat and put them in more confined spaces we must occasionally find something that helps to solve a problem due to the fish being in a much smaller size habitat. Ammo lock converts that ammonia to a safe form for the fish and overall is helping the fish survive better with the product being present than without it. If it was THAT harmful to fish then it would be removed from the marketplace.

Ghost shrimp won't tough algae. They are one of the worst algae eating shrimp. If you want a good algae eating shrimp you shold look into Amanos, red cherry shrimp, yellow shrimp, or others that are known to be good algae eaters.

I would suggest putting erythromycin tablets into your water to get rid of your algae, if that is what you have. Since your tank is going through a cycle you can add the erythromycin, which will most likely cause you to lose most of your beneficial bacteria. You are going to need to do water changes every 2-3 days either way until your tank is cycled.

 

[rob28]

i disagree with putting chems into the water to fix any perameter of a fw tank.
this is probably the smartest quote you will here in regards to fw tanks.

DILLUTION IS THE SOLUTION FOR POLLUTION.

i know i heard that here and am sorry that i dont know who said it, but if there is any water quality that needs fixing. NOTHING....is gonna fix it like a good old fashioned pwc!

 

[gzeiger]

I didn't mean to say that ammo lock should never be used. It certainly is important if you have fish in a cycling tank. It was my impression from the original post that this was an established tank well past the point of requiring detoxifying agents to protect fish while cycling.

An actual ammonia reading in a tank is a good reason to add ammo lock. If the tank is ammonia free and the reading on the test only comes from the ammo lock itself, then there's no reason. One of us is misunderstanding his situation. Perhaps Nuclearbroccoli can clarify.

As Zagz said, Prime is designed to remove chlorine and chloramine, and it works very well for both. You don't need a second product.

I don't really think these chemicals are terribly harmful, I just think it's good practice to minimize treatment chemicals to what you know is needed. Ammo lock in a tank that's been established six months really should be unnecessary unless the fungus treatment did kill your bacteria (which I agree is possible).

 

[mr86mister]

How about a type of fungus? This stuff sometimes I catch growing on pieces of (cured)wood in my tanks that I purchased from online.

 

[gzeiger]

Fungus isn't photosynthetic. Since he said those are plastic plants, it seems unlikely that a fungus would have enough food. A fungus taking nutrients from the water isn't unheard of, but it seems like you would expect it to grow evenly on every surface, bottoms as well as tops of decorations, tank walls and gravel. If it prefers growing on upper surfaces near the light it's much more likely a plant.

All speculation, of course.

 

[nuclearbroccoli]

Actually, it is growing on literally everything. Coating decorations, the gravel, etc... The weird part though is that it seems to be relatively clear, or white in colour, but the crap that was plugging up my power filter was definately a brown colour.
Regarding the cycling of the tank, it was fully cycled. I didn't have an ammonia reading from it for months after the initial spike. However, when this crap started growing in the tank initially, I had to pull everything out of the tank to clean them, and I did about a 60% water change to suck most of it out. I realize I probably restarted the cycling process with that large a water change, but what can you do? Anyway, it's since that point that this crap in my tank has come back with a vengeance. It's probably about 10 times worse now than before.
I'm not a huge fan of using chemicals unnecessarily. I try to follow the advice I was given when I first started a tank: "Your aquarium is not a chemistry set." However, when things get out of whack, they do need to be corrected.

 

[Fierro Nights]

it looks like cynobacteria, its sometimes known as red slime algae but ive seen both red and green, ive seen the green type in a freshwater tank in a biology class at my college.

if its looks somewhat transparent, rubs off easy then its most likely cyno.

in the biology lab, the fish where fed too much, and the tank is next to a window, this is was most likely caused the cyno to grow everywhere.

in your case, you may want to cut back on the feeding, do a water change, and siphon out what cyno you can, you should also decrease light entering the tank or cut back on light exposure.

cyno however does put oxygen into the water, its what supposedly is the link between bacteria and algea, if this type of bacteria did not exist millions of years ago, life would be much different today. its a marval of simplisity on its own.

but in the tank its an eye sore so get rid of it unless you want its benifits and dont mind the haunted look of it when holloween comes around next year, you can just say that slimer ( green ghost from ghost busters ) ran through your tank.