Orange stuff in my aquarium

[irret1957]

Good morning everyone. I have had my freshwater aquarium set up for about a month and it looked beautiful until this week. I'm noticing some sort of "orange stuff" on the rocks and fake plants in there. The water is still clear and beautiful (no discoloration) and the fish are doing great. Can anyone tell me what this stuff is and how to get rid or it?? We do have a water softner in our home and I'm wondering if this is what might be causing this (incorrect ph etc) because in the past I had a 100 gallon freshwater aquarium and never had anything like this in it.

 

[gzeiger]

A picture or better description would help more than just knowing what color it is. I have seen orange fungus and sponges in the wild (not in tropical waters), but never had any luck keeping a sponge alive in an aquarium.

 

[bs6749]

Welcome to AA!

It might be algae or surface film. How long have you had the tank up and running? How large is the tank and what are the inhabitants? What are your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate readings? If you don't have a test kit I recommend the master freshwater test kit by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals.

Also, are you using the softened water in your tank???

 

[irret1957]

I've put a picture of what's in the tank here. It seems to brush off the plants and rocks fairly easily, but I know it's not something that should be there.

I'm sorry. I can't seem to figure out how to get my picture posted.

 

[irret1957]

I've had the tank set up for about a month. I have 2 angels, 2 fan tail tetras, 2 plattys, 4 mollys, a swordtail and an alge eater. And yes, our house does have a water softner. I haven't purchased a test kit for the water yet.

 

[mike47517]

Wrong thread

 

[irret1957]

Orange stuff

Trying again to post picture of this

 

[bs6749]

Looks like it's probably diatoms or algae.

I wouldn't use water that has been through a water softener in my tanks. The salt makes the water feel slimy and I'm sure the water isn't great for the fish.

 

[jsoong]

Agree, it looks like diatoms. Pretty common in new tanks. All you need to do is vacuum it up & should go away by itself in a few weeks.

If possible, get your tank water from before the water softener. Assuming that it is an ion-exchange unit, all you are doing is striping out all the Ca & Mg & replacing those with Na (or maybe K). Since you are replacing 2 Na for each Mg/Ca, the water actually is "harder" from the fish's standpoint. Plus you do need some Ca/Mg for plant & invert growth.

 

[bs6749]

Agree, it looks like diatoms. Pretty common in new tanks. All you need to do is vacuum it up & should go away by itself in a few weeks.

If possible, get your tank water from before the water softener. Assuming that it is an ion-exchange unit, all you are doing is striping out all the Ca & Mg & replacing those with Na (or maybe K). Since you are replacing 2 Na for each Mg/Ca, the water actually is "harder" from the fish's standpoint. Plus you do need some Ca/Mg for plant & invert growth.

Na and Cl are some of the many ions that are not measured in the general hardness of the water, which is primarily a test for Ca+2 and Mg+2 ions. You could add as much table salt to water as you want but it won't change the GH one bit.

 

[irret1957]

Thank you all so much for your information. I did purchase a test kit this morning and found the PH over the 7.4 level. Guess I need to do something about that now. Thank you all again

 

[neilanh]

your pH is fine, I wouldn't mess with it.

 

[gzeiger]

7.4 is just fine. Mine is just over 8 out of the tap. You need to be very very cautious about trying to adjust pH, and virtually everyone here will tell you not to do it at all. Adding chemicals to adjust it will tend to use up the buffering capacity of your water and make it much easier for unexpected things like decaying plant matter or fish waste to cause rapid large changes in pH. If you're seeing your pH change, look for and remove the cause, but if it isn't changing your fish will be fine.

In general your fish can live in a wide pH range, but many will not tolerate changes.

 

[irret1957]

I will just leave my PH alone. Am going to get the vacuum to get all the stuff cleaned out. You all have been so very helpful. Thank you so much.

 

[jsoong]

Na and Cl are some of the many ions that are not measured in the general hardness of the water, which is primarily a test for Ca+2 and Mg+2 ions. You could add as much table salt to water as you want but it won't change the GH one bit.

I understand that. It is just that the fish don't! They don't care a whit what your KH or GH kit says. Fish looks at total osmolar load which includes GH & KH and all the other ions <and non-ions for that matter> you can't measure (like Na & Cl). That is the reason I said the fish see exchange softened water as "hard".