Hi all and a question

[yaya10]

Hi

I have a question about fishless cycling using fish food. I have added some fish food to my fishless planted tank (plants and driftwood) (about 70liters, sponge filter, gravel and heater). A day later I found some fungi-like white growth around each food flake that sunk to the bottom and on my filter. I can see them very clearly cause my gravel is black. The growth looks radiated and it is clearly around the individual food flakes. My question is:does anybody know what this is? is it ok? or do I have some kind of fungi infection I should be removing? I would really like to do this right so would appriciate advice from you guys. Thanks

 

[BillD]

The food has fungus on it. this is natural. The problem with adding food, or a shrimp to help cycle is there is a time lag while the food rots and the bacteria create ammonia. If you add liquid ammonia it is there immediately. As well, with a planted tank (or tank with some plants) the plants will use up the ammonia products so you may not notice the cycle as clearly.

 

[yaya10]

Thanks for your reply. I'll keep an eye on the ammonia and hopefully the cycle will settle soon.

 

[Link119]

Crush up your food to make sure there is more surface area for the ammonia to dissipate from the food.

 

[yaya10]

I did some more reading, what I have is saprolegnia, a nasty mold growing off the rotten food. This is pretty bad news as it can harm and even kill fish although it attackes only weak fish (stressed, injured, sick) here is a link to a good paper if you guys are interested
http://www.tnfish.org/FishDiseasesParasites_TWRA/files/Saprolegnia.pdf