earwicker7
Aquarium Advice Newbie
I recently added a Queen Gold Nugget Plecostamus to my tank. Since they like to munch on driftwood, I added a nice piece to the tank. My only problem is that I'm getting a fuzzy, white, cotton-like growth on it. I'm sure it's algae of some sort, and I've tried a few methods to get rid of it. When I do get rid of it, it usually comes back in a few days, and it's really ugly. The first thing I tried was soaking the driftwood in water with a small amount of bleach added. I soaked it overnight it a 2-1/2 gallon bucket with a small amount of chlorine bleach added to tap water, then ran water over it until the bleach smell disappeared, added enough de-chlorinator for 10 gallons just to be sure it got all of the bleach, let it soak in this water for a couple of hours, then let it air dry. This got rid of the growth, but it came back in a few days. Next I purchased a HOT Magnum Canister Filter to use as a water polisher, as I figured there might be some free floating algae that was attaching itself to the driftwood--I'm thinking this because some of the growth has spread to areas of the driftwood that shouldn't be getting much light. The only problem is that since my tank is small, the HOT creates a very strong current, which bounces my gobys around like pinballs, so I can only use it in short bursts of about 10-30 minutes instead of running it full time. I'm thinking of getting a timer for the light as right now I turn it on when I wake up at 7am and turn it off around 10pm when I go to bed; I'm thinking about setting the timer to turn on at 10am and turn off at 8pm as this might lower algae growth. I'm also thinking about turning the lights off completely for about three days before this as this would hopefully kill off any free floating algae. Has anyone had a similar problem, and if so, were you able to fix it?