Creepy white stuff growing on bottom

[pamelarowley57]

I unfortunately had to go away for a about 10 days. I did a 50% water change right before I left and had my husband feeding the fish while I was gone.

When I came home the water was kind of nasty and there was this yucky white stuff growing all over the bottom and little pieces of it stuck to the glass and floating in the water.

I have no idea what it is and immediately freaked out about ich or algae...etc.

He says its possible he was overfeeding them and he felt it was probably from excess flake food falling to the bottom. I thought it looked like a fungus or yeast. I have a planted tank and I have a yeast CO2 system. I have had the tank set up for two months, gradually adding in new fish. I began with a seeded filter and the tanks appears to be fully cycled according to my test results.

I, of course have vacuumed and changed the water since I took the pics, but am worried about it growing back. Anyone seen or experienced this before?

 

[pamelarowley57]

I keep scrubbing it off the glass and it keeps re-appearing! UGH!

Should I be freaking out, or is it a simple problem that PWC and time will fix?

 

[Raeladar]

Wow. No I have not dealt with that before but that definitely looks fungal. Idi another vacuum and water change tomorrow and f it starts to grow back, take out a sample and put it in tank water to take to your lfs.

 

[LyndaB]

I think you had a layer of mold on the bottom of the tank from the overfeeding..... he must've been tossing Quarter Pounders in that tank.... sheesh.

I would think that heavy duty gravel vacs would eradicate it.

How are the fish behaving?

 

[pamelarowley57]

ROTFL about the quarter pounders! He probably fed them like he likes to be fed..lol!

The fish seem fine. their coloring and scales/fins look fine. They are still active and eating well.

I have done two gravel vacs so far and plan to just keep it up for a while. Perhaps more lighting would help. I currently only run lights for 4 hours 2x a day. I have two F30T8 36" marineland natural daylight bulbs. I should probably check into some more powerful light bulbs.

 

[TheMurrays]

I've had this before! I believe I had it while I still had live plants (but I didn't know anything about live plants at the time, and wasn't treating the water for them). It was a pain, and kept coming back. I believe after I took the plants out it eventually went away. I know it wasn't from overfeeding because I probably don't feed enough. I guess it was some kind of fungal thing. Mine was growing mostly on the plants and filter, and my fish did not seem to mind. I don't know what the answer is... Sorry. But you are not alone!

 

[Wy Renegade]

Looks similar to pictures of a white fungus I've seen in some freshwater tanks. From what I've read its harmless to the inhabitants, and tends to disappear after awhile. Most cases I've seen seem to be related to the addition of driftwood.

 

[pamelarowley57]

Thanks!

I think it is a fungus that may be a result of the organic soil mixture I put below the gravel substrate. It probably bloomed and grew to break down the excess food (quarter pounders) my hubby was throwing in while I was away.

The scary thing is that anything in excess or out of balance is not good. It appears that if the fish are normal and healthy they should have enough of a mucous coating (slime coat) to protect themselves against it. However, if they have nipped fins or any other parasitic infections or wounds they can be susceptible to a fungal infection like fin rot or cottonmouth...or heaven forbid columnaris. For right now I am doing water changes to try to reduce the amount of fungus and then let it do its thing. It may be a good thing!

 

[missie]

Good Luck! Hope your fish stay healthy!

 

[Batt4Christ]

WHat are our water parameters? I would think if there was a serious overfeeding issue, water chemistry would be way jacked as well...

 

[pamelarowley57]

thanks for your responses! I have been preoccupied lately and haven't gotten back on here for a bit.

The water (at the time) was testing out fine as follows:

Ammonia 0
Nitrate <10
Nitrite 0
GH 150 (we tend to have hard water-this is a normal reading here)
KH 120 (this is also a normal reading for here)
PH 7.8 (a little high but also normal around here)

I do not try to manipulate ph or water hardness etc....
I have plants, some eco-complete substrate, pool filter sand, gravel, and organic soil.
I feed shrimp pellets (might be the culprit), cichlid pellets, and algae wafers


I do twice-weekly 25% water changes and if things are bad...like now I do two 50-75% water changes a week.

So far it is getting better and always rears its ugly head where I feed the shrimp pellets. The pleco seems to be eating some of it off the wall, but it keeps re-appearing on the wall from the gravel floor.....