Diatoms/Algae?

[CaptnIgnit]

My tank is towards the end of it's cycle and I know it's not uncommon to see a diatom outbreak during such time. I've just never seen diatoms long and stringy before and thought I'd check to make sure it's not something else going on.

I've been doing water changes and am going to start cutting light in the tank until it clears up (also going to go start manually removing what I can).

Any other advice or ideas are welcome!

[Mr. Limpet]

Could be an algae, but from the pic it almost looks like a stringy fungus to me. have you tried vacuuming it during a PWC?

Here's a great link to various Algae and hopefully it might have an answer for you.

Greater Washington Aquatic Plant Association » Algae in the Planted Aquarium

Good luck!

[CaptnIgnit]

I removed a bunch of it this morning and it comes off the plants fairly easily. If it is some sort of fungus am I fubar'd or is there something I can do to remove it?

[Mr. Limpet]

Originally Posted by CaptnIgnit

I removed a bunch of it this morning and it comes off the plants fairly easily. If it is some sort of fungus am I fubar'd or is there something I can do to remove it?

If you didn't see anything in the link I posted, it's hard to say.

Does it feel slimy? How often do you do a PWC? Could be that you may have to step them up for a while and do a good vacuuming each PWC. I didn't find a conclusive answer in a search, but overfeeding/leftover food seem to be a recurring subject.

[CaptnIgnit]

Its still a fairly new tank, and yes it was pretty slimy. This is new pool filter sand (source of silica) so I was leaning towards diatoms with the increase in nitrates from cycling and the silica.

[Mr. Limpet]

Originally Posted by CaptnIgnit

Its still a fairly new tank, and yes it was pretty slimy. This is new pool filter sand (source of silica) so I was leaning towards diatoms with the increase in nitrates from cycling and the silica.

Maybe it loves the high doses of ammo and once it's cycled, it'll go away. I'd suggest finishing your cycle and see if you can't at least get most of it out before adding fish. I was amazed that pond snails lived/thrived on 4ppm ammo during my cycle lol.