What is this white thingy?

[james3434]

Hi guys

Please see my upload. What is this actually? White algae or Biofilm? Do I need to do anything?

My reading - Amonia 0 / Nitrite 0 / Nitrate almost 0

My bio load - 4 Axelrodi and 2 fire red shrimp that's all.

Thanks

[Andy Sager]

Originally Posted by james3434

Hi guys

Please see my upload. What is this actually? White algae or Biofilm? Do I need to do anything?

My reading - Amonia 0 / Nitrite 0 / Nitrate almost 0

My bio load - 4 Axelrodi and 2 fire red shrimp that's all.

Thanks

It looks to me as old food that is now fungused over and the fungus is growing over the plant. You need to either siphon it all out, remove and clean the plant before replanting or gently take a net and try to gather up as much of the fungus as you can. ( If you line the net with some filter floss, you will collect a lot more of the fuzz than if you use just an empty net. ) Your next step after cleaning it all out is to monitor your feeding and make sure it is all eaten in a reasonable amount of time so that there is none left over.

[james3434]

Originally Posted by Andy Sager

It looks to me as old food that is now fungused over and the fungus is growing over the plant. You need to either siphon it all out, remove and clean the plant before replanting or gently take a net and try to gather up as much of the fungus as you can. ( If you line the net with some filter floss, you will collect a lot more of the fuzz than if you use just an empty net. ) Your next step after cleaning it all out is to monitor your feeding and make sure it is all eaten in a reasonable amount of time so that there is none left over.

Thanks so much for your reply.

I removed those slimy thing with the help of my scraper.

It's weird because I normally feed only a very small piece of algae waffle every 3-4 days.

I will keep an eye

[Andy Sager]

Originally Posted by james3434

Thanks so much for your reply.

I removed those slimy thing with the help of my scraper.

It's weird because I normally feed only a very small piece of algae waffle every 3-4 days.

I will keep an eye

It's as much the amount of food your livestock eats as it is how much you feed. If your stock only eats a tiny amount and you are feeding a small amount, there is leftover food that will rot.
That said, it could have been a dead shrimp or something on the plant itself that died off and decayed ( which is less likely but still possible). Food or a carcass are the most likely suspects.

[james3434]

Originally Posted by Andy Sager

It's as much the amount of food your livestock eats as it is how much you feed. If your stock only eats a tiny amount and you are feeding a small amount, there is leftover food that will rot.
That said, it could have been a dead shrimp or something on the plant itself that died off and decayed ( which is less likely but still possible). Food or a carcass are the most likely suspects.

yea something went wrong suddenly. I just woke up to see a dull yellow colored water.. no dead shrimps/fish. I also removed that plant and did a 30% water change.. not sure why exactly the water color changed.. I did another reading and amonia and nitrate levels are still at 0

[Andy Sager]

Originally Posted by james3434

yea something went wrong suddenly. I just woke up to see a dull yellow colored water.. no dead shrimps/fish. I also removed that plant and did a 30% water change.. not sure why exactly the water color changed.. I did another reading and amonia and nitrate levels are still at 0

The dull yellow colored water could be from the plant disintegrating.

If the water quality stays good and this does not appear again, I'd consider this a one time thing and just watch the food amount. Sometimes it just takes a little thing to set something off.