Marimo tank mess

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LadyBadger

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
May 19, 2014
Messages
3
I am the new owner of a family of marimos. They live in a two-gallon tear-drop shaped bowl with 5 pounds of washed aquarium gravel and a small piece of Mopani wood on my dinette table.

All was well until I added an Argentine sword plant from a pet shop. That introduced some bacteria that have made themselves at home, covering everything with smelly yuck.

I removed the plant to a plastic container where it can grow new water leaves. I thought I could wait it out until more civilized bacteria took over in the marimo bowl, but things are not looking good. Changing most of the water several time a week isn't doing the trick.

I need to know how to rescue my moss balls and stabilize the tank. I am considering moving the moss balls to a holding container separate from the plant and boiling the heck out of the gravel and wood. I hear there are sources of "tame" bacterial that I could add to the tank and the two containers until things clear up.

Any helpful suggestions would be appreciated.
 
Welcome to AA! :)
Do you have a picture that you could share to give us an idea of what might be going on? What color is the "smelly yuck"?
 
Marimo update

No picture, Green Lily, but what started out as increasing cloudiness progressed to strings of colorless material and is now a quarter inch fluffy coating on the wood. The odor is typical of bacterial contamination. This is not an algae bloom.
 
Oh! It does sound like a bacterial bloom in your little tank. I think you should definitely get the driftwood out and scrub it very well.. It sounds like a job!
 
Thanks for the support. I plan to rescue the marimos and boil everything else in vinegar water. I'll bleach the tank. I'll treat the moss balls and plant separately with some beneficial bacteria from the store for a few weeks and then try again.
 
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