"Fuzz" growing on algae logs?

[jessibell]

I've had a 1.5 gallon container with pond snails in it for about 6 weeks now, and suddenly the pleco log pieces I put in are growing a very tough fungi-like fuzz within a day of me putting them in there. It's so tough that I can't even break it apart when it gets stuck in my siphon and filter! I usually siphon out the crud 2-3 times per week and replace the food.

Will the snails eat this stuff or should I take it out? All the baby snails are deep inside it and I don't want to "throw the babies out with the bathwater" LOL.

 

[fort384]

I have seen some driftwood leech some interesting crud before... from my experience the snails and other fauna won't generally touch it. Never seen anything like you are describing though (the tough/breaking it apart aspect of it).

Some pics might help with an id.

 

[jessibell]

I should have thought about taking a pocture of it Last night I did an ammonia test in the snail tank and it was quite high so I did a complete water change and got all the stuff out of there - I had to throw out some very tiny snails as a result but oh well.

I hooked up an Aquatech 5-15 with an established filter cartidge to it, and put some nylon stocking around the intake - if that doesn't help, I don't know what will lol.