BarleyBear
Aquarium Advice Activist
I recently got a shipment of plants, and they came potted in what I now know is called rockwool. I thought it was some kind of cottony material. I removed the plants from the material, but I used some small blocks of it to put in my filter thinking it could help seed some beneficial bacteria and reduce my cycle time (I think it might have helped because my tank cycled in less than 2 weeks).
I took the material out the other day and noticed that some of it had become very crumbly and powdery, and it clouded up my water for a bit.
Now, I have what looks like gray-green dust all over everything in my tank. If it's algae, that's fine because I have a great algae cleaning crew and another addition on the way. However, I'm thinking this is more of the rockwool stuff than algae or a combination of both.
My worry is that if it is a combination of both, I've read that this stuff is sometimes made with fiberglass. If so, I'm thinking that, at the least, it would not be appetizing for any of my algae eaters (snails and pleco) or, worse, they could try to eat it and die from having glass in their intestines.
Any ideas on what to do? How do I clean this stuff out? Or is it safe to just leave it in and let the cleaners try to take care of it.
I took the material out the other day and noticed that some of it had become very crumbly and powdery, and it clouded up my water for a bit.
Now, I have what looks like gray-green dust all over everything in my tank. If it's algae, that's fine because I have a great algae cleaning crew and another addition on the way. However, I'm thinking this is more of the rockwool stuff than algae or a combination of both.
My worry is that if it is a combination of both, I've read that this stuff is sometimes made with fiberglass. If so, I'm thinking that, at the least, it would not be appetizing for any of my algae eaters (snails and pleco) or, worse, they could try to eat it and die from having glass in their intestines.
Any ideas on what to do? How do I clean this stuff out? Or is it safe to just leave it in and let the cleaners try to take care of it.
