What is this black stuff?

[wayneb64]

Talk about night and day. I just received four healthy Oto's from LiveAquaria.com within like 40 hours of placing my order. I paid $38 all in and it included UPS overnight, Styrofoam and heat pack (free). I got an email from UPS that let me watch the truck on a map as it moved towards my house.

AzGardens charged me $71 for using USPS two day which dropped the ball, and dinged my $10 of that $71 for Styrofoam and heat pack. (And they did not respond to text, site message, or loss form. Total rip off, zero support)

 

[cyanoman]

Cyanobacteria

Does it cover any surface like a slime?
Does it stink all swampy?

Check out cyanobacteria. You tube has loads of ideas to help

And yes, I have had it for about a month. I think I got it when I let my nitrates rocket off the colour chart. Slowly coming down now and cyanobacteria seems to be retreating. Put fish on diet, cleaned out filter and added Tetra nitrate 'eating' media. Fingers crossed. Nothing will eat this, it is a bacteria and algae is cuddly compared to it...

 

[wayneb64]

It doesn't stink and it's not really slimy. It will wipe off live plant leafs fairly easily however.

Not sure what had the most affect but the power head and a phosphate absorb-er in the filter seems to have really put a damper on it.

My new Otto's are nowhere to be seen, maybe they come out at night, but the algae on the glass is not going away.

 

[cyanoman]

Doesn't sound like cyano however; it also hates water flow and loves phosphate.
I had to scrape glass with a razor and it came off easily, like wisp's of smoke, settled out of view and started again.
Good luck with how its going

 

[wayneb64]

This black stuff rarely grows on the glass, sometimes some small dots of it which I take off with a tooth brush. A bit harder than green algae so maybe it's cyano.

I did speak to soon however, this week some of the fake plants are accumulating something brown now pretty fast but the live plants are not getting build up so maybe this is something else now.

Phospate levels are not down as of Sunday, maybe a little higher than a week ago so the Phosguard isn't winning, not sure if it's having any affect at all.

 

[wayneb64]

This is what the new growth looks like, no bubbles for like two weeks now so something has changed.

 

[King Fisher]

Looks like diatoms to me