strange fungus or algae in new aquarium…?
I just set up my tank (freshwater) and filled it 4 days ago. It’s been cycling since, filter running, heat on, and lights blazing. I used live plant substrate (since I will be using only live plants) and some porous rock with interesting little randomly colored growths of some sort of algae or moss if you will that’s covering most of them – they did come from an aquatic/fish store and are aquarium approved.
However, since the set up and pre-washing everything before going into the tank I still have a milky colored water. I did use a water clearing product after the first 24hrs and I still couldn’t see the back wall of the tank from the water being so clouded! Things are far clearer now, but still slightly cloudy, almost a milky color as I mentioned.
And besides that problem, I’ve now noticed some sort of a strange looking fungus or maybe an algae of some sort growing all over the rocks. It’s almost like stringy and wispy and flows around with the water, sort of a whitish/milky color itself. I blame the rocks as the source of both problems, but my question is, what is this fungus/algae, and how do I get rid of it?
Anyone know? Thanks
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Sort of following the same order in which you brought up different things~
The “randomly colored growths of algae or moss’ on the rocks you bought may have been lichens. I’ve bought pieces of lace rock with this growing on them. You can see a few places where they’re just starting, and some that are pretty sizeable in the picture. Since you mention this is for a freshwater tank, if what you got was porous, it may have been lace rock or something similar. Even though they’re sold for aquaria, they’re made of calcium carbonate and could change your pH and hardness. This type of rock is generally used for saltwater or cichlid tanks. You can test it to see if that’s what it is by taking a piece out of the tank, and dripping a little vinegar onto it. If it’s carbonate, the rock will fizz where the vinegar touches it. The acid from the vinegar will react with the carbonate to make bubbles of oxygen. So you might want to check to see if this is the kind of rock you bought, and if your fish are okay with living in harder, alkaline water. Your plants, too, since they generally prefer slightly acidic conditions.
The cloudiness you have could be from your tank cycling. At 4 days with ammonia or fish food being added, you should be experiencing a bacterial bloom. Products that are meant to clarify your water won’t have any affect on this. They work by causing small particles to clump together so your filter can remove them more easily. It could also be from the rock you added. If your water is below 7.8 pH, the water will slowly dissolve the rock until that pH is reached. Your filter should be clearing some of that, but more rock will dissolve as the pH increases, so new particles will be replacing the old.
The white wispy stuff could be either an algae or a fungus. If you notice it growing in close association with the lichen on your rock, I would tend to think it was a fungus attacking the lichen as it decomposes. The lichens are terrestrial, so underwater they would die. I could also see this as being a pale brush algae if growing randomly on the rock. This would normally attack plants, but it’s capable of growing on non-living things too, or at least non-living things which have trapped organic debris . This is what a tank with the brush algae looks like.
To get rid of the fungus/algae, get as much of the lichen off the rock, and ant debris out of the crevices as possible. You might want to try a dip in a dilute bleach solution for several minutes to kill whatever it is. But if you do this with porous rock, rinse very well and let it sit out to complately air-dry before you put it back into your tank. You can also add it to a container of water with extra dechlorinator if you’re concerned with using bleach. But I’ve used it for rocks, sometimes even wood to disinfect it and have used it afterward in tank without harming any fish. You can also boil the pieces affected, which seems to be a prefered method by other users here, but I’ve had experiences with rocks cracking when under high heat, so if you prefer to use that method, use caution as well.
Get a product called algae fix. Remove your carbon filter and add appropriate amount Reinstall carbon filters and that should take care of it