View Full Version : strange brown dust lookin stuff? algae?
so im about 3 weeks into doing a fishless cycle and all seems to be going fairly well. ammonia is down, nitrites are still high and nitrates are present. a few days ago i notice a strange brown material which resembles dirt sppearing on leaves, rocks, and logs. today when i was trimming back some hornwort i noticed that theres a bunch of the stuff on everything. so whats the brown stuff? algae was my first guess.
i was thinking of doing a water change today to get rid of some of it but i thinkl that may slow down my cycling. but i figure the cycle wouldnt be much good if algae takes over.
famman
09-17-2003, 3:08 PM
brown algae, diatoms, the favorite food for otos. a water change will not slow down your cycle
good luck
:)
that was quick. thanks alot. good to know that the ottos like it as i was thinking of getting a few as soon as ammonia and nitite drop to safe levels. hey is there another type of algae that is for the most part white? one of my logs has somthing on it that looks like mold.
famman
09-17-2003, 5:58 PM
that tends to be fungus
good luck
:)
fungus huh? i havnt read much about fungal blooms in a tank yet. how bad is it? should i pull the log out and treat it somehow before it speads or just clean it off when i do water changes?
i did a change earlier today and sucked up alot of the nrown algae and tried to clean off the log mold. tank looks better. still could use some fish though :)
famman
09-18-2003, 3:19 PM
when i had fungus, I took the wood out and scrubbed it, it help a lot.
good luck
:)
Personally, I would boil the log for a while, to kill the mold spores. Scrubbing probably won't get rid of all of them.
Was the wood approved for aquarium use, or found?
its bogwood i bought from the LFS. i soaked it for bout an hour before dropping it in the tank but i think i may pull it and give it a boil just to be safe.