happychem
04-23-2006, 4:12 PM
Ever since I moved and set my 33g back up - more or less from scratch - this brown, hairy gunk has been growing like wildfire, moreso of late. After it withstood a 5 day blackout (and dare I say, grew during!), I'm no longer convinced that this is an algae. However, before I try anything like salt addition or anything else more drastic, I want to get some input from y'all, certainly I'm not the only person who's gotten this gunk.
Pics (3 days after a thorough cleaning) (poor quality, but you can see what I'm talking about):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/skmacdonald/100_0758.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/skmacdonald/100_0757.jpg
It comes off the plants easily enough, but it's pretty much infested the whole tank. Physical removal doesn't work, I've been at it for weeks now. I can spend two hours weeding it out, only to have it back to this stage in a few days - depressing!
Tank specs:
33 g, recently reduced lighting to about 2 wpg, T8 NO
NO3 and PO4 dosed every other day (additions of about 7 ppm and 0.7 ppm, respectively)
traces dosed on alternating days
pressurized CO2, maintained ca. 25 ppm.
50% water change weekly to twice weekly - especially when I was trying to get on top of this stuff.
Pics (3 days after a thorough cleaning) (poor quality, but you can see what I'm talking about):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/skmacdonald/100_0758.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/skmacdonald/100_0757.jpg
It comes off the plants easily enough, but it's pretty much infested the whole tank. Physical removal doesn't work, I've been at it for weeks now. I can spend two hours weeding it out, only to have it back to this stage in a few days - depressing!
Tank specs:
33 g, recently reduced lighting to about 2 wpg, T8 NO
NO3 and PO4 dosed every other day (additions of about 7 ppm and 0.7 ppm, respectively)
traces dosed on alternating days
pressurized CO2, maintained ca. 25 ppm.
50% water change weekly to twice weekly - especially when I was trying to get on top of this stuff.