View Full Version : gross algae
bhoath
03-10-2003, 8:06 PM
I have a 29 gal tank. It has been set up for about two years. It is a community tank.It started growing a whitish, cottagecheese like algae. It started on the glass, looked like it was growing roots, it spread fast, a six inch diameter blob overnight. I scrape it off and it moves to a different part of the tank the next day. The fish are not affected at all. It creeps across the gravel and then dies in about 24 hours. I have done tank changes, scrubbed my plastic and fibre plants as well as decorative rocks. I can't seem to get rid of it. I've replaced filters checked my chemicals and everything seems fine. Someone help me please !!!thank you
CoCoFiShY
03-10-2003, 11:51 PM
I would do a big waterchange and add a pleco in there.
wetmanNY
03-10-2003, 11:56 PM
Aquatic slime mold. Very interesting. Very interesting. Try a www.google.com search and see if this is an aquatic slime mold.
125gJoe
03-11-2003, 12:06 AM
Originally posted by bhoath
I have a 29 gal tank. It has been set up for about two years. , a six inch diameter blob overnight. I scrape it off and it moves to a different part of the tank the next day. .........OMG :eek: Is this an episode of Outer Limits?!
I would start over.
6 inches overnite??? uh... What is it?
Tell me you are not using a UGF.... (?)
bhoath
03-11-2003, 3:04 PM
I am not using a ugf.It is just a white blob of feathery looking algae, I remove it physically every day but am kinda lookin for a long term cure LOL
bhoath
03-11-2003, 3:05 PM
Did a big water change and I have a huge pleco, He won't touch it
bhoath
03-11-2003, 3:22 PM
well wetman you were correct, it is a slime mold. You can grow it , cultivate it, look at the pretty colors it apparently produces. A bit of research is due now on how to kill the sucker. Thanks for your help
wetmanNY
03-11-2003, 3:32 PM
How to starve it? Reduce the dissolved organics in the system, rather like starving algae. One aquarist noted (in Aquatic-Plants Digest) that where the slime mold had passed over the glass, hard greenspot algae was entirely eliminated.
So...
..j.ust think of your slime mold plasmodium as "the algae-eater from Planet X."
goldfish freak
03-11-2003, 3:36 PM
LOL! WetmaNY. maybe this thing can be cultivated as the next algae eater :D