some sort of growth/algae?

[etspam]

Hi all-

I've noticed in my son's tank that he has some sort of growth in the gravel. It kind of looks like brown cotton candy? Pictures attached. Is this algae or something else? I can suck it up when I do cleaning/water changes, but sometimes it clumps the gravel together into a mass, which makes it too heavy and prevents it from being sucked up. I end up having to pull it out by hand.

ET

 

[dougall]

It looks like a type of harmless fungus or biofilm to me.

It's not really a problem outside of being kind of unsightly.. and can be common with new setups or setups that have something new (especially organic) added to them.

Or it can be the result of overfeeding.

I would take care toward how much you are feeding fish, especially where they eat in the water vs the type of food (like I wouldn't use sinking pellets so much for a fish that eats more toward the top of the aquarium)

Depending on the size of the aquarium and what is currently stocked in there, you might be able to add a fish or invertebrate to help keep this clean too

 

[etspam]

Thanks for the reply. This is an old tank, been setup for 4 yrs? It has two angelfish in it. Might be a result of overfeeding, though this has only popped up in the last few months. I had to do a major cleaning to remove it previously, but it's slowly creeping back.

I have RCS, but the angelfish are aggressive, so can't keep them in there. I guess I'll have son cut back on amount of feeding. and try to clean more.

 

[dougall]

Feeding is going to be my best guess then.

Another thing to think about would be substrate, the surface of your gravel is kind of rough, maybe something smoother would not hold onto it so tightly, maybe like pea gravel or something like that?

And I would never put any sort of shrimp in with angels.. maybe a snail might work?

Good luck though!