Something strange about my fishless cycle

J

jiminy_crime

AC Members
Jun 7, 2003
20
0
0
Visit site
I am currently cycling a small 10 gal. fish tank which before had tried to cycle naturally with fish in it. It is for tropical fish so there is a heater in it. I am about 3 days into a fishless cycle and I am noticing a weird cottony type material on the leaves of my decorations and you can also see it kind of floating around in my tank. Is this part of cycling or is there some kind of fungus or bacteria in my tank from the old fish that had recently been in the tank? I do appreciate your time for listening.

Gratefully,

Charlie
 
Charlie, you just don't give us enough even to make wild guesses. You must be able to identify fungus when you see it, surely. Fungus doesn't ordinarily blow around. No products of ammonia-- nitrite or nitrate-- are visible in the water.

Your guess is better than ours, really.

If you tell us the KH and the pH of your water, and if you gave us a full list of all the additives and conditioners you've put in, then we might be able to come up with some hunches.
 
reply

I have a pH of 8.0 and my KH is 3 dH if that makes any since and I have a fishless cycle running adding 5 drops of ammonia for every 10 gallons of water and the temp. is set at 88 degrees because I was told that high temp. was good for bacteria growth. Also I used Stress-zyme for the bacteria. Is this information going to help? If there is anything else I should tell you please let me know. Thanks

Charlie
 
Better not just add a certain number of drops of ammonia. Add just enough for ammonia to register 5 parts per million. Don't exceed 5ppm ammonia, or you'll be cycling your tank for months: read the various "I've been fishless cycling for three months" posts here...

(it's better form to simply add your "reply" post to your original thread, so folks can catch on.)
 
True fungus is actually pretty rare in an aquarium. Without knowing more, I'd guess that this is a bio-film, bacteria growth introduced with the fish. If it wipes away easily, I would clean it out. The bacteria that you want in the tank are not visible--bacterial clouds and such are usually the result of other bacteria populations getting out of hand, not the nitrifiers. What are the results for ammonia, nitrites?

Other options-algae? Possible, but usually distinctly colored. Diatom bloom--would be fluffy looking, very easily wiped up, and brown-ish in color. You can contact your water utility or look online to see if your water has high silicates, which contributes to diatom blooms.
 
Does the stuff look kind of cobweb-like? Is it kind of sticky when you touch it? If it is, don't worry about it. It will go away as the tanks matures.

I agree that you need to test for ammonia concentration and that you don't want to go over 5 ppm. Using decaying shrimp will work, but you'll have a much harder time knowing what sort of bioload your tank will support. Using 5 ppm ammonia, you can fully stock right after the cycle without worry.

Also, throw away the StressZyme. It's junk and it won't speed up your cycle.

HTH,
Jim
 
My water has ammonia readings of 5ppm and has been this way for about 4 days now. No nitrite readings yet. The stuff is a white color, almost cob-web like but a little thicker. I am pretty sure I can wipe it away though. Thanks for your time. It is really hard to find people who will reply to these questions.

Gratefully,

Charlie
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom