White whispy stuff *shudder*

L

ladyatlas777

AC Members
Aug 21, 2005
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Hello this is my first post. I have a 20 gallon fish tank with gold fish and tetras ect. One of our sucker fish (the ones that attach to the glass on the tank and rocks) died. We didn't find him till he was very very far gone into decay. Now there is this with whispy cotton like stuff attatched all over the rocks and plants as well as the gravel. I have taken the tank down. Taken the fish out. Scrubbed the tank and gravel with boiling water and salt. I did this to all the plants as well. The filters where cleaned and everything. A few weeks later it was back. Its not really making the ewater cloudy but it looks absolutely disgusting. Is it a fungus? Or a bacteria? Please help!

thanks bunches,
Amy
 
Algae. It's there 'cause nothing's eating it. At least, that's what I would assume.
 
as far as alge being the white stuff I seriouslydoubt it. I have a HUGE catfish in the plus one of the biggest sucker fish I've ever seen. Plus about 10 other small fish.

I don't know what cycling is. and testing...you mean test the ph?


thanks for your time
Amy
 
Well I'm so happy I got a difinitive answer on the white stuff. Thanks sooooooooooooo much.

I thought maybe someone would try and help me out...
I see I was seriously mistaken.
You guys are like the last resort. I've asked pet stores, but no one there knows fish from their bum because none of them are trained, they're just minimum wage workers who have average knowledge of the pets they sell. I've searched online all over the place and could only find things that attacked fish... nothing about stuff taking over an entire tank. I'm hopelessly lost and if myI don't find out what it is and cure it my dad is gonna throw away all my fish!
And if cycling is cycling water... I can only change water so many times before you start to realize its not going to help.

If someone could just guess whether it fungus or bacteria or...?
I don't mean to be impatient or rude, and I'm sorry if I am. I'm just really worried about my fish.
:sick:
 
Hi Ladyatlas, and welcome to the forums! Honestly, if you haven't gotten a reply, it's probably because no one who has read your post has come across the same problem or dealt with it before. If someone knew what it was, they'd certainly tell you. Especially something as strange as that. :eek:

Now, I can tell you that you should never totally break down a tank and boil and scrub everything because what you've done is killed any and all beneficial bacteria that had established themselves in your tank. It's like your tank is brand new now, and you're starting over. This is quite dangerous for the fish because it's like dropping a whole load of fish in a brand new tank, you're going to have an ammonia spike and every other problem associated with cycling a tank with fish in it. Do go to the stickies in the Newbie forum and read the sticky on "Cycle". It explains how a new tank establishes itself.

Now, that said, there has got to be a cause for this gunk in there, so please tell us the basics:

-What size tank is it?
-how long have you had it up and running?
-how long has it been since you did that total breakdown?
-do you have a test kit or have you ever had your water tested? Like at the pet store? To tell you what your ammonia level, PH, Nitrates, etc are? What are the levels at?
-how often do you do water changes on your tank? and how much water?
-do you use a gravel vacuum when you water change?
-how many fish and what kinds of fish are in there?
-how much, how often, and what kind of food do you feed your fish?

This info will give all the "old timers" on the forum something to consider and help them give you options on how you might get it to go away.

Thanks! And Good Luck! :)
 
It's probably a fungus and it's most likely harmless. It usually grows in new tanks and goes away once the tank has matured. However, I'm going to be honest that you have other, more concerning matters in your tank.

The first is that your tank needs to cycle. I highly recommend getting a nitrIte and ammonia test kit. They take readings of both chemicals.

As far as cycling, I think it would be good if you could start doing 50% water changes on a daily basis. When you can get the test kits, you'll want to keep the ammonia reading below 1ppm, and the nitrite below .5ppm and do water changes to keep them lower. Eventually, you will be able to cut back to once a week changes or whatever you need to keep another chemical, nitrAte below 20ppm. The reason for these water changes is that both ammonia and nitrite are a result of having fish in your tank (ammonia is produced by fish and then converted to nitrite by beneficial bacteria in your tank, which will need to establish before you get nitrite readings) is that ammonia and nitrite are both toxic to fish. Ammonia is painful and burns gills and causes severe stress which can lead to disease and death. NItrite basically suffocates fish but is less painful. So you need to keep doing water changes to reduce the effects of both chemicals. You should check ammonia and nitrite daily until both read 0ppm all the time. When they do, your tank is cycled.

Here's a link that further describes the nitrogen cycle AKA "cycling".

Another problem is your goldie vs your other fish. Goldfish are coldwater, while the rest warm water, making their temperature requirements completely different and making them incompatible. I recommend taking your goldie back to your LFS, as he is the largest waste producer and will making fishy cycling more difficult, at least IMO. Goldies also get to be a bit big for a 20g. Also, don't get anymore algae eating catfish without checking out species profiles like you'll find on http://planetcatfish.com in their "fish catalogue" section. Some "algae eaters" aka common plecos get 18'' or more in length.

Finally, never bake or boil any gravel or filter material or even rinse it in hot water as this will kill your beneficial bacteria which break down toxic ammonia and nitrite.

HTH
 
Thank you so much for replying. I'm sorry if I seemed impatient. I'm gonna read the page of cycling and within the week hope to get a test kit. (they're not cheap at store near me $15) As for supplying proper information I'll fill in the rest now...
Tank:
27gallon tank but not 27 G long, its 27 G tall, with two filter (both power filters) with charcol, heater/w thermometer (which is not on now since its the summer, the temp is kept in between 68-72 F)
Fish I have in the tank:
1 Catfish (type I will be looking up, but also he is not too big for the tank if thats what you're worried about)
1 Large Angel Fish
1 medium common pleco (he looks pretty common but I will be looking him up as well)
1 white cloud (very small)
3 red surpi (very small)
2 paradise fish (one male one female but the can't breed cause the male can't make a bubble nest with the current as strong as it is)
2 fancy goldfish (about my goldfish, I know they prefer colder water so I keep them temperature just a few degrees cooler than I would if allthe fish were tropical. All the fish themselves are fine. They are beautiful not slimey or velvety, no growths. Most have mating colors. So Goldfish must not be doing too badly if they look perfect. And this is not the firsttank I've ever had. I used to have a 55 gallon(had it all my life) but got rid of it because it was too much work to keep up with. I had goldfish in there always. Never had white stuff and never had a particuarly dirty tank. So I don't want to get rid of them. I really feel they are not the cause. But if all else fails I will relocate them to a fish bowl temporarily)
1 tetra (type unknown has neon yellow strip accompanied by a black one)

Food-They get fed twice a day. Once in the morning with two small pinches of tropical fish (color) food and then in the evening they get 1 tubefex worm broken into a few chunks. The worms are mainly for the catfish. He can eat a whole cube in less than 3 minutes. He's a pig. His name is henry, after henry the 8th. *L*

Water-We change water about once a week(5-10 gallons), yes we use our gravel vacuum then. The tank has been establish for about 1 year. About 3 months ago the red surpi were added. Other than them the rest of the fish have been in there for almost a year. The last time it was broken down was about a month or so ago.

Now howI think I accuired this "thing" is when I introduced new fish (the red surpi) My father bought them from a place that did not exactly keep their tanks clean. See its not justmy tank its my dad's too and its his fault we have thisproblem. I'd say within a week or two of getting the new fish, 1 of the two pleco I used to have died. Then this outbreak of... white stuff.

So I'm gonna read some pages that you both suggested and if anybody has any other nifty and helpful insights, please feel free to let me know.

thank you very much
Amy
 
I've seen this fungus in some of my tanks on start up. It is disgusting, and appears to be spreading because is forms on every piece of uneaten food. It is harmless to fish and will go away in a couple of months. Unfortunatley you did the worst thing you could do by "re-starting" the tank. Ohh well, live and learn. Good luck
 
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