By the way, which one's Pink?

[LordHappy]

Happy day,

The 10g tank is 4 months old, stable water parameters with 0 ammonia and 7.8ph. Soil capped with eco-complete, no filter. Just shrimp and snails and as of yesterday, I found three chili rasboras for $5. They are really hard to find here. Not sure why. Anyway, I feed twice a week and its usually a piece of fruit or one of the Danerle shrimp king sticks. A couple of weeks ago I bumped lighting from eight to ten hours a day, and now I have . It is spreading pretty quickly. My hunch is that this pink stuff is a cyanobacteria and I should chop the light from ten to maybe four hours. I've just never seen it be pink. Sorta looks like silly putty that's been rolled very flat. Uh, ignore the pink thing on the top of a picture, that's just watermelon skewered into the gravel.

Thoughts?

 

[Colin_T]

Maybe blue green algae (Cyanobacter bacteria) caused by excess nutrients. Wipe it out and do a big water change. Remove uneaten food.

 

[LordHappy]

Happy day Colin...thank you for the courtesy of a response.

I feed a piece of fruit 1/4-1/2 inch square once a week and a food stick that is less than 1/2 inch long once a week. 25 shrimp, 3 mystery snails and a flock of pond snails make quick work of any food there.

I'll stop by the covid testing joint and get one of their long nasal swabs to wipe it out. It will be interesting to see if, when wiping it out, I cause a dirt bloom from breaking up the cap. I did leave an inch around the dirt core, but I think its been finding its way through the eco-complete.