Weird Clear White Stuff

[onlinebug]

Ok so last night the water was OK, perfectly clear and everything was perfect!


I wake up this morning, check the water everything is still OK and perfect.

Get home at around 2 and find that there is alot of weird long string/silky sort of things in my tank floating around.

- Took this one the day before

- With all the white sticky stuff on it now.

- On the plant

- Plant again.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

How long has the tank been set up and what are the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings?

Looks like the start of a thread algae outbreak (though hard to say for sure from the photo's, thread alage is normally greener or brown, not so white). This is fairly common in new aquariums and normally comes in not long after the tank has cycled. Assuming the tank is cycled and there is no ammonia and nitrite (and the nitrate is kept as low as possible) it will most likely burn itself out within about 4-6 weeks. Using phosphate/nitrate removers in the filter might help.

If it is thread algae then be prepeared for it to get worse before it gets better. It will most likely cover pretty much everything in the tank. Best option is to remove it by hand (I found using a tooth did a good job of removing it).

It could be that it is something else though.

 

[onlinebug]

Well if its a parasite, then turning up the heat is apparantly good ? And i've just tested everything

Ammonia = 2.0
Nitrate = 10
Nitrite = 4/5

It has been cycling for about a week and a bit, added stress zyme and ammonia. Purchased a new filter and some moss balls recently..

Tetratec ex600 could this be the cause? as it looks as if it is coming from the exhaust of the filter.

 

[Colin_T]

could be stringy fish poo from an unwell fish, or mucous.
The little ball of plant looks cool, what is it?

 

[onlinebug]

could be stringy fish poo from an unwell fish, or mucous.
The little ball of plant looks cool, what is it?

Moss balls And it is everywhere in the tank and considering I dont have any fish yet >.<

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Yeah as its cycling I would say it most likely is thread algae (I can post a picture when I get home so you can compare them). Algae will tend to grow on and around the water outlets first.

It almost certainly will not be any kind of parasite or similar if you have not put any fish in there yet or live plants.

As I said expect it to get worse before it gets better but dont let it put you off as it will eventualy go away by itself. You might want to cut down the lighting while which will help keep it under control. This is one of the reasons why I will cycle all my tanks in the future completely empty (except for water ) then it makes removing the algae you get during the cycling stage a lot easier.