pendragon
Fish Crazy
Hello everyone! I am just taking up aquarium-keeping as a hobby, but have been reading (and reading and reading) for the last six months in preparation. I have a 46-gallon freshwater tropical tank that is taking a really long time to cycle (partially, I'm sure, because I'm using a very small bio-load: six red-eye tetras) but is showing progress. I'm in the 'no-ammonia-but-an-abundance-of-nitrite' phase currently. To my question:
A couple of weeks ago, something bizarre appeared on my substrate across the entirety of the tank. It looks like very distinct tiny black "thistles", or quills - very short, rigid black hairs - that jut outward from the surface of the gravel. They are not bunched together, they seem spaced equally across the surface of the gravel. In the two weeks since they've appeared, they don't appear to have increased in number, though I'd say there are seven to eight of these little "quills" per gravel (it's the small, epoxy-covered gravel sold in bulk at my local PetSmart). My gravel all look like little pincushions.
Now everything I've read seems to indicate that no matter what you may have growing in your tank algae- or diatom-wise, you shouldn't "do anything" about it until the cycle has completed, so thus far I've done nothing, though I would definitely like to identify it.
I really have done a ton of searching on my own, but I can't find anything that matches the description of this stuff particularly well. I know brown algae - which is actually diatoms - are common in cycling tanks, but descriptions say brown algae is typically patchy and slimy and generally grows first on the glass (though it doesn't have to); doesn't sound at all like what I have here. This stuff is prolific across the bottom of the entire tank (not patchy) and not slimy at all. Hair algae grows "out" like this seems to have done, but hair algae is green (this is definitely not green. Either black or very dark brown) and grows fairly long; this stuff has grown to maybe 1/16 of an inch and isn't getting any longer. It's like "stubble" algae.
I'd just like to know what it is, and if it will go away on its own once the tank reaches equilibrium, or whether I should get something (but what?) that will eat it. It just doesn't seem to match the description for any of the common types of algae, unless I'm misreading descriptions.
Any insight or comments are welcome and appreciated.
pendragon!
A couple of weeks ago, something bizarre appeared on my substrate across the entirety of the tank. It looks like very distinct tiny black "thistles", or quills - very short, rigid black hairs - that jut outward from the surface of the gravel. They are not bunched together, they seem spaced equally across the surface of the gravel. In the two weeks since they've appeared, they don't appear to have increased in number, though I'd say there are seven to eight of these little "quills" per gravel (it's the small, epoxy-covered gravel sold in bulk at my local PetSmart). My gravel all look like little pincushions.
Now everything I've read seems to indicate that no matter what you may have growing in your tank algae- or diatom-wise, you shouldn't "do anything" about it until the cycle has completed, so thus far I've done nothing, though I would definitely like to identify it.I really have done a ton of searching on my own, but I can't find anything that matches the description of this stuff particularly well. I know brown algae - which is actually diatoms - are common in cycling tanks, but descriptions say brown algae is typically patchy and slimy and generally grows first on the glass (though it doesn't have to); doesn't sound at all like what I have here. This stuff is prolific across the bottom of the entire tank (not patchy) and not slimy at all. Hair algae grows "out" like this seems to have done, but hair algae is green (this is definitely not green. Either black or very dark brown) and grows fairly long; this stuff has grown to maybe 1/16 of an inch and isn't getting any longer. It's like "stubble" algae.
I'd just like to know what it is, and if it will go away on its own once the tank reaches equilibrium, or whether I should get something (but what?) that will eat it. It just doesn't seem to match the description for any of the common types of algae, unless I'm misreading descriptions.
Any insight or comments are welcome and appreciated.
pendragon!
Black algae turns up when there is an abundance of nutrients which are not used by the plants in the tank, fairly normal as you are still cycling the tank. 
