White Threads On Glass

[alasdairk]

For the last two weeks I've had little white fungal looking thread streaks on the tank glass.They seem to be a central mass of white threads with very fine hair like outgrowths. None of the fish have fungus and the only unusual reading on testing has been high Nitrates. Here's a pic with a ruler showing millimetres below one of the "Growths" for scale. (The green colour is due to the white balance being off in the picture, the water isn't actually that colour).
 
The only thing I could find suggested they might be foraminiferans but these are supposed to be a marine organism and the tank is freshwater. they're unsightly but are they harmful? How can I get rid of them? Can anyone help out?
 
 
 
 

 

[Chad]

Forams do exist in FW as well (http/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12744527) but I don't believe that's what you have.
 
My initial thought is actually a mold but fungus works too. Look carefully at the ends of the filaments. If you see a tiny ball at the end of each that's a dead giveaway that it's not algae.
 
Here's a photo of mild spores which shows more clearly the structure.
 

 

[guppylovepuppylovelol]

You should probably take that out of the tank

 

[alasdairk]

Thanks TCamos and Guppylove for your replies, I already cleared all the glass after taking that photo so can't tell what the end of the threads look like now. I'll check some of the other photos I took and see if anything shows. I thought I'd have noticed the little balls on the ends if they were there but I couldn't see any, though there were loads of these things all over the place. 
 
 I imagine it'll grow back soon enough, there is some on the mopani wood I have in the tank but it's too far from the glass to get a close look at and taking it out of the tank will cause a major upset for the fishes.
 
Any suggestions for treating it? I've got some standard meds on hand, Melafix, Protozin and Myxazin if any of them would be helpful.

 

[alasdairk]

Some background in case it's useful. the tank has been running for ten months now. The Mopani wood has been in since the start with no ill effects. Boiled and soaked etc before adding. I had a loach which used to hoover up all sorts of detritus around the tank and the threads have only appeared since it died. I also added some new neon and black tetras not long before the stuff appeared.

 

[Chad]

In the photo I posted the balls are very clear. However, they are often very slight and the same color as the strands. They look somewhat like spermatozoa.
 
There are also cases where algae can be white in appearance but I've not seen this with filamentous algae myself just other kinds.