Cycling and maybe bacterial?

[srt4geezer]

New native tank on its 3rd week week of cycling. Local caught smallmouth bass, bluegill and crawdad. Also small Petsmart pleco. Tank is a 300 with 60gln sump. 3glns of K1. 16lbs of mediahome ultra. 3lbs fluid sand bed. 200 micron filter socks for mechanical.
API test kit. PH is 7.6, amonia is .25, nitrite is .50.....50% water change every other day. Fake plants with local river sourced driftwood. Boiled gravel, but couldnt boil wood since its huge.

Bass had white fuzz oh his lips first and hasnt gone any further. Bluegill got the fuzz of dorsal fin and tail where he was getting harrased by othe bluegill I had at the start, but took out right away cuz he was constant *******.

Pics of the malady:

 

[skjl47]

Hello; Cotton like growths may be a fungus. My guess is based on the pictures and the description of being the victim of aggression. Please check this out further.

Could also be that the tank is not fully cycled yet. The ammonia is low but should be 0 if fully cycled.

Also could be what is sometimes termed a "mini-cycle" by some. I believe this refers to what happens when a large fish or a number of new fish are added to a tank. For the population of beneficial bacteria (bb) to increase enough to take in the additional ammonia can take a little time.

Here is a link to a site about cycling:

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/nitrogen_cycle.html


I may be out of date on this, but some decades back my understanding was that native species need a cooler water temp than the tropicals. The tanks I saw back then had cooling systems. I never tried to keep the natives because of this. This is speculation only as a possible contribution, but if the temps in the tank are on the higher side of what the natives need?

 

[srt4geezer]

Thanks for the feedback. No heater. Tank hovers at 72deg.
Yeah, fungus freaks me out. Im just going to keep doing water changes and monitor.

 

[duanes]

Doesn't look like fungus to me, looks to me to be bacterial.

 

[srt4geezer]

Bacterial is easier to treat? Hate seeing them like this, but dont want to be hasty. Keeping up on the water changes. Amonia seems to be staying low, but nitrites jumps to like .50ppm and nitrates is at 5.0ppm. 50% water change yesterday.

 

[pops]

this a cold water tank i take it. can expect 8 to 9 weeks to cycle it up, 3 not enough, every other day water changes way to to go as you doing.

I would treat the tank with metroplex and paraguard to get any thing under control, this will not hurt your bio filter or getting it cycled up.