Don't know what this is!!

[fishmamma]

I have noticed a dark brown algae growing in my tank, first it started growing on my fake plants and this morning I noticed that is now covering this medium sized rock I have. Tested the water all seems to be fine except that the water is hard, can someone let me know what's going on.

 

[knifegill]

Congratulations. Its probably diatomic. Describe it better for us. Is it like fine hair or slime? Is it like polka-dots that overlap or an amorphous sludge?

By fine water, you mean ammonia zero, nitrite zero and nitrate -20?

 

[haynchinook334]

Light. How long are you running your lights? Is your tank in direct sun light?

 

[fishmamma]

Ok, from what I remember it's slime but not very thick, pretty thin. Also it has very small dots that are darker then the other areas. I will update for sure when I get home this evening.

 

[fishmamma]

Light. How long are you running your lights? Is your tank in direct sun light?

I have two sets of lights and one of them stays on all the time and one of them is turned off only at night. The tank is not in direct sun light.

 

[cassharper]

Look more or less like this? Mind you, diatomaceous bacteria (well, we don't know for sure what it is but think it's a bacteria at this point) presents over 100,000 species so it might look slightly different.

If it is indeed diatoms then just scrub it off at regular intervals when it becomes unsightly to you. It doesn't affect water quality and will come off quite easily, then get caught in the mechanical media of your filter to be taken care of by the bio filter. If you are worried about overloading your biofilter with dead bacteria then just do a water change after you scrub.

It's causes are either too long of a photoperiod (don't turn your lights on longer than 8-10 hrs) or high silicates in your water (rub off from the silicone in a new tank). Fix the light and it will go away on it's own in time, same with high silicates (that is if you don't have high silicates in your water... which is unlikely)

 

[fishmamma]

Look more or less like this? Mind you, diatomaceous bacteria (well, we don't know for sure what it is but think it's a bacteria at this point) presents over 100,000 species so it might look slightly different.

If it is indeed diatoms then just scrub it off at regular intervals when it becomes unsightly to you. It doesn't affect water quality and will come off quite easily, then get caught in the mechanical media of your filter to be taken care of by the bio filter. If you are worried about overloading your biofilter with dead bacteria then just do a water change after you scrub.

It's causes are either too long of a photoperiod (don't turn your lights on longer than 8-10 hrs) or high silicates in your water (rub off from the silicone in a new tank). Fix the light and it will go away on it's own in time, same with high silicates (that is if you don't have high silicates in your water... which is unlikely)

That's about right and it sounds fairly easy to take of.... one problem though. The reason I don't turn off one of the lights is because I have a pair of Blood Parrots and for some reason as soon as I turn off both lights they start attacking the other fish. Any other time they are fine and non-aggressive! Not sure what to do........don't really want to separate any of the fish.

 

[fishmamma]

That's about right and it sounds fairly easy to take of.... one problem though. The reason I don't turn off one of the lights is because I have a pair of Blood Parrots and for some reason as soon as I turn off both lights they start attacking the other fish. Any other time they are fine and non-aggressive! Not sure what to do........don't really want to separate any of the fish.

I will start a new thread on this issue.