# Is This Algea Taking over my 10 Gallon Tank?



## LindaC (Nov 7, 2005)

It's like cotton and it's on everything in my 10 gallon tank, you can't really see it until you get up very close or feel one of the leaves on the plants, it feels gooey and slippery. If you look very closely it looks like little while cotton fibers. I just shook my P. Gayii and there's all white stuff floating around in the tank, what is this?

I just added new lights to this tank about a week ago, 2 x 40 watt Current dual satelitte, but I'm only running 40 watts. I've been dosing 1/8 tsp KNO3, 1/16 tsp of K2SO4, 1/8 tsp of Fleet and 2.5 ml of Flourish comprehensive. I was adding Fourish Excel but stopped that yesterday when I did a 50% water change and added DIY CO2 to the tank. It's a 2 litter bottle with airstone under the filter outtake.

Oh, I also have aquasoil in this tank, it's pretty well planted and I have a pair of Apistogramma Aggazzi's (Red Tails) in the tank. The ph and below 6.0 and the KH is below 1 due to the Aqua Soil. I am not buffering the water as was told I did not need to. I think that's it. Oh, amonia is 0 and nitrites are 0.

If anyone can help me out here, I'm almost tempted to start pulling the plants and dipping them in bleach but would I'd rather wait until I can get some advice.

Thanks is advance for any help. 
Linda


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## dhavoc (Mar 17, 2006)

its a fungus type of growth. normal for new tanks, it will go away on its own in a week or so, shrimp and snails will also help remove the stuff. just keep doing water changes and dont worry too much about it. if it gets really bad you an use the siphon hose to vacuum it off the hard surfaces during water changes.


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## LindaC (Nov 7, 2005)

This isn't a new tank though, this tank has been running about 10 months now. I did another water change today, about 20% and cleaned off most of the tanks, the ones I could pull out without totally disturbing the subtrate. 

I am going to try my best to pick up a CO2 cylinder tomorrow because my guess is it has something to do with the new lights and the lack of CO2. The DIY CO2 that I'm adding is just not cutting it. I'm just not sure of the name of this algae.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

Did this problem start after you introduced the DIY CO2?


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## LindaC (Nov 7, 2005)

Right around that time Matt. I took the DIY CO2 out of the tank yesterday and when I did I found this horrible flem like gunk covering my airstone and floating halfway up the back of my tank, it was totally disgusting. I didn't see it because of the sunset hygro in front of it. I could see a good stream of CO2 running up into my filter outake so I never bothered to look any closer. 

I forgot to put the smaller bottle on my set up to clean the CO2 and this must have been the yeast build or something to that effect. Is this what's going on in the tank, it's not algea is it, it's this stuff all over the place?

Well I've been doing frequent water changes and as of yesterday it was looking a lot better. I also purchased a 5 gallon CO2 cylinder and hooked it up to my Milwaukee all in one last night, and I'm dispursing the CO2 with the Rhinox 2000, so hopefully things will start looking up in this tank. I'll tell you, I have a tiger lotus in that tank that is stunning and I'm guessing it's from the combo of Aqua Soil and CO2. I've also begun adding ferts and I'm only running one light (40 watts) over the tank. 

Hopefully it's on the right track now!


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

LindaC said:


> Right around that time Matt. I took the DIY CO2 out of the tank yesterday and when I did I found this horrible flem like gunk covering my airstone and floating halfway up the back of my tank, it was totally disgusting. I didn't see it because of the sunset hygro in front of it. I could see a good stream of CO2 running up into my filter outake so I never bothered to look any closer.


I forgot to put the smaller bottle on my set up to clean the CO2 and this must have been the yeast build or something to that effect. Is this what's going on in the tank, it's not algea is it, it's this stuff all over the place?

It does sound like some of your DIY mixture found it's way into the tank.



LindaC said:


> Well I've been doing frequent water changes and as of yesterday it was looking a lot better. I also purchased a 5 gallon CO2 cylinder and hooked it up to my Milwaukee all in one last night, and I'm dispursing the CO2 with the Rhinox 2000, so hopefully things will start looking up in this tank. I'll tell you, I have a tiger lotus in that tank that is stunning and I'm guessing it's from the combo of Aqua Soil and CO2. I've also begun adding ferts and I'm only running one light (40 watts) over the tank. Hopefully it's on the right track now!


The water changes will help, just don't forget to add ferts after each water change  Let us know how things progress!


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