# What Kind Of Algae Is This?



## Nickfu06 (Jul 14, 2009)

This is my first aquarium. I have been fishless cycling for a few weeks now. My parameters today are: Ammonia 0.0ppm, NitrItes 5.0ppm+, NitrAtes 5.0ppm. I could swear I checked my NitrAtes yesterday and they were 20.0ppm, and now today I have some algae growth. What kind of algae is this? Could this be the reason my NitrAtes went down? Or maybe I made a mistake in testing?


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## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

Weird looking stuff. Dunno what it is. 

Some nitrate tests are not accurate when there is nitrite in the tank. 

Get the ammonia back up to about 3 ppm to keep feeding the bacteria until the cycle is done.


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## Nickfu06 (Jul 14, 2009)

It is green and appears slimy, although I haven't touched it. I'll put another teaspoon of ammonia in. My plants haven't arrived yet, so I turned my lights off for now.


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## Nickfu06 (Jul 14, 2009)

Could it be a large buildup of Nitrosomonas?


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Err... don't put ammonia in, especially not a whole spoonful! 

It might be unhealthy hair algae, sometimes it is greyish in color.


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## Nickfu06 (Jul 14, 2009)

It's a very small teaspoon and it only brings my ammonia up to 2.0 - 3.0ppm. I doubt it is hair algae. It has the consistency of snot, it seems very fragile and its green. I just put some plants in yesterday. I'm going to try to vacuum it up.


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## vancat (Nov 5, 2004)

Is that a common practice, actually adding ammonia to a tank? Never heard of it.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

2-3 ppm is way too high for ammonia. It will kill fish and shrimp.

I think what is going on here, is Nickfu06 is spoofing us. Seems like a new account, he's probably having a bit of fun with his posts at our expense


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## Nickfu06 (Jul 14, 2009)

Maybe you forgot to read my first post? There are no fish in my tank. It is a brand new aquarium and I am doing a fishless cycle by dosing ammonia. I was hoping that this was going to be an informative community about aquatic plants, and I would expect that the people on these forums would have a basic understanding of aquariums, but so far I have been disappointed.

You see there are nitrifying bacteria that live in your filter and substrate. That bacteria feeds from ammonia and nitrItes and ultimately converts them into nitrAtes. nitrAtes are relatively harmless to fish in smaller amounts. My aquarium is brand new, so I don't have a large colony of nitrifying bacteria. By dosing up to 5.0ppm of ammonia I am feeding the bacteria and creating a colony that will ultimately sustain whatever fish I choose to place in my tank. Some people prefer to plop their fish into whatever water they have and hope for the best, however I care about my pets.


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## Nickfu06 (Jul 14, 2009)

I gave a very brief synopsis of fishless cycling, but if you would like to read more then please look here.

http://www.google.com/search?q=fishless%20cycle


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Planted tanks do not have a complete nitrogen cycle. The plants will absorb the ammonia before it is converted to other products. However, I am well aware of the conversions that take place in the absence of plants. It seems of little benefit to add ammonia to the tank to encourage the types of bacteria that use ammonia to grow, because as soon as your plants arrive those very same bacteria won't have ammonia left to eat. 

What will end up happening is you will get plenty of different types of algae showing up with 2-3 ppm of ammonia in the water (since there are no plants to absorb it all), and you will not get any benefit from adding it in the long run since the bacteria will not have ammonia to eat up when the plants arrive. But hey, to each his own.

Also, I don't like the tone of your posts. Quite often people make different user names and post some ridiculous things like "I just added 20 spoons of ammonia, and cleaned the tank with bleach, and added some salami to feed the fish, why did everything die" and have a good laugh at our shocked posts. If you aren't one of those people, then excuse my remarks, but don't insult the site and attack my knowledge of aquariums and plants. You will find that there are many people on this site that know far more then you do in certain areas. Then again for all I know you may be quite knowledgeable in your own right, but all I see now is a snarky smug post. 

In any event, talk, debate, teach others and learn, that is what APC is about.


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## bgzbgz (Jul 6, 2007)

Some people just prefer growing snot over plants I guess.


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## vancat (Nov 5, 2004)

Hi Nick,
Sorry- but I have been keeping fish for 20+ years and been here at the forum for about 5 and I have never heard of people actually putting ammonia in their tanks. Then again I don't read every post... so that's why I was cautious with my previous question.

Zapins, I know is also an experienced fishkeeper. Hi Zap!

We all try to be nice to each other....! 
Except for maybe *Childish Oregon Boy*. And he just gets funny after a while.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Nickfu06 said:


> Maybe you forgot to read my first post? There are no fish in my tank. It is a brand new aquarium and I am doing a fishless cycle by dosing ammonia. I was hoping that this was going to be an informative community about aquatic plants, and I would expect that the people on these forums would have a basic understanding of aquariums, but so far I have been disappointed.


You've had 8 posts. Do you really think you should judge the forum or anyone after only 8 posts? Why not try to get to know people. I'm sure you really don't want to come off how you are sounding here. Be polite. Thank everyone for trying to understand what you are doing. If people are responding to your thread it's because they'd like to help you.


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## Nickfu06 (Jul 14, 2009)

Sorry Zapins, my post was written with a little anger. You have to understand that I was upset that you discredited my post. I don't think anyone would have responded positively after I was accused of fooling with everybody here.



Zapins said:


> Planted tanks do not have a complete nitrogen cycle. The plants will absorb the ammonia before it is converted to other products. However, I am well aware of the conversions that take place in the absence of plants. It seems of little benefit to add ammonia to the tank to encourage the types of bacteria that use ammonia to grow, because as soon as your plants arrive those very same bacteria won't have ammonia left to eat.


You are correct, but you assume that I have enough plants in my aquarium to sustain the amount of ammonia provided by fish feces. I am going to copy this from somewhere else because it is very well written,



> Aquatic plants are capable of assimilating nitrate (NO3), nitrite (NO2) and ammonium (NH4) as inorganic sources of Nitrogen. In most aquatic ecosystems, nitrate, which is the most thermodynamically stable and highly oxidized of the three species, is the predominant form of fixed nitrogen present (predominant does not imply that it is the preferred or most readily available form of nitrogen for plants).
> 
> Most aquatic plants would prefer to use ammonium (NH4) directly, as it requires no, or very little energy expenditure on the part of the plant to get the ion inside of the cell membrane and be used, but through the use of two separate enzymes, nitrite reductase and nitrate reductase, both nitrate and nitrite are usable by plants as sources of nitrogen.


With that said, ammonia is highly toxic for fish, and nitrItes inhibit their ability to breathe, so our final option is nitrAte. ammonia is produced from fish waste, decaying food, dead fish, etc. Our goal is to convert the ammonia to nitrItes, and then convert those nitrItes to nitrAtes. Plants will use some of the ammonia, and nitrItes, but we also need nitrifying bacteria to convert the excess waste into nitrAtes before our aquatic friends die. In a perfect world our plants would consume nitrAtes faster than they are produced, but they don't, so we do weekly water changes.



vancat said:


> Hi Nick,
> Sorry- but I have been keeping fish for 20+ years and been here at the forum for about 5 and I have never heard of people actually putting ammonia in their tanks. Then again I don't read every post... so that's why I was cautious with my previous question.
> 
> Zapins, I know is also an experienced fishkeeper. Hi Zap!
> ...


Dosing ammonia is an alternative to using fish to build a nitrogen cycle when you first set up your aquarium. A lot of people just monitor their ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels with fish in the tank until the bacteria has formed. There is nothing wrong with the way you do things, obviously you have kept fish for 20+ years.



Diana K said:


> Weird looking stuff. Dunno what it is.
> 
> Some nitrate tests are not accurate when there is nitrite in the tank.
> 
> Get the ammonia back up to about 3 ppm to keep feeding the bacteria until the cycle is done.


I should have said this sooner, but thanks!



bgzbgz said:


> Some people just prefer growing snot over plants I guess.


Thank you for correctly identifying the green substance, it is indeed snot.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

No problem, didn't mean to discredit you. By the way, you should come chat with us online and get to know everyone 

Here are the instructions:
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/water-bucket/63421-planted-aquarium-irc-chat.html


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## clearleaf (Oct 4, 2008)

-oops, didn't read page 2, but anyways, I've read about using ammonia in a fishless cycle and have seen reference to it on this forum, so you're not alone. However, generally the references I do see suggest against it. Usually when you drop new plants into a tank there are a few leaves here and there that die off as the plant adapts to your water parameters, or the plants were grown emersed and are now adapting to immersed, etc. The decaying organics in that instance can also start the cycle, albeit more slowly. I just did a fishless cycle myself on a 10g, took about 3 weeks [correction: it took about 3 weeks for me to find my ammonia and nitrate kits, and when I did I had 0 ammonia and 5-10 nitrate]. No ammonia, just watched a couple leaves wilt away. --

Anyways, not sure on the algae, but what the heck is that object anyways?


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## wkndracer (Mar 23, 2008)

*quick on the trigger.*

Everybody got quick on the trigger. (I have too) 
In my new set ups with filters either HOB or canisters I've added a lot of plants and a few fish right away. My last setup being a soil sub with organics converting to submerged decay problems with NH3/NH4 and NO2 caused me to remove the fish due to spikes in just a three day period. Also PO4 was an issue for over a month. IMO planted tanks do have a complete a nitrogen cycle or you'd never read NO3 in a tested result. Adding ammonia and maintaining elevated constant levels of it accelerate the process and reduce the cycle period by as much as 50% (or so I've read on several sites). Bacteria levels always change based on bio load (everybody pretty much knows that). Once the bacteria colony is established by the ammonia it will re-balance once the source is removed and replaced by live stock and related food products. This method is safer for your fish. (IMO) I've just been unkind and impatient so I stocked right away.


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## Complexity (Aug 11, 2008)

Nickfu06 said:


> What kind of algae is this?


Back to the original question... I'm wondering if that could be blue-green algae (aka BGA, slime algae, and cyanobacteria)? It's been awhile since I've dealt with it, but if I remember right, it likes poor water conditions which is being created by the fishless cycling.

Run some searches to see if this matches what you're seeing, and if so, then you can find the solutions to the problem. If you have dry ferts available, dose nitrates in the tank. Stop dosing the ammonia until you get a handle on the problem. Also, do a water change to reduce the ammonia and nitrites. Increased water flow can also help.

Cyanobacteria is not an algae, but a bacteria. It's capable of fixing its own nitrogen in the water and can kill fish so don't add any fish until you get this under control. The good news is that if it is cyanobacteria, then it's easy to get rid of and won't come back unless the water quality becomes a problem again. Given that this may be due to being a bit aggressive in the fishless cycle, once you get the tank cycled and add plants and fish, the odds are you won't have any future problems with it (assuming you'll be doing water changes which I expect you'll do).

You can dose the tank with anti-bacterial meds to kill it out, but this may affect the cycling. Since you don't have any fish or inverts in the tank yet, I'd hold off on using chemicals for now. I think you can get this under control by physical removal and addressing the water quality issue.

BTW, just a side note about plants and cycling. Many times, the plants added to a tank have good bacteria on them which effectively seeds the new tank, helping the tank to cycle quickly. Since you're interested in a planted tank, consider switching from a fishless cycle to simply adding a bunch of plants. As long as you don't overwhelm the tank with a bunch of fish right away, you should be in good shape.

However, by whatever method you use, I applaud you for taking the time and effort to learn about cycling a new tank and for working so hard on ensuring a healthy environment for your new fish when you do get them.


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## jaidexl (Jan 20, 2007)

I've been fishless cycling for a while and suggest it to newcomers on other forums. The silent cycle (planted) relies on a heavy stem plant load and adequate growing conditions. Not everyone is capable of this, especially newcomers to the aquarium hobby in general. Some of them might skim through a half hearted post discussing the silent cycle, then bring a couple 'plants in a can' home from Petco (which happen to be java fern and mondo grass), stick them in a 55gl with twenty fish and expect it to cycle immediately. No chance, this is my only gripe against the silent cycle, not enough people stress the ways to make it work properly when they mention it, and I often wonder if some of them even understand the nitrogen cycle in the first place. 

For those of us with MTS, cycling 'fish' tanks isn't an issue, we just seed the tank from another, or break in new filters on old tanks, etc etc. For the rest there are these options, cycling with fish and forgetting it, cycling with fish and test/ do daily water changes, seeding from another persons tank, fishless, or do the silent cycle the right way. The silent cycle is essentially the same as cycling a SW tank with cured live rock, you can't instantly cycle a SW tank without a certain amount of rock per gallon.

Regarding the OP, weird stuff can happen during a cycle and I would expect the "snot" to go away, eventually.


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## FishandTurtleJunkie (Apr 14, 2007)

Great source of info HEREI am not that familiar with the fishless cycling process but understand the theories behind it.

Short answer is I believe the algae is soaking up some of those nutrients. You are running the tank including the lights causing algae to have a field day. I would cut the lights until you get your plants in there, and then start with a 6 hour photo period, no longer.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

He has standard fluorescent lights that come with the tank, so they are pretty low wattage.


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