# More "White Fuzz" on Plants!



## Chroe

Hey everybody...

I'm new to the forum, and have done a bit of searching around on the site for this topic, but still haven't quite found a definite answer or solution. ...great site by-the-way...

I have "white fuzz" on my plant leaves - both new growing tips as well as older leaves. The fuzz grows on all species of plants in my tank, but not on the rocks or driftwood. This is a recent development in my tank, and during the first "episode" I trimmed all visible "fuzz" covered leaves/plants and removed all that I could see. After a week or so, and several routine water changes later, it is coming back. If left alone, it appears to spread fairly quickly throughout the tank.

I am assuming it is a fungus, but what do I do to get rid of it? I am at the point right now that I don't think additional trimming will really help.

Here are the specifics of my tank:
-120gal
-Heavily planted, moderate fish load
-Temp = 78-80
-pH = 6.8ish (+/- depending on the water change cycle - but pretty constant)
-Hardness (kH) = 4 - 5 (variations due to water changes)
-CO2 injection
-Water changes = totals roughly 50 - 60% per week
-Intense fluorescent lighting at roughly 10 hours/day
-Minimal algae (other than routine glass film which is taken care of during water changes)
-I add liquid calcium for my snails (spiral substrate snails)
-I add liquid plant fertilizer from time to time (mostly iron) for leaf color/health

What I have tried so far:
-Trimming
-I just recently added aquarium salt

Any suggestions??????? ...I'm really open for any ideas. I will also try to post a couple of pics.

Thanks much for any help.

Chris


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## Chroe

Here are a couple of pics. ...I had to shrink them down, so hopefully the quality is still there to show the fuzz clearly.

The first pic shows one of my red temple plants with the fuzz on it. Although the center leaves show it clearly, if you look closely you can see a "haze" around other leaf edges - this is the fuzz in its early stages.

The second pic is a close-up of one of the leaves. Again, these pics only show the temples, but the fuzz is on bocapa, rotella, etc... and even on the newest of growing tips.

Thanks again for any help/suggestions!

Chris


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## Chroe

Well... I have news - and possibly a solution to my problem.

My wife did a web search on the possibilities of some sort of fungus, and stumbled on a thread somewhere about adding aquarium salt to the water (she is scary good when it comes to web searches). Now... I know that aquarium salt is supposed to be good for tanks and fish, but I'll be honest, I pretty much have never added it before. ...my fish have always been pretty healthy so I never thought about it.

Well...as I stated in my last post with the pictures, I recently added aquarium salt (the morning I posted the pics, and at a dosage as generally prescribed on the carton) as a "what the heck - why not" treatment before I tried chemicals. After being gone all day today, I came home to find nearly 100% of the "white fuzz" gone. I only have a few leaves with - what appears to be - the last dying bits of the stuff clinging on. My guess is that by tomorrow, it should all be gone.

I see that a number of folks checked this post over the past couple of days, so for those that check back in, I'm quickly becoming a believer in adding salt. Now my question is... has anyone ever had any PROBLEMS with adding aquarium salt????

Chris


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## shoteh

I might try this on mine too. My algae is rhizoclonium. How much did you use? and any specific kinds?


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## Chroe

This is not an endorsement of the product/company - just a statement of what I used...

It was Dr. Wellfish's Aquarium Salt, and I simply followed the recommended "one rounded tablespoon per 5 gallons" prescription.

This morning it looks like there are a couple of leaves that still have a little fuzz hanging on, so my plan is to do another water change, trim the last couple of leaves, re-salt the tank as prescribed, and see what happens.

Good luck with your effort.

Chris


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## hoppycalif

I have never used aquarium salt, except when I was trying saltwater, then brackish water fish. This is interesting! I'm not at all sure what the white stuff you had was, since I have never seen it, nor read about it before. I wonder how the salt could have an effect.


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## Chroe

Well.... I may have spoken too soon. We'll see.

The white fuzz is definitely reduced, but it is still hanging in there on some leaves. Now the problem is that a bunch of my temple leaves are falling off, and I now have staghorn algae popping up!!!!

I have no idea what the %&#[email protected]*& is going on... I went from a GREAT looking tank, to this in a matter of 10 days! We'll see... I'm off to do a water change...

Chris


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## mtoler820

I also have this "white fuzz" it looks like on several of my plants and seems to be spreading. I first noticed it on 1 plant a few days ago and I reached in the tank and just pulled it off the leave and it was just slimey, really didn't think much of it but today after studying my tank I began to notice a bunch more and I (again) started reaching in and pulling out what I could where it had clumped up pretty good on some of the leaves. I took several pictures but only managed to get one that was focused enough to share here. Take a loof to the left of the two large stalks on this Water Wisteria, (link below) just to the left and on the leaves you can see a white blob, that is whats spreading.










Assuming it is fungus of some sort I have also added Aquarium Salt and I also picked up a bottle of Mardel Maroxy, it says it's for True fungal infections of fish & eggs, I'm hoping it will (or the salt) clear this up in my tank.

If anyone has any other ideas that I might try, I'm all ears! My worry is that whatever this is will consume my plants to an extent that they will not be able to recover fully resulting in a major prune back which I would hate to have to do again.


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## shoteh

Keep us updated. Mine looks similar to that only that it's like 10x's worse. I'm gonna try the H2o2 method tomorrow to see if it helps at all.


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## mtoler820

After adding the Mardel Maroxy, my tank seemed to really be unaffected and even had MORE of this fungus. I picked up a bottle of "Fungus Eliminator" made by Jungle Labs ( www.junglelabs.com ) and this morning there is "less" of this fungus in my tank. It's not completely gone but it definately seems like it's being effected. The bottle says to dose again if needed after 4 days and perform a 25% water change prior to dosing. 
Normally wouldn't post about this till it's definately worked but wanted to let those of you know what seems to be working for me at least so perhaps if your situation isn't improving you may try it too. I have had no adverse effects to my plants or fish using this product either (so far) although it does say "Some live plants may be sensitive to this product" on th bottle. 
It will turn your water yellow (fair warning) but will dissapate over night.


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## Chroe

I'm sad to see I'm not the only one with this crudd!

I, too, decided to go ahead and chemically treat with a fungicide. I used Fungus Cure from API... Although the straight aquarium salt knocked it back for about a day after initial treatment, it jumped right back. Plus, I didn't find out until a little later that for planted tanks, you don't want to use a "full" dosing of salt - you need to keep it about have the recommended dose or less (i.e. no more than about 1/2 Tbs./gal) otherwise your plants will suffer.

I am at the end of the recommended two treatments - each 48 hours - and will be doing a water change after I finish this post. While it seems it put a significant hurt on the fuzz, I can still see a few small areas holding on. ...I'll know how much was able to hold on when I get the water cleared out a little more. 

This stuff is unreal - hopefully one of us (or another viewer) will stumble onto the cause/cure for this stuff!

Chris


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## mtoler820

I ended up getting a slight tank leak and ended up buying another tank all together, however during this (worst case scenario) process I decided to go ahead and literally "wash" the fuzz off my plants. I used a 25% bleach to water solution and set the plants in there for about 4 minutes. 
I then rinsed them under tap water for a minute and then placed them in a tub of fresh water to "soak" for about 5 minutes. I took this time to clean some of the seriously effected plants with a toothe brush and again rinse under regular cold tap water. Some of my plants required some pruning and others were so full of this "slimey fuzz" that I just ended up getting rid of them. 
After this I placed them all in a 5 gal pail of dechlorinated water and let them soak for about 15 minutes before placing them back in the tank. My water wisteria didn't hold up well at all, however my water sprite seems as if there were never an issue. My swords are as if they never went through any ordeal at all. If you have thick stemmed hearty plants and nothing else works this may be a solution, however I will admit I am not so sure I would have gone this far had my tank itself not started leaking on the floor. :heh:
As far as "what" this stuff is I have no idea, I am assuming it's some sort of a fungus and many say it sounds similar to what happens if you over feed but I am almost certain this is not the case because I at no point seen this "fungus" growing anywhere but on the plants themselves. 
I'm monitoring my plants and studying the tank daily to see if this stuff pops back up, right now everything looks good. Be sure and post results though about what comes of your "treatments".


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## MartialTheory

That looks like yeast. When I use to use DIY co2, sometimes by accident i would get the yeast water into my tanks. The next day I would find that kind of white fuzz on my plants.

So I just took out the plants and dipped it in some hydrogen peroxide for less than a minute or so. Then in a few days, gone. Hope that helps.


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## Chroe

Hope your efforts pay off! I went ahead and did a full treatment of fungicide, water changes, and another hearty trim, so we'll see how that goes. So far so good. I pulled my rocks out and nuked them in a bleach dip (they were just starting to get some nasty algae as well), and really siphoned the gravel well - so hopefully that provides added help. We'll see.

Chris


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## shoteh

MartialT- It could be yeast for other but not for mine since I don't use DIY, though I have in the past and know that they both look alike.

Chroe- I almost tried fungicide but was scared that it might hurt any shrimp that I have or will have in the future so I didnt try it, but let us know updates.

mtoler820- I tried bleach and it killed the algae as well as most of my plants I tried with it. A lot of the algae was found on the ground so I couldnt really bleach that.

Here's some updates on mine.
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...c-problems/49088-help-identify-algae-pix.html


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## invertedclack

I really do not no much about the white algae or fungus, but doesn't fungus only grow on dead things? It if is on plants (ie. living matter), I wouldn't think it would be a fungus, but more likely algae that appears white based on the lighting of the tank.


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## mtoler820

I am not sure what exactly it is but I am noticing it "slightly" with my new tank now too. I was wondering if perhaps it was something to do with a "new tank" type syndrome but that wouldn't make sense since my other aquarium had been established for some time. However here is what I have come up with since setting up my newest tank.
60 Gal tank (lightly planted)
EcoComplete substrate 70 lbs
1.8 WPG ( yesterday upgraded to 6.12 WPG)
Pressurized Co2 (Indicator is always green and I dont shut it off @ night)
30 varioius Tetra's
Fluval 4 In-tank Filter
Over back of tank Bio Filter

I originally setup the tank with the NEW substraight (didn't use the old gravel at all) I added the reccommended dosage of Aquarium Salt, treated it with a bacteria suppliment, added a little Floyurish Excell & the regular Flourish Plant Suppliment according to bottle dosage reccommendations. Within days I noticed a Algae bloom starting (green water) and did a 25% water change, followed by a 40% water change the following day. The tank seemed to clear up and was fine. I didn't add anymore nutrients during the water cycles because I figured I had probably already had too much nutrients in my water with the EcoComplete and few plants. I have not (about a week now) added anymore plant suppliment and have done regular water cycles of 50% weekly and sometimes during the week I would remove about 5 gallons and replace it. I'm seeing an increased amount of "waste" I assume from the fish in my gravel that the plants are unable to use and I am HOPING that this will stabalize when my new plants arrive. I ordered a 48 plant assortment online and am just waiting for them to arrive. Back to my hypothesis here with setting up the new tank, and all of the problems I had with the last is this.... Is all of this possibly resulting from my tank of been to "rich" having excess nutrients? 
Is there another avenue I could persue? I am starting to see very fine pieces of this "FUZZ" again on some of my fine "hair like" plants and it's definately white. I have recently treated my tank with a algae remover just incase this stuff is algae but my gut says it is not.
Looking back, I also noticed this stuff pop up after I had heavily pruned back my plants and performed a mojor water change after algae got out of control in my first tank. This makes me wonder if the initial cause might have been nutrient related.
Any ideas are welcomed, I'm hesitant with adding my new plants if this stuff is going to consume them too, and washing EcoComplete in bleach just doesn't seem logical, or I would start from scratch and not add supplimnets at all till the plants asked for them.


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## Amazon_Replica

I'm glad to say I have not come across this issue. But I am interested to see what it turns out to be, So I will know if I see it lol.

Hope it works out sooner than later for you guys.


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## mtoler820

invertedclack said:


> I really do not no much about the white algae or fungus, but doesn't fungus only grow on dead things? It if is on plants (ie. living matter), I wouldn't think it would be a fungus, but more likely algae that appears white based on the lighting of the tank.


I believe I have figured out what my problem is. I think the scenario I am experiencing is directly related to hard water, and the Co2 enrichment somewhat. I have been using pressurized C02 for about a month and after setting it up (used to use yeast setup) I started noticing this "fuzz" much more. After several conversations with my LFS I bought the Mardel 5 in 1 test strips which enabled me to take water hardness tests as well. Previously I had only tested for Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, and PH which comes with the API Master Test Kit. 
After testing my water I found out that the water hardness was in excess of 425 ppm and the Alkalinity / Buffering capacity was indicating it was between the 240 - 300 colors on the test strip. I did some searching online in google and found this:
_"The reason your plants are degenerating is the hard water. When the water has a high ph and is hard, nutrients don't stay in the water long enough for the plants to use them. They evaporate out quickly and the plants are unable to use the nutrients. So making the ph and the water softer is the first steps in a successful planted aquarium."_
I now am starting to think that perhaps the water is too hard for the majority of my stemmed plants and they are unable to properly feed from there roots, eventually they start decaying and with my lighting and C02 enrichment the tank is growing all kinds of this "fuzz" because essentially while many of my plant leaves are able to pull some nutrients out of the water itself the plant stems / roots are decaying & dead enabling this fungus growth and explaining why nothing I try seems to really work.
I'm going to try purchasing 20 gallons of RO water from my LFS and completely setting up my tank all over. I have a 55 Gal tank I will add some RO water too and place the plants in my existing tank in there to see how they do over the next couple weeks and if they show signs of clearing up and coming back I will add them to the tank again. Otherwise I'm going to give in and start over with new plants and a completely new setup using RO water. I'm going down to my LFS today to order a RO filter today and start the process of genuinely softening my water.
Seems the fish are able to adapt to the harder water where allot of my plants are not. After the decay sets in with the plants that cannot handle the hard water this white stuff starts growing and eventually contaminating everything. Water changes make the tank "look" decent but the problem, at least for me (I believe) is the water itself.
Has anyone else heard of this before? Does this sound like a plausible cause for what is happening?
I've been trying to treat the "fuzz" when I'm starting to think the original issue started with the water itself.


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## Amazon_Replica

Desert Hot Springs? doesn't your water come from an uderground aquifer? I guess that could make for a bad day as far as hardness. Are you going organic or synthetic RO? Organic lasts longer, but synthetic works harder. Just wondering. Hope it helps. Be sure to let us know


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## mtoler820

Not sure really, I've looked at a few online and will see what is available locally. I don't have a preference really as long as my water's good and the problem goes away I'll be happy. I will definitely update after a few weeks and let everyone know what turns out, at least for my case.


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## Chroe

Well... the chemical treatment helped get rid of most of the stuff, but never all of it, and now a few leaves have a slight amount of the fuzz coming back.

Regarding the other posts:
1) It _HAS_ to be something to do with nutrients in the water and the aquarium's ability to cycle through them properly. The problem is, I've done everything I could think of (until now) to get it stabilized and functioning correctly - I've had great aquariums for years, so I THINK I know what I'm doing - maybe not! 

My thought right now is that my aquarium has so many plants that are so dense, that it is tough to clean the gravel underneath and behind them. I have to assume that I have so much dead plant material decaying in and behind the plants - along with fish poo - that my water changes and "easy" gravel cleaning aren't even close to keeping up with the nutrients being released into the water. When I did my last cleaning, I pushed a good number of the plants aside and cleaned out from under them and was horrified at the crap I pulled out!

My solution now is going to be this - tear down the tank, dip the plants and rocks, thoroughly clean out the gravel (not completely wash it, however, to try and keep the bacteria), and re-plant in a less dense, easier-to-clean fashion, and then see what happens.

2) I know my water is REALLY soft - so hard water isn't the problem in my tank at least.

3) So far the chemicals didn't kill off my snails, so I'm not sure about any shrimp. You'd be wise, however, to pull them before any treatment, however.

I'll keep you posted on how things go, and I appreciate all the other posts as well. Good luck!


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## ImHooked

Chris-
I also have this white fuzz growing on my plants (not on anything else) it seems to be on only wider leaved plants, like my swords and cardinal lobelia leaves...I did take pictures...(I dont know how to post them though?)
I have similar tank specs to yours:
55 gallon
heavily planted 
fairly heavy fish load
temp is 78-79
hardness 7 (both GH and KH)
pH 6.8 ish
CO2 injection
30% water changes weekly
intese fluoresent lighting @6 wpg on for 10 hours daily
Im adding Seachem Potassium weekly, and was adding flourish and iron, but this problem started, and so I stopped all but potassium, and undergravel plants pellets for the swords.
I cant find any info on what this white filmy fuzz is?????
I think this weekend Im going to brush it off with a toothbrush and cut off any real bad leaves...I'll keep you posted.
Please keep me posted too. I really hate to use any type of chemicals in my tank, I really dont even want to use salt.
-Tara


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## ImHooked

This thread seems to have withered away, but for anyone checking back, I just wanted to let everyone know, that my white fuzz problem has been "cured" now for a month at least. At first I tried cleaning it out by pruning out as many affected plant leaves as possible, and doing a large water change, then I noticed a few days later, this fuzz had moved to my driftwood (total engulfing it) and also continued on some plants...I noticed that my Crossochielus siamensis (siamese algae eater) was eating it, but he couldnt keep up with its growth, I had a Golden Algae eater who keep things sparkling in another aquarium that I moved over to this one...and within 1 week all of this stuff is GONE. No chemicals!


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## fastang80

Nice thread. Very informative.


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## mtoler820

Well I have had enough time go bye now I have had to prune back my tanks a few times and periodically I do still get some of this "fuzz" but nothing like what I was experiencing before. I have noticed that is I let my Co2 get too high it does seem to increase whatever this is. I havent seen anything like what I had experienced in the past however and havent had to break the tank down since that last time. 
My biggest issue it seems now is algae, I've got algae growing on my gravel and tank glass, I scrub it and vacuum what I can but it's a weekly chore. Anyways not going to get this off topic.

I never figured out what the white Fuzz was but for the most part it's gone, and when I see anything resembling it I pull it out immediately.


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## ultraviolet

I'm new to the hobby - and my google search for "white fuzz algae aquatic plants" led me to this thread. Did anyone determine if hard water is the core of the issue? My plants' roots & stems seem healthy otherwise, so I'm not sure about the decaying hypothesis in my case. The fuzz is in my 5gal hex with a betta & frog who eat pretty protein-rich food, planted with two broad pinnate leaf "sword" like plants - one green, one variegated, and a small clone of a multi-leafed plant that my goldfish find tasty. (please excuse my ignorance on what they are called). The tank gets roughly 50% water changes per week. The fuzz is non-existent in my 55gal. I have occasionally let my pleco have a holiday in this small tank to control any algae, but he's grown too big for that and my betta wont tolerate any other algae eaters (he chases anything that runs). The fuzz has appeared since the pleco has not been allowed back to feast. My frog wont tolerate much salt, and I'm hesitant to chemically treat the water unless I know for sure exactly what I'm treating and exactly what I'm treating it with. Did any of you figure out what works BEST with this? I can't tell from all the different methods tried what the deciding factor was?
Thanks!!


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## CRS Fan

I've been battling this stuff for weeks in 29 gallon, moderately planted, high light, and pressurized CO2 injected tank with a extremely soft/acidic water supply. This seems to happen in my tanks using Eco-Complete. So this is what I did:


I took out all plants and hardscape and gave them a thorough rinsing in tap water. 
Our municipal water provider replied to a friend saying that this can happen when additional sulphates end up in the water supply (they said this was not initiated by any addition they had made). 
I gravel washed all my substrate (a half/half mixture of 1 year old Flourite Black and brand new Eco-Complete) and in the process I did a 80 - 85% water change. 
 I also added a 24W UV sterilizer to assist in water clarity (my water has always been crystal clear before this incident). 
When rinsing the sponges within my Eheim 2234, both the fine and coarse sponges were completely engulfed with a clear gelatinous mass (they looked like they were dipped in gelatin and set) ! 
I also added 3 large Mountain Fan Shrimp and these guys will also thoroughly rake and filter through substrate surfaces and plants (including Flame Moss, Mini Pelia, US Fissedens, and Mermaid weed).

I have not really noticed a resurgeance of the issue since doing the major overhaul of my system. I just wanted to share my experience.

Best Regards,

Stuart


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## flyboy320

I have just stared to notice this white fuzz growing on some of my plants, and I came across this thread. I'm wondering if it's the same thing?


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