# Fungus



## aquarium kid (Nov 26, 2012)

Fungus is showing up on some of the roots in my emmersed set up. Its cottony fluff like threads that are growing on some of the above soil roots of some of the ludwigia. I flooded the tank and let it sit for a few hours because I've read thats what your supposed to do. Hopefully it gets rid of it. I think the fungus might have shown up from excessive misting so I will be stopping misting to see if that helps.


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

Are you absolutely positive it's a fungus? In high humidity (such as is produced by frequent misting), exposed roots will develop hairlike projections—they do so underground, as well, but you don't see them there and they tend to break easily when you uproot the plant. The tiny hairs serve a number of functions, including nutrient uptake and aiding the "navigation" of roots around underground obstacles like rocks. In short, fuzzy roots are generally healthy roots—unless they release spores or something when you poke them, I'd assume that to be the case and you should leave things alone. Watch the roots for a few days—if they don't die off or turn brown, it's nothing to worry about.

Besides which, IME soaking fungus is less likely to kill it off than a decrease in humidity is (though that may also dry up the aerial roots).


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## BadBob (Jun 4, 2011)

If I don't put Java moss on top of the soil I get fungus. 

I have used chlorine bleach solution to kill the fungus and then added the fave moss a few hours later In my case the fungus was very bad on some tiny crypts and probably would have killed them if I didn't get rid of it. They lived and no more fungus.


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## aquarium kid (Nov 26, 2012)

Yesterday I picked up some java moss from petco and while I was there I saw they had a dollar per gallon sale going. I came home with a 20 long which is now my emmersed tank. While I was there I also picked up a humidity gauge which says the tank is at 85% humidity, is this okay?

The fungus or whatever it was seems to be gone now and they plants seem to be very happy at the moment.


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

I'm pretty sure what you have is fungus. It looks like spider webs almost right? It's from misting too much or too high of a humidity, open up your top more. You really only need super high humidity for more delicate plants like downoi but those plants you're better off just growing them submersed. 

I've personally never tried the flooding method myself but it might work. Do not think you've gotten rid of it though, wait a week or so and it might be back. I used to just keep it at bay by unscrewing my mister cap so it shot a stream of water and just broke the fungus. It comes back later but it's a short term fix if your plant is trying to get established. With some of my other plants I just uprooted them and cleaned them, threw away the substrate that's afflicted and replanted. 

planting moss also helps a great deal since they release natural fungicides


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## aquarium kid (Nov 26, 2012)

So the stuff came back but I'm thinking it might be root hairs like asukawashere said. What ever it is it is only on the Ludwigia repens roots and seem to very ordered on the ones that there on. The plants seem healthy so I going to watch them for a few days and see what happens.

On a side note I've come across online stuff about making root tabs out of clay and dry ferts, to me this seems like it could be a good way to fertilize emerged plants with out burning them. What do you think?


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## king kong (Jul 2, 2012)

Symbiotic mycorrhiza fungi is a good thing if that is what it is....


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

I prefer once every other week diluted miracle gro (i.e. 1/4 strength) watering and some occasional foliar feeding for my plants—in between the doses of miracle gro I water with used tank water.  

Why don't you take a picture of your fuzz? We can better diagnose it if we can see it...


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

asukawashere said:


> Why don't you take a picture of your fuzz? We can better diagnose it if we can see it...


1 pic = 1,000 words


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## aquarium kid (Nov 26, 2012)

Sadly it looks like what ever it is has spread to a few leaves on ludwigia. 

I try to post some pics tommorow


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

There is a fungus that aggressively eats emersed plants. It happens when the container the plants are in is too wet. Reduce the water line until it is 2 inches below the surface of the soil. If you have standing water near the surface of the soil then you are at risk for developing this fungus.

It looks like spiderwebs, like this:


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

For my emersed tank, I actually don't even keep a water line. I put a layer of cut up sphagnum moss on the bottom and then cap with turface. i put enough water so that the turface is moist but there's no water line, the sphagnum moss layer holds all the water except sometimes parts of the dried sphagnum moss revives and starts growing up and pokes through the substrate again LOL, but it's a good thing because the moss cover provides natural fungicide.


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## aquarium kid (Nov 26, 2012)

I got some pictures and made some changes to my setup.










Here are some pictures of the white cottony stuff

































Some unhealthy leaves, any thoughts?

































Sword is doing well, putting up its third leaf in three days.









Some changes:


















Water level lowered









Computer fan hooked to 9v battery for some air flow


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## aquarium kid (Nov 26, 2012)

Also I had a question about soil, currently most of the pots in my setup use creekside topsoil and the plants seem to root pretty quickly in it. As an experiment I took some of the mineralized dirt I was planning to use for my tank when I set it up and put it in a cup. The Ludwigia I planted in it hasn't really grown but also hasn't died. It also doesn't seem to be developing roots. 

This made me suspicious, the dirt originally came from a big pile at our cabin. This pile was many years ago a big pile of pulled weeds but now has broken down into very sandy looking dirt. Could some residual pesticide be affecting the ludwigia's root growth?


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

The fungus looks like roots that are poking out of the soil.

The damaged leaves look like they have just dried out.

Submersed plants lose the wax cuticle that protects terrestrial plants from drying out in the air. When they are planted and exposed to the air they have no protection against drying out. Only the new growth will be protected as the plant incorporates a wax cuticle into the new leaves. Plants cannot modify/fix/heal older leaves, they can only modify buds.

It is possible there are still residual pesticides in the compost. But it is also possible that the plant just needs time to convert.

High organic content soils (like compost) aren't generally recommended for aquatic plants because they tend to rot when exposed to water. Rotting depletes oxygen from the soil and can damage roots and stems.


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

I second the above, and stick with my initial diagnosis of root hairs. Some plants just take longer to convert. Ludwigia species, IME, can be rather sensitive when going from submersed to emersed. Some degree of melt/leaf dieoff is to be expected. The aerial roots look very healthy, though, which is a good sign.


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## aquarium kid (Nov 26, 2012)

Thanks for the replies, it's a big relief to know that everyone looks ok.

Would it make sense to cut the old leaves off or should I leave them? Should I leave the fan in there?

Also the dirt from the cabin I was talking about has like no organics, before I mineralized it, it was pretty sandy and fine, now it pretty much looks like fine gray sand. When it's wet it has a slightly clay like texture.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

I'd just leave them on. I've never personally used a fan and never had issues. The idea with emersed tubs is set them up and forget about them for 2-3 months, then pop the lid open and realize that your plants have grown into monsters and you need to sell them for $$.

You don't need to mineralize soil for emersed tubs. That idea gained traction because it reduces the amount of organics in the soil which reduces the amount of rotting and ammonia released into the aquarium water. This in turn reduces algae. In emersed tubs algae can't grow on the plants, so you tend to want to keep the substrate rich in nutrients, and blast as much light as you can onto them since you don't have to worry about algae. Clay soils are not the best soils to use for any kind of plant, the clay binds to nutrients and doesn't release them easily. I personally use Scott's premium topsoil from the local Home Depot. I use it because it is cheap $2 for a 50 pound bag and it seems to have a decent balance between nice black earth and relatively low organics. Almost any topsoil will do except those with compost in them.


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## BadBob (Jun 4, 2011)

Zapins said:


> High organic content soils (like compost) aren't generally recommended for aquatic plants because they tend to rot when exposed to water. Rotting depletes oxygen from the soil and can damage roots and stems.


I make compost by the ton. I have six 4x4x4 bins cooking now and several more waiting for me to collect enough organic material.

Compost is organic matter that has already decomposed. If it rots it isn't compost.

I'm growing my plants in a mixture of mushroom compost and ground oak leaves. The plants love it.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

While compost may formally be known as fully digested plant material the simple fact is most of what is sold as or collected as compost is not fully digested.

This leaves a risk (not a guarantee) that the substrate will become anaerobic which frequently happens from what I've seen. 

That said, everyone is free to use whatever materials they like, but just like weekly water changes are recommended so too is it recommended that high organic content soils are avoided.


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## aquarium kid (Nov 26, 2012)

I wasn't clear, sorry for the confusion. 

The main dirt in my emersed tank is creekside brand topsoil. The mineralized stuff is what I am planning to use in my actual aquarium once I plant it. I made a pot in my emersed setup using the mineralized stuff to test it out.


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