# New tank, diatoms and wood fungus.



## Tanan (Mar 11, 2009)

Hi everyone.
My new 55G is up since 3 weeks. It has 3 big pieces of wood one of which is growing fungus. There is also diatom bloom. The tank had a lot of emersed plants die and melt away. I tried doing lots of water changes but couldn't siphon of all the dead plants mostly because of wood and hairgrass. The tank has some 55 x 3W bridgelux leds, pressurized co2 and regular ferts. I am doing 3 day 50% water changes. Havent tried to manually remove fungus yet as I am hoping my 90 herliquin rasboras and 4 sterbai corys would eat it. Till now none has shown any interest in it. I cant dose H2O2 because of the bucephalandras I've in tank.


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Mar 7, 2008)

Hi Tanan,

If you can find any Otocinclus catfish species in your area they eat diatoms like they are candy. As for wood fungus, I am pretty sure either my Corydoras or Siamese Algae Eater (Crossocheilus species) ate it but it took a couple of weeks.


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## Tanan (Mar 11, 2009)

That's the problem. No algae eating fish available here. Not even bristlenoses. I have one nerite snail doing the algae eating. I do have a large bronze corydoras, but he eats less algae and makes more of a mess uprooting my plants. I am thinking about Khuli loaches or getting some platties/swordtails. The problem is getting them out of the tank once there is no algae. Also khulies keep uprooting my plant cuttings.


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## Bluefin (Oct 29, 2014)

the diatoms go away after awhile.its usual in a new setup tank. ive seen the wood fungus before in another tank and it didnt seems to do the fish any harm. why dont you take the wood out and boil it?


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