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Whitish filaments, fuzzy wallpaper in quarantine tank

1017 Views 5 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  BMBLSAD, 
B
My quarantine tank looks a little bit like my house ;-) It developed some white filament thready things that looked like cobwebs about a week ago. I took a pipe cleaner and tried my best to remove by wrapping them around the cleaner. Now there's some fuzzy stuff growing on the walls that started out white but now looks more green. I attached a photo of the fuzzy walls but don't have a pic of the white filaments. Hope that helps.

Anyway, I have no fish in the quarantine tank. The 5.5g tank is cycled with an AQ 10 HOB and a heater. 1-2x per week I add a small amount of fish food to keep the cycle going and an occasional squirt of ThriveC (maybe every 10 days?). The water readings on Sept 24 were 8.4 pH (usually it's about 8.2), 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and 5 nitrates. About 2 weeks ago, I switched from an Aqueon 100533613 to a Nicrew HL3040 lite on the tank. It was after the light change things started to grow. But likely, it's the user of the lite, not the lite causing the issues.

I've been using the tank to quarantine plants as they come in. I put the plants in the quarantine tank for 1-2 weeks, then move them over to the my stocked tanks.

So my questions are these:
  1. What is this stuff that has started growing?
  2. Should I completely strip the tank and start over?
  3. Can I clean the plants currently in the quarantine tank so I can move them to one of the stocked tanks? Or am I just inviting trouble?

Advice appreciated.
Thanks,
Beth

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Michael
Welcome to APC!

I have no idea what is growing in your tank, LOL. But I bet one of our other members will.
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A
It's some type of algae/bacteria. Most of what you see is probably detritus sticking to the bacteria and causing it look like strings and clumps. Find a store that sells plants and ask if you can get some of their hitchhiker snails. Pond snails and bladder snails will eat that up and won't require any additional food unless you get too many. Nerite snails will also eat that but they might starve if you're not adding some veggies for them. That bacteria needs two things and that's light and nutrients for food. Cut the lights out when not in use to keep it from getting worse.
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Instead of adding fish food to keep it cycled. Buy the same size filter that you use on your other tank. When you need to quarantine a new fish. Just take the old filter from another tank and drop it in. Then you'll have an instantly cycled filter ready to handle the bio load of a new fish. Plus you won't have to deal with maintaining an empty tank. Throw it into storage until you need it next time.
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B
Super helpful! Thanks for the tips.

Am2020 said:
Pond snails and bladder snails will eat that up and won't require any additional food unless you get too many. Nerite snails will also eat that but they might starve if you're not adding some veggies for them.
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I've been looking for a reason to get another mystery snail. Rather than getting some hitchhikers, could a mystery help? I have 1 in my 29g and love her/him/it. I frequently feed zukes, algea wafers & greens to keep it/him/her happy so doing this in the quarantine tank is no problem. I also have 2 nirites but they are such introverts I never see them! while my mystery is out and about all the time. So would prefer a mystery if this is the kind of yuck they like to eat.
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Am2020 said:
Instead of adding fish food to keep it cycled. Buy the same size filter that you use on your other tank. When you need to quarantine a new fish. Just take the old filter from another tank and drop it in. Then you'll have an instantly cycled filter ready to handle the bio load of a new fish. Plus you won't have to deal with maintaining an empty tank. Throw it into storage until you need it next time.
Click to expand...
Great idea! Thanks! I'm always looking for a reason to get more fish stuff :)
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