Fuzzy growth in aquarium

kitcatz

Hi, my aquarium has been set up a few weeks now. I got two fish over a week ago. I did a 25% water change yesterday and today there is fuzzy growth all over the driftwood and some leaves on plants. I'm worried that it could be dangerous for the fish. Does anyone know if its algae and what the best thing to do. Im going to remove one of the plants that the leaves had been dying (i had taken the leaves off) and ill clean the filter. Thanks for any advice

Ryath

Don't think you need to worry about it being harmful to the fish pretty certain it's driftwood fungus. It will go away in time. Just clean it of before doing a water change. If you can you could take the wood out and boil it in water.

Currently have it my self in my new tank. My wood dwarfed my largest 10lt pot. Scrubbed it and poured boiling water over it but it wasn't enough had a coating all over the wood after a week. Cleaned it but was back in two days. Thought I'd be battling for a while but luckily some of my Panda Cories have taken a liking to it so a lot of it is now gone!

What's your set up? Tank size and filter? Extra water changes in first few weeks are a good idea. You might not need to clean the filter yet unless the flow is reduced and better not to clean it on the same day as a water change, few days away is best.

Plants take a while to get used to growing submerged and to different water parameters. Just trim the dead leaves. It hopefully recover. What are the plants and what substrate are the planted in. Easiest plants for beginners are one like anubias and java fern that you just tie or glue to stone or wood.

One particular dwarf crypt I planted in the new tank most of the leaves melted and died over the first 10 days or so, a week later nearly as many new leaves have grown back. I've learned a lot from my old tank and researched a lot. Have a good soil substrate, using liquid fertiliser and liquid CO2 daily and much better lights now for the new aquarium.

They're is a lot to learn starting out and we all make mistakes. Wait till you start battling different types of algae blooms!. Most important thing is to do regular water changes.

kitcatz

Thanks for your reply Ryath. You've been very helpful. I was in a bit of a panic yesterday evening...I was googling what it could be, I came across forums where people said their fish had died because of algae, I didn't know if this could be the same. So it could be from the driftwood..I soaked it in boiling water when I first got it I did what you said not to do I did another bit of a water change last night and cleaned the filter (swished it about in removed aquarium water) and also the pad inside. I hope I haven't messed things up more by doing this.

I think I'll have to get a panda cory to help clean up. I read they're best kept in groups though I got a male and female boeasmanni rainbow fish, I was advised that they're good to start with as they're peaceful and hardy.

It's a 58 litre aquarium (wish it was bigger now, as I've read tank size for rainbow fish should be at least 4 feet in length) with a ciano cf80 filter. Sand, driftwood, yes, I have anubias, I like that.
Alteranthera reineckii rot - this is the one where the leaves died, but hopefully, like yours, it might grow back as there are still some little/new leaves. Though I think it's not a beginners plant and needs co2
Eleocharis viviparous - a grassy plant
Echindorus ocelot green - I'm not too fond of this, I think the leaves are too big and take up too much space.
Also some type of moss that I removed a lot of as it looked awful and seems to get covered in sand
Marino moss ball
I ordered duckweed online, I've read it's good for oxygenating and controlling algae, but it takes over too so I saw you can make a circle out of tubing to contain it.
I'm thinking of getting Egeria densa, I've read it's good, but might take over too much.
Yeah, I bought liquid fertiliser too, was worried that could have caused the fluffy growth and you say you use co2, maybe I should find out about getting that.
I've ordered an api master test, I'll wait a few weeks, hopefully the levels will be ok, hoping to get a few male guppies.
Thanks for all your help!

kitcatz

This is it..