Surface algae

[NetMax]

Does anyone have any experience with this? It's like a very fine
grey-green powder floating on the water surface. It appears quite dense,
making very interesting patterns (grey-green swirls) when pushed by the
filter output. If I touch my finger to the surface, it immediately pulls
away leaving a clearing about 4" in diameter, so it's not very thick.

I'm not necessarily looking for a way to get rid of it as most of these
funky algaes come & go without any intervention from me, but I was trying
to collect some info, as I haven't seen this stuff mentioned before. TIA
--
www.NetMax.tk

[Cichlidiot]

In alt.aquaria NetMax > wrote:
> Does anyone have any experience with this? It's like a very fine
> grey-green powder floating on the water surface. It appears quite dense,
> making very interesting patterns (grey-green swirls) when pushed by the
> filter output. If I touch my finger to the surface, it immediately pulls
> away leaving a clearing about 4" in diameter, so it's not very thick.

> I'm not necessarily looking for a way to get rid of it as most of these
> funky algaes come & go without any intervention from me, but I was trying
> to collect some info, as I haven't seen this stuff mentioned before. TIA

I have something akin to that on some of my tanks. It seems to only
develop around floating leaves or protein films in my tanks and even
strong surface agitation only moderately deters it. I swear we get every
kind of algae problem here locally because of the fertilizer runoff in the
tap water. I think it might be a kind of cyanobacteria. In my tanks where
it has something to latch onto on the surface, like floating leaves, if
left unremoved, it will grow into something akin to pond scum. Slimey,
lots of air bubbles with a yellow-green color. I get it most often in the
back of my 30 breeder among the floating val leaves because it's a bit
harder to see that far back into the tank with the stand its in so I
usually don't notice it until it starts cutting the light back a bit. Just
pulled a bunch of it out of that tank last night actually. Very strong
smelling too.

[NetMax]

"Cichlidiot" > wrote in message
...
> In alt.aquaria NetMax > wrote:
>> Does anyone have any experience with this? It's like a very fine
>> grey-green powder floating on the water surface. It appears quite
>> dense,
>> making very interesting patterns (grey-green swirls) when pushed by
>> the
>> filter output. If I touch my finger to the surface, it immediately
>> pulls
>> away leaving a clearing about 4" in diameter, so it's not very thick.
>
>> I'm not necessarily looking for a way to get rid of it as most of
>> these
>> funky algaes come & go without any intervention from me, but I was
>> trying
>> to collect some info, as I haven't seen this stuff mentioned before.
>> TIA
>
> I have something akin to that on some of my tanks. It seems to only
> develop around floating leaves or protein films in my tanks and even
> strong surface agitation only moderately deters it. I swear we get
> every
> kind of algae problem here locally because of the fertilizer runoff in
> the
> tap water. I think it might be a kind of cyanobacteria. In my tanks
> where
> it has something to latch onto on the surface, like floating leaves, if
> left unremoved, it will grow into something akin to pond scum. Slimey,
> lots of air bubbles with a yellow-green color. I get it most often in
> the
> back of my 30 breeder among the floating val leaves because it's a bit
> harder to see that far back into the tank with the stand its in so I
> usually don't notice it until it starts cutting the light back a bit.
> Just
> pulled a bunch of it out of that tank last night actually. Very strong
> smelling too.

Doesn't sound like the same stuff. I've had the stuff you are
describing. This one is more like grey-green drywall dust floating on
the surface. I don't think it builds up in a film. During a water
change, I can get some of it to attach to the glass, and then it clumps
up a bit, with a yellow-green color. Sort of like the floating version
of the single-cell bloom of algae spores, but since I can see the algae
plants as dots, it must be multi-cellular. It's new to me. Maybe I need
to add a molly to this tank.
--
www.NetMax.tk

[C+J Tondreau]

It almost sounds like a mold, doesn't it?

Jacqui

"NetMax" > wrote in message
...
> Does anyone have any experience with this? It's like a very fine
> grey-green powder floating on the water surface. It appears quite dense,
> making very interesting patterns (grey-green swirls) when pushed by the
> filter output. If I touch my finger to the surface, it immediately pulls
> away leaving a clearing about 4" in diameter, so it's not very thick.
>
> I'm not necessarily looking for a way to get rid of it as most of these
> funky algaes come & go without any intervention from me, but I was trying
> to collect some info, as I haven't seen this stuff mentioned before. TIA
> --
> www.NetMax.tk
>
>

[NetMax]

Perhaps, aren't molds a type of fungus? What would it be feeding off,
the protein layer on the surface?
--
www.NetMax.tk

"C+J Tondreau" > wrote in message
. ..
> It almost sounds like a mold, doesn't it?
>
> Jacqui
>
> "NetMax" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Does anyone have any experience with this? It's like a very fine
>> grey-green powder floating on the water surface. It appears quite
>> dense,
>> making very interesting patterns (grey-green swirls) when pushed by
>> the
>> filter output. If I touch my finger to the surface, it immediately
>> pulls
>> away leaving a clearing about 4" in diameter, so it's not very thick.
>>
>> I'm not necessarily looking for a way to get rid of it as most of
>> these
>> funky algaes come & go without any intervention from me, but I was
>> trying
>> to collect some info, as I haven't seen this stuff mentioned before.
>> TIA
>> --
>> www.NetMax.tk
>>
>>
>
>

[NetMax]

"NetMax" > wrote in message
...
> "Frankrkay" > wrote in message
> ...
>> >"NetMax" wrote;
>>
>> >Perhaps, aren't molds a type of fungus? What would it be feeding
>> >off,
>> >the protein layer on the surface?
>>
>> I was also thinking along the same line. Slime Mold (Myxomycetes) -
> harmless,
>> eats bacteria on rotting organic matter (protein layer on the
>> surface).
>> I ran into it a few years back - started on the surface of an outside
> pond....
>> Frank
>
> I often let algae run its course (it runs into some constraint and dies
> off,
> or levels to an acceptable growth.). In this case I'm making an
> exception,
> because it looks so disconcerting. The green-silver-grey dusty look
> making
> swirls in the surface just doesn't look very appealing. I'm going to
> radically change its environment to see if I can shock it out. The
> lights
> have been unplugged, so from 2.4wpg to almost zero. Lets see what it
> looks
> like after a few days.
> --
> www.NetMax.tk


Quick update, I left the tank in almost blackout conditions for 11 days,
and the surface algae/mold has vanished. It probably cleared itself
faster, but I like to be sure when I'm dealing with easy to hide single
cell organisms ;~). None of my plants seem to have suffered from the
blackout, and paradoxically my Echinodorous tennellus seems to have even
thrived a bit. The fish are all quite enthusiastic about the lights
being back on (picture a dozen Monos going back and forth across the
front of the tank like an excited and tireless puppy). Thanks for
everyone's comments.
--
www.NetMax.tk