Charles Gillen
October 21st 03, 05:12 AM
What could be growing on my tank rocks and ceramic decorations that is
yellow-brown in color, rather like French's yellow mustard when it has
dried? I thought algae was supposed to be green.
Background: 10 gal tank, 4 varied GF, plastic plants, assorted hard rocks.
The stuff appears primarily on a few very hard, smooth pebbles. New tank
started a few weeks ago with Bio-Spira; ammonia now near zero but nitrites
peaking. GF NOT eating the yellow-brown stuff. Tank glass and water very
clear. This stuff also appears on tips of plastic plants which protrude
above water level, and near the waterfall outlet of my small Eheim Liberty
HOT power filter, so I guess it likes oxygen. Doing 20 percent water
change daily during nitrite spike. pH about 7.2 or a bit more. No heater,
but temp averages 73 F.
Fish seem happy, and are fed very little every other day.
FYI, these Eheim Liberty HOT filters use a sponge as bio media, following
carbonized foam sheet supposed to handle both chemical and mechanical
filtration... perhaps not a good idea, so I I've modified the filter to use
cheap dacron floss, and added another floss container to increase the bio
area inside the tank. Hope to avoid having to buy expensive Eheim media in
future. My floss is doing fine job.
--
Anti-Spam address: my last name at his dot com
Charles Gillen -- Reston, Virginia, USA
yellow-brown in color, rather like French's yellow mustard when it has
dried? I thought algae was supposed to be green.
Background: 10 gal tank, 4 varied GF, plastic plants, assorted hard rocks.
The stuff appears primarily on a few very hard, smooth pebbles. New tank
started a few weeks ago with Bio-Spira; ammonia now near zero but nitrites
peaking. GF NOT eating the yellow-brown stuff. Tank glass and water very
clear. This stuff also appears on tips of plastic plants which protrude
above water level, and near the waterfall outlet of my small Eheim Liberty
HOT power filter, so I guess it likes oxygen. Doing 20 percent water
change daily during nitrite spike. pH about 7.2 or a bit more. No heater,
but temp averages 73 F.
Fish seem happy, and are fed very little every other day.
FYI, these Eheim Liberty HOT filters use a sponge as bio media, following
carbonized foam sheet supposed to handle both chemical and mechanical
filtration... perhaps not a good idea, so I I've modified the filter to use
cheap dacron floss, and added another floss container to increase the bio
area inside the tank. Hope to avoid having to buy expensive Eheim media in
future. My floss is doing fine job.
--
Anti-Spam address: my last name at his dot com
Charles Gillen -- Reston, Virginia, USA