What the heck and how to get rid of it?

Just noticed this brown copper color on my fake plants and decor. What the heck is is and how do I get rid of it? On side note - the platys have been picking at it and I was about to do a 20% water change.

kimsamsian said:

Just noticed this brown copper color on my fake plants and decor. What the heck is is and how do I get rid of it? On side note - the platys have been picking at it and I was about to do a 20% water change.

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Could be algae?
The best way to get rid of gunk on fake plants is to not get fake plants at all and get real ones instead.
Buuut, if we're assuming it's algae, then you could try and scrub it off with a toothbrush or something. Having a good cleanup crew for the tank is always good, too.

Fairly new tank?

Diatoms. Very common to get an outbreak when a tank is pretty new, cleaning, let the fish eat it, do water changes, and this too shall pass! Just a developing ecosystem

Yeah almost certainly the diatom outbreak that almost every new tank gets. It's fine... possibly even considered "good". It's a sign that your tank is getting cycled and is no longer sterile.

chkltcow said:

Yeah almost certainly the diatom outbreak that almost every new tank gets. It's fine... possibly even considered "good". It's a sign that your tank is getting cycled and is no longer sterile.

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Thank you! It's interesting that this tank has been up and going since early December. I do know something wiped out all my good bacteria and I've had to use AquaVitro Seed to help kick start everything again. I'm just now showing Nitrates again.

chkltcow said:

Yeah almost certainly the diatom outbreak that almost every new tank gets. It's fine... possibly even considered "good". It's a sign that your tank is getting cycled and is no longer sterile.

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I would use live plants but I keep killing them. Until I can sit down and look at my water and light perimeters then determine the best ones AND how to appropriately place them in the tank (in substrate or tied to something) fake will have to do. I did set this tank up with the Seachem planted substrate below my sand.

kimsamsian said:

Thank you! It's interesting that this tank has been up and going since early December. I do know something wiped out all my good bacteria and I've had to use AquaVitro Seed to help kick start everything again. I'm just now showing Nitrates again.

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The tank re-set might have done it But even without that, a tank set up in December is still pretty new, in aquarium terms. It takes time for a tank to cycle, and takes even longer for it to become what people call established. It tends to be easier to get properly established as a mini ecosystem with live plants, a while longer with only fake.

For example, when one of my planted tanks had a lot of the beneficial bacteria wiped out by a round of antibiotic medicine, the heavy planting did a lot of heavy lifting, sucking up ammonia, so the mini cycle was much less severe and passed much more quickly than the mini cycle in my much less planted tank. I guess they provide more surface area for beneficial bacteria to live on, but also because they were soaking up a lot of the plant waste, the tank was much less dependent on the filter. A lot of people also use plants to cycle the tank entirely, called a silent cycle.

Does it count if I stuck my pothos plant roots in it LOL I do have a smaller tank that I will be working with one of the leading aquascaping people (out of Texas). I thought if I started small then could get up the nerve on the 75g.

kimsamsian said:

Does it count if I stuck my pothos plant roots in it LOL I do have a smaller tank that I will be working with one of the leading aquascaping people (out of Texas). I thought if I started small then could get up the nerve on the 75g.

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We will lure you into becoming a planted tank nut in no time!

There are loads of easy beginner plants you could start with to build your confidence! The mosses are easy, java fern (both best attached to decor/wood/stone) are a classic. Any variety of crypt is good, as long as you don't panic and rip them up if you experience crypt melt, since they'll come back even if they've no leaves left and it's only roots remaining.

Lots of easy stem plants that don't need anything fancy, and can either be planted or just thrown in the tank and left floating. Buy a bunch of anacharis, guppy grass, water wisteria, or hornwort, and you can literally just put it floating in the tank and watch it grow at a rate of knots.

Join us planted folk! You know you want to

kimsamsian said:

I would use live plants but I keep killing them. Until I can sit down and look at my water and light perimeters then determine the best ones AND how to appropriately place them in the tank (in substrate or tied to something) fake will have to do. I did set this tank up with the Seachem planted substrate below my sand.

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Anubias Nana and Java Ferns are almost impossible to screw up. I've had a couple Java ferns sitting in a 2g aquarium in the corner of my kitchen with no light for YEARS and they're still alive. I pulled one out and put it in the tank I set up a few months ago and it was growing happily, until I decided I didn't like it and tossed it back in the plant jail. Dad had Anubias Nana in his 75g tank that has been without fish (but full of water) for the past 8-9 years probably. It was maybe getting a tiny trickle of sunlight coming in through the blinds. We set his tank back up in January and that stuff is growing like crazy now. If you want to start with plants and don't know anything about what you're doing, those two are the easy button.

chkltcow said:

Anubias Nana and Java Ferns are almost impossible to screw up. I've had a couple Java ferns sitting in a 2g aquarium in the corner of my kitchen with no light for YEARS and they're still alive. I pulled one out and put it in the tank I set up a few months ago and it was growing happily, until I decided I didn't like it and tossed it back in the plant jail. Dad had Anubias Nana in his 75g tank that has been without fish (but full of water) for the past 8-9 years probably. It was maybe getting a tiny trickle of sunlight coming in through the blinds. We set his tank back up in January and that stuff is growing like crazy now. If you want to start with plants and don't know anything about what you're doing, those two are the easy button.

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Yon won! Went to the darkside..Well, a toe anyway. Sent you a chat but it wouldn't let me upload the picture.

AdoraBelle Dearheart said:

We will lure you into becoming a planted tank nut in no time!

There are loads of easy beginner plants you could start with to build your confidence! The mosses are easy, java fern (both best attached to decor/wood/stone) are a classic. Any variety of crypt is good, as long as you don't panic and rip them up if you experience crypt melt, since they'll come back even if they've no leaves left and it's only roots remaining.

Lots of easy stem plants that don't need anything fancy, and can either be planted or just thrown in the tank and left floating. Buy a bunch of anacharis, guppy grass, water wisteria, or hornwort, and you can literally just put it floating in the tank and watch it grow at a rate of knots.

Join us planted folk! You know you want to

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Sent you a conversation. I bought Frogbit and Water Spangle LOL...