Grey tufts all over plants and glass

[r.frith]

Help what is this and how do I get rid? Where did it come from

 

[I Like Rare Fish]

I’ve never seen this ever. This is interesting. Anyone know what this is?

 

[r.frith]

I’ve never seen this ever. This is interesting. Anyone know what this is?

It’s everywhere thousands of them it’s killed all the leaves on my Amazon swords and it’s stuck real well to the glass

 

[coriesinhawaii]

Individually they look like bits of uneaten food that are being decomposed by fungus but since since there’s so many of them I’m guessing that’s not the case unless you’re over feeding by quite a lot

 

[r.frith]

Individually they look like bits of uneaten food that are being decomposed by fungus but since since there’s so many of them I’m guessing that’s not the case unless you’re over feeding by quite a lot

No defo not I’ve kept fish for 40 years or more and never experienced anything like this

 

[FF_Member146894]

looks like black beard algae, but it's white? maybe it's only the lighting that makes it appear white?
the only type of algae that i know that grows that way is black beard. whatever it is, anything that attaches itself like that ought to be very difficult to remove.
but my question is, how did you manage to not notice it before it was this bad? this is really pushing irreversible, i don't know how you're going to get it off the plant leaves without ripping them up in the process. it looks like it has covered every leaf, and i don't think you can remove every leaf, that'd just kill the plants.
you can try dipping the plants in chemicals if you don't want to completely get rid of them, but i don't know much about that so you'd better ask someone else.
you could also try getting a black beard algae eating fish or add more CO2 (i don't know how much either of those would really help in this case, though). i still can't understand how you managed to let it get this bad with "40 years of experience."
oh, and you can try to turn off the lights in the tank for a few days if you have low light plants. if you do all of that at once, it might go away, but like i said, i think this is pushing irreversible.

 

[Sunnyspots]

Try asking @Byron ?

 

[ThatFishGirl6231]

i’ve never seen anything like that. that’s weird. i hope you find out what it is. maybe try algaefix or something??

 

[r.frith]

looks like black beard algae, but it's white? maybe it's only the lighting that makes it appear white?
the only type of algae that i know that grows that way is black beard. whatever it is, anything that attaches itself like that ought to be very difficult to remove.
but my question is, how did you manage to not notice it before it was this bad? this is really pushing irreversible, i don't know how you're going to get it off the plant leaves without ripping them up in the process. it looks like it has covered every leaf, and i don't think you can remove every leaf, that'd just kill the plants.
you can try dipping the plants in chemicals if you don't want to completely get rid of them, but i don't know much about that so you'd better ask someone else.
you could also try getting a black beard algae eating fish or add more CO2 (i don't know how much either of those would really help in this case, though). i still can't understand how you managed to let it get this bad with "40 years of experience."
oh, and you can try to turn off the lights in the tank for a few days if you have low light plants. if you do all of that at once, it might go away, but like i said, i think this is pushing irreversible.

It’s definitely white, it’s only taken about 6 weeks to get to this stage, I initially spotted this and removed about 30 or so but they’re difficult to remove, I kept the light off and covered the tank for a week I also have 4 2 inch Chinese Alfie eaters but it’s so voracious it’s happened in a matter of a few weeks

 

[Tacocat]

It’s definitely white, it’s only taken about 6 weeks to get to this stage, I initially spotted this and removed about 30 or so but they’re difficult to remove, I kept the light off and covered the tank for a week I also have 4 2 inch Chinese Alfie eaters but it’s so voracious it’s happened in a matter of a few weeks

Seems you're really stumped. Actually, you could try this species-finder app. It's called "seek". It's an app that can identify any known living thing. So basically you can go into a park and use it to find out all the trees, given you get a good angle. However, it's very finicky, and once I tried to use this app to identify a coral at an aquarium and it thought it was a nudibranch

Try this to find out what the tufts are, but you might not have much luck

Also, how are the algae-eaters doing?

 

[Colin_T]

Are they white or yellow because they look yellowy green in the first picture , and white in the second pic?

So they are stuck to the plant and the plants affected by them are dying.
They are hard to get off the plants.

Do they move on the plants or through the water?
Are there big and small ones or are they all the same size?

Do they have a definite ball type base with little filaments coming off them like the picture?

How big are they?

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Contact the Department of Agriculture or a University biology department and take some in to see if they can identify them. Even if you send them some photos. This is really cool.

 

[Byron]

I've been following this thread because I have never seen anything like what is in the photos.

 

[r.frith]

They vary in size up to about 10 mm across the whole ball , they are light grey/white with a black bit in the centre where they adhere to the glass they have like a suction type base and the hairs wave about but the don’t move individually the are impossible to get off plants and have killed all the leaves they are on, but can be scraped off the glass

 

[r.frith]

They vary in size up to about 10 mm across the whole ball , they are light grey/white with a black bit in the centre where they adhere to the glass they have like a suction type base and the hairs wave about but the don’t move individually the are impossible to get off plants and have killed all the leaves they are on it I but can be scraped off the glass

I've been following this thread because I have never seen anything like what is in the photos.

ill send some more pics tonight

 

[Byron]

Colin's suggestion was good, and I second it...send the photo to a biology department of the closest university/college. You should be able to find an email on the institution's website. Most places are only too happy to assist with questions like this one.