Very Small White Fluffy 'trees' On Glass

[Ronan]

Hi

I have had a new tropical tank setup running for a few weeks now with 8 Harlequins and 2 Otos as well as some moderate planting. The tank has 30 litres of water in it (Aquaone 380) and the filter was matured by its previous occupant (a common goldfish). Everyting seems fine but I have noticed that the inside of the glass has lots of little white things anchored to the glass by thin cords and then it branches out into a tree shaped structure. At forst I thought that they might be Plania but they do not move and do not have a flat worm appearance at all. I also have CO2 injection through a Nutrafin Yeast container and I get a large amount of fluffy white build up around the outpipe of this that quickly interfers with the flow of bubbles.

Ammonia and Nitrite levels are both reading as 0, Nitrate is low and I change 30% of the water weekly. I am using RO water remineralised and buffered with Tropic Marin Remineralise Tropical and pH is sitting on 7.

I'm currently thinking that the white growths are some kind of fungus or yeast based growth principally because they do not move and they seem closer to plants than animals.

Any ideas?

Thanks
Ronan

 

[BNyleen581]

Hey Ronan,

I have never seen these in a fish tank, but I have seen them before; I can't quite remember where though...

I could almost bet the cause is the yeast. Yeast will do interesting things as I have learned in Biology. Especially contaminated yeast, make sure you are using the kinds suggested and that the yeast is not expired. I would say with your kind of setup to consider a UV Sterilizer which would take care of future problems of the white stuff and then you could just scrape off what is there now.

In my experience if it doesn't noticeably affect the fish or change the tanks levels then I just let it run its course. This is the cheap way of doing it, but hey, it's worked for me.

Sorry I couldn't be more specific.

 

[Danno]

I got a quick test for you. You will need watered down cherry jello and some anti-bacterial cream, and some athletes food cream. Take the jello and pour it into 3 disposable cups. Take a sample of the fuzzy stuff and very gently drag it on the now firm jello with a q-tip. Do 3 of these. Take plastic wrap and cover them. Take the anti-bacterial cream and put it on the top of the q-tip and dap it on one the cups samples. Then so the same with the athletes foot cream. Do nothing to the next one as that will be the control in the test. Cover each one VERY securely. Try to be as sterile as possible in the experiment.

The control will stay the same and probably grow a bit.
If the anti-bacterial one doesn't grow is it bacteria.
If the athlete’s cream one doesn't grow it is either yeast or fungus.

Just a thought on what you could do. I did this once in my tanks. It worked well too. That way I added the correct chemical and my tank was all healthy again.

 

[Ronan]

I got a quick test for you. You will need watered down cherry jello and some anti-bacterial cream, and some athletes food cream. Take the jello and pour it into 3 disposable cups. Take a sample of the fuzzy stuff and very gently drag it on the now firm jello with a q-tip. Do 3 of these. Take plastic wrap and cover them. Take the anti-bacterial cream and put it on the top of the q-tip and dap it on one the cups samples. Then so the same with the athletes foot cream. Do nothing to the next one as that will be the control in the test. Cover each one VERY securely. Try to be as sterile as possible in the experiment.

The control will stay the same and probably grow a bit.
If the anti-bacterial one doesn't grow is it bacteria.
If the athlete’s cream one doesn't grow it is either yeast or fungus.

Just a thought on what you could do. I did this once in my tanks. It worked well too. That way I added the correct chemical and my tank was all healthy again.

I have taken a sample of the white gunk forming around the base of the CO2 input and placed it on a slide. I have then taken it to a Biology teacher who stuck it on a slide. The results were quite interesting - the white stuff is a collection of very long thin strands and is therefore almost certainly fungus. Along with the fungus were very small nematode worms which were presumably feeding off the fungus itself.

I have now added Pimafix to the tank and I have removed the CO2 injection for now.

Ronan

 

[Danno]

I guess it is good to have a biology teacher in your back pocket...