Emilyruthann7
New Member
I have a 5 gallon aquarium with these white web-like strings. I’ve tried a water change, rinsing off the decorations, getting a stronger filter, but nothing is working. Please help me and let me know if you have any ideas as to what this is and what I can do to get rid of it.
In case you have questions about the tank or need more details, here is the very main timeline of this tank:
This tank was used before for a betta names Dixon and I had no problems with it. We had a small filter and heater with a live plant and some decorations. Eventually, Dixon moved up to a 10 gallon tank and we put El Fuego (my sister’s betta) in the 5 gallon a little ways later. We got new hair grass, gravel, a decoration and a fake plant. Fuego was happily swimming around, no problems. The filter we had was a little weak and needed to be changed often, we noticed, but it still pushed water around so we decided we’d eventually get a new filter, but we didn’t have time just yet. I ended up putting one of the plants from Dixon’s tank (El Niño Fern) which was reproducing at least 6 mini plants, into El Fuego’s tank. Within a day or two, I noticed little white strings that began to grow on the roots of the little plants that were growing off the big one. My sister and I researched it, and we thought it was algae. Many people said it would go away before it takes over the tank, so we left it alone. It wasn’t too noticeable and it wasn’t harming El Fuego, so we didn’t worry. At this time, we added two Cory catfish to the tank because El Fuego’s tank has sand and they had no other home, as one tank had gravel (Dixon’s tank) and the tank they were in before just got a Blue Crayfish, who will eat them. Don’t worry, El Fuego doesn’t pick on them, he is the calmest betta we have ever had and we’ve kept a close eye on him. About a week later, I notice the baby plants had stopped growing, so when I took out the plant to try to rinse the algae off, the plant rotted and fell apart in my hands along with having a strong odor similar to manure. The tank water didn’t smell abnormal at all. I threw out the plant. About a few days later, I noticed the strings starting to spread along the walls of the tank. I tried scraping it off with an algae brush along with rinsing off the majority of my plants and decorations, but within 2 days, it over doubled than what it was before I rinsed it all off. I tried a water change as well but it didn’t help for very long. At this point, we picked up a stronger filter that we thought for sure would rid of the algae, but the strings are still growing.
