cyanobacter....

[lucysmam]

does it look brown & furry?

I've been watching my tank since last pwc & something brown & furry has taken up residence on my plants -both live and false - but can't get a good enough pic to compare with ones on internet.

If it is likely to be cyanobacter...am I right in thinking black out the whole tank & ignore for a week or so? Or was that for something else?

& if so, tomorrow is pwc day so do I just leave it alone atm & let the dark do its thing? & then big wc next weekend (which is when my eighth day would come around again)

tyvm

Cyanobacteria comes in a few different colours, I think it's normally slimy and grows in a lawyer over everything rather than in tufts. Sounds like it might be black beard algae (sadly nothing to do with pirates). Does it look like those photos?

Usually it's pretty simple to get rid of, you might just need to tweak a couple of things. Have you tested the phosphate (PO4)? If that's high then that could be your culprit. Also low CO2 levels don't help. If you don't want to be faffed with a CO2 injection system then you can get it in liquid form. I use the liquid stuff (think mine is Seachem flourish excel) and it works really well at making your plants grow faster and getting rid of algae.

How many real plants do you have? Often, stuffing in a lot of fast-growing plants can help because it out-competes the algae for nutrients. Still a good idea to get your PO4 tested though.

Grows in a layer, not a lawyer Can't think why slimy algae made me think of lawyers...

....maybe the slimy part!

yeah, from looking at those it's more likely the black beard algae. I only have a handful of anubias left....the pleco demolished the others (I can't remember its name either but grows really tall really fast ) .....

Never bothered with CO2, will have a google around that and see what I find. Don't think I can be doing with the extra faff of a proper CO2 system though, will more likely order liquid stuff later on.

Will I still be ok to wc tomorrow? Never had anything like this since we set up the tank....thought we were going great!

Never tested the phosphate either.....will do some googling around that too while I'm at it.

Yes, water changes will be fine. It might be that you've got high phosphate in your tap water, or I think some fish foods contain it. You can get sponges and whatnot to remove phosphate so it's not a huge problem if it is high. Has there been any leftover food in the tank?

I usually fish out any uneaten with the net after a few minutes so not much if any.

I'll have a look for sponges too....hopefully the man in my lfs will be able to order me one or have something suitably sized for my filter (he doesn't usually stock juwel stuff because of the price).

Off to town tomorrow morning after school run

Will he test for phosphate first? No point spending money on stuff you don't need.

yeah he'll test it for me. Is usually dead helpful thankfully.

If not that then I will try the liquid CO2 and get a few more plants while I'm there....although I don't hold much hope for them with the pleco in there I come down to stuff moved or missing or floating plants pretty much every day.

Last week was hide and seek the thermometer....it was in a different place every morning