qwertypoii

I have a two week old ten gallon tank, no fish as it's still cycling (the water is giving me a hard time)... my tank has developed this white-gray colored fuzz on the rocks and live plants, from what I read in the forums here is that it is likely a 'new tank' thing and that getting an otto or some other algae eater will take care of it...

BUT... my water levels are WAY off still and it would be a death scentence for any fish that touched that water... so my question is, how can I get rid of the algae while in the fishless cycle process?

Thanks!

)

agabr123

if you can get an algae scrubber you can just scrub it off. you may want to keep the lights off during the cycle if you aren't already, that could definitely be contributing to it. you also may want to think about getting some live plants. live plants and algae feed on a lot of the same plants, so the live plants can out-compete the algae for food and hopefully keep it more under control. can you get a picture of what it looks like?

qwertypoii

I do have live plants in there, I just have regular gravel on the bottom, a few larger stones, a ceremic log and about 5 live plants. I'm actually more afraid of harming the plants trying to get the algae off of them.

There is no direct sunlight on the tank at any time throughout the day. Someone suggested that I turn down the heater a few degrees and make sure the light is not on for longer the 8 hours. I'm trying that one as of right now but I wanted to see if anyone else had any suggestions too.

I have heard of this happening in 'new' tanks because of the spikes in the levels, especially ammonia.

here is a photo, it's not from my tank but it looks EXACTLY like this I believe it's called 'fuzz, dust or hair algae" it's weird though because the 'algae' on the rocks is more like a dust and just sweeps right off, on the plants it looks more like hair and it looks almost attached to the leaves



So... I was at the fish store and they suggested I buy this product called CYCLE, similar to biospira to help jump start things since my tap water levels are so crazy... then he said to get some PRIME... but doesn't CYCLE put 'bad' stuff into the water to get the cycle going and PRIME takes it out How does that work?

shadowavenger

That looks more like mold to me. could be wrong though. you may want to try some kind of anti fungal treatment.

Chrisson

Maybe it's thread algae it does seem like it has a dulish green colour to it but it may possibly be fuzz algae.