Hazcop

I have what appears to be white "feathery" stuff on the inside of my tank. I looked around the net and all I can find is info relating to saltwater tanks (featherduster worms). This is a 30 gallon planted tank with guppies and 2 apple snails. I tested the water and everything is in the normal range. The stuff is fairly small like 1-2 cm long and is mostly on the glass, but some on the rocks and plants as well. Any thoughts?

sirdarksol

Does the stuff seem to move of its own accord, or only in the current.
If it moves, you might have some sort of parasite in your tank (not always a horrible thing, don't panic yet)
It could also be algae. I haven't heard of white freshwater algae, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
It's possible that it's snail eggs. I had snails that left little hair-like egg sacks on the tank walls.
That's about all I can come up with.

sgould

I had something like this in my 55 gallon tank several months ago. I never did figure out what it was, but it never caused any problems. I just cleaned it off the glass periodically, and eventually it went away.

Hazcop

Thanks. I am attaching a pic to maybe help ID what this is.

Attached Images

feathers_3.JPG (219.0 KB, 24 views)

sirdarksol

Actually, that looks like it could be strands of bacterial colonies. I would lighten up on feeding, make sure the fish are only getting what they'll eat, and clean the stuff off the glass periodically. Probably not dangerous, (or your fish would probably be having issues by now), but you might consider it unsightly.

sgould

Don't know what that is...it is not the same thing I had.

COBettaCouple

I believe there is a type of algae that's white, but i'm not sure if that's what you have. i would try cleaning the glass and doing more frequent water changes along with a little less feeding for a couple weeks. see if that gets rid of it.