genie

I have mold in my tank... I had a put in about 12 bulbs to grow plants and all but one turned moldy-- now it seems like I can't keep the mold away. I pick out the stuff I can see, I did a water change but is there anything else I can do to keep this under control. This is the first time I have ever had mold in an aquarium... but I do live in a house built in 1853 and mold is a problem here that I haven't had in other homes.

COBettaCouple

The first thing you should do is call the builder and complain.. I had the same thing happen with bulbs that I got - worthless waste of $$$ those all turned out to be. Got a few good plants, but mostly the bulbs just got moldy. But once I took the bulbs out of the tank, the mold went away. Is it growing in a particular place or just showing up in the water? Maybe if you increase the air flow to that tank's airstone it would help?

genie

Well. I noticed it when I dropped a sinking wafer in-- the next day it was covered. And I still havent been able to get all of the little bits of Hornwort out of the tank, despite numerous vacuum jobs, water changes and using a net, so that is growing mold now too... Like I said, I pick out what I can. The water flow in my tank is pretty good, but I will try an airstone for a little while.

Thanks.

COBettaCouple

Hmmm.. i get that with the sinking wafers too. after a day or 2, they'll be 'hairy' as can be. Maybe you need another tank to cycle, then move the fish into it so that you can give the tank with mold a super deep clean then cycle it.. and then i guess you'd have no choice but to get another Betta.

Seriously, sounds like you're doing what we'd be doing too. Hopefully, you'll get the mold out bit by bit until it's gone for good.

sirdarksol

Aquarium salt would probably slow the mold down.
I know you probably don't want to think about medicating the tank, but anything that's made to fix fungus on fish has a pretty good chance of killing the mold outright.

genie

Ok-- first off it is my big 33 gal community tank.-- I can't just dump it out and start over-- I would lose my mind-- lol.

Second-- I just dosed a fungus clear from Jungle Labs to get rid of fin rot?

This must be the super mold.

COBettaCouple

Yes.. super mold.. from the lost planet of krypton where the vampire bettas were once plentiful.

You could just pick the tank up & toss the water out the window, it's only 33g. yea, what you're doing is good, unless you can find some kryptonite.

sirdarksol

Actually, that is a very good point. I don't know if you've ever heard of superinfection, but it's where the balance of the body's normal bacterial levels has been thrown off whack by antibiotics. This could be something similar, where a tenuous balance was disrupted by the combination of the fungus clear and the rotting bulbs.

Out of curiosity, what fish do you have in the tank? Would they be able to survive a minor infusion of salt? I'm thinking just enough to slow the mold down while you work on other ways of clearing it up. For example, if you've got mostly mollies and only one or two really sensitive fish, take them out, give them a quick salt bath (so you don't transfer the problem to another tank), and move them to a quarantine tank. It might even deal with the problem altogether. In some ways, mold is really tenacious. In others, it's really easily harmed.
You could attempt to starve the mold. Fish can deal with several-day fasts. Feed your fish minimally and only every other day. Change your mechanical filter more often than normal, to remove any mold that has been caught by the filter.