# White fuzzy (algae?) on plants +pic



## sircanegiem (Jun 21, 2013)

Here is a shot I took, the water is just a bit yellow/greenish as well and I recently noticed a few BB-sized hard green algae spots on the glass that I needed to scrape off with a fingernail. I bought a magnetic glass cleaner just today that will hopefully take care of that in the future, but here is the white stuff,










I'm not sure if this is some kind of algae or perhaps mold? I see a little bit of it on my plastic plants, too.

While I'm on topic, when I buy plants they don't seem to last very long and the leaves fall off. I'm burying the roots beneath the gravel and adding in a little aquarium plant grow liquid at water changes, is there something basic I'm missing? Does a carbon water filter cause problems?


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

It is algae. when you get new plants that have roots, cut off all the roots except for about 1". Don't try to plant long roots as you likely end up damaging them and they end up rotting and affecting the plant.


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## hotwingz (Mar 3, 2013)

Ya that's algae. How long are your lights on during the day? And do you watch your fish eat to make sure your not over feeding. Both can lead to unwanted algae growth.


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## sircanegiem (Jun 21, 2013)

Thanks, very helpful, didn't know about long roots being a bad thing! Also the lights are on from when I wake up at 8am and stay on til about 10pm. I could leave them off while I'm at work though.

I probably do sometimes put in too much food because some of the fish don't eat much at all unless the flakes/worms/whatever are right in front of them!


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## hotwingz (Mar 3, 2013)

Less food less light. That should solve your problem. You can get a timer for about $5. 8 hours is more than plenty for the plants to be healthy.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Wow, 14hrs. I can see why you have algae issues. I would cut back to 6hrs a day for about 2wks. The algae should be impacted from that. After that go to about 8hrs and see how it works for you. Changes usually don't show for about 2wks when trying to get better.


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