# holy cow !! what the heck is this



## tinman (Nov 3, 2009)

Damn its only been 5 days since i removed my plecos from my main tank 
and now i see this white hair algae or something i don't know about. 

shoud i put my plecos back in ??

what is this actually >> is everything ok ?


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## slurik (Dec 19, 2010)

I unfortunately do not see what you're asking about in your photo, one thing I do notice is it looks quite clean and tidy, perhaps im not looking at the proper surfaces, which tells me its probably not algae. Especially since its white, perhaps you can get a closer look at it. 

Have a peek at the phosphate levels in your tank too much nutrition flowing around for your plants can contribute to organisms popping up and hanging around for free meals.

check this link here, it will help you identify if you do have these worms, or help direct you towards a better solution or explanation of whats going on.

EDIT:Quotelanarian is the common name given to many non-parasitic flatworms of Turbellaria class.[1] It is also the name of a genus within the family Planariidae, Planaria. Sometimes, it also refers to the genus Dugesia -Wikipedia

Planaria Worms - Tiny Wiggly White Worms in Aquarium.


Quote: Planaria are often found in aquariums with uneaten food. The planaria won't hurt the fish, but they are a symptom of too much gravel containing too much uneaten food, and that is not good for fish.

The site goes to give directions to tear your system down and clean it vigorously repeatedly, I'd just peek at those phosphates, and address them. As these worms will not cause any harm in your system, simply improving water quality will send them off as quick as they showed up. 

Your plants fertilizer, if you use it could even be causing this, plants need 3 things more than anything else: N P K, Nitrogen Phosphate and Potassium. Nitrogen is in your system in the form of nitrate, we try to keep it down, but plants gobble it up, this is why plants keep your system cleaner, longer. Phosphate is basically organic waste, so you'll find that with any type of food entering your system, generally companies will advertise less than X% phosphate, but again if you're fertilizing you're likely adding some. Potassium comes in your fertilizer and small amounts will be in your tap water and foods. Because phosphates play such a strong role in life suddenly seeming to "pop up out of nowhere" phosphates are a reef keepers worst nightmare, if they get out of check, all hell breaks loose, just ask any of them.

Bottom line, if these are worms, and I feel that they likely are, they're harmless and just gobbling up the extra nutrition in your water. If you scrub the extra nutrients away by any means, water changes, chemical media, they'll vanish. Keep the gravel clean and avoid using too much, as it acts as a trap for wastes. Using sand escapes this problem, more or less. (less space between particles to trap wastes) and can even process these wastes out when used correctly, check into deep sand bed systems for marine tanks, I wouldn't use this method in freshwater, but the principles are sound if you're interested in what is going on with the processes of nutrients inside your system and the life thats directly impacted by these processes.


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## tinman (Nov 3, 2009)

thanks Slurik 
thats quite an intresting reply 


i waited for replies and whn i cant wait any longer i released my two plecos into this tank and now all the wood is extra clean. lol they ate it allll 

i made it a habit of opening my window blinds when i leave to work so that half of my tank gets sunlight and plants in that area would go great. and this is the only spot where i found this white thingy. 

it doesnt look like planaria to me. but thanks i had no idea about that till now. 

and also right now my bottom is sand. 


thanks again


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## slurik (Dec 19, 2010)

Neat, If you find anymore propagate it in a jar to see what it looks like when it grows into a larger mass!


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

White hair algae? Coming off of your plants? Sure it is not roots coming out of the plants? Some plants will have white roots come out nearly all the way up the stalk.


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## mec102778 (Feb 17, 2011)

The white slime/alge on the wood is nothing to worry about it will eventualy go away. The wood I put in my tank was rediculous with the slime, so much so all the wood I had in the tank had a film to it. But it's back to normal now. If it really bothers you, you can take it out and scrub throughly in the sink.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

You've got better eyes than me...


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## mec102778 (Feb 17, 2011)

If I'm not mistaken this is the most visible area, but if you save and magnify the picture you can see it covers more than just the section is outlined in red.

<a href="http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc460/mec102778/algae2-rev1.jpg"><img src="http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc460/mec102778/algae2-rev1.jpg" width="350" height="250"/></a>


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## tinman (Nov 3, 2009)

mec102778 said:


> If I'm not mistaken this is the most visible area, but if you save and magnify the picture you can see it covers more than just the section is outlined in red.
> 
> <a href="http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc460/mec102778/algae2-rev1.jpg"><img src="http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc460/mec102778/algae2-rev1.jpg" width="350" height="250"/></a>


lol true thats what im refering to


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## theguppyman (Jan 10, 2010)

When I had some wild collected driftwood, I set it out to dry in the sun and when I put it in the aquarium it grew the same white fuzz which I believe is some kind of rotting as the would was still green so thats what I think it is, as I have seen some Planaria in a pond here in Brazil and I say that what ever it is, it sure isn't Planaria. Were did you get that driftwood/bogwood ? how did you prepare it ? what kind of wood is it (oak, ash,willow, pine etc.)? answer those questions then I can start to help you


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## mec102778 (Feb 17, 2011)

Good, thought maybe my eyes were seeing something that wasn't there.


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## tinman (Nov 3, 2009)

theguppyman said:


> When I had some wild collected driftwood, I set it out to dry in the sun and when I put it in the aquarium it grew the same white fuzz which I believe is some kind of rotting as the would was still green so thats what I think it is, as I have seen some Planaria in a pond here in Brazil and I say that what ever it is, it sure isn't Planaria. Were did you get that driftwood/bogwood ? how did you prepare it ? what kind of wood is it (oak, ash,willow, pine etc.)? answer those questions then I can start to help you


i have no idea what kinda wood it is  


i bought it from a guy on craigslist who claimed its been in the aquarium for more than 4 to 5 months and i believed it cause he literally had to tear the plants attaching to it 

also i dont think it is wood rotting because the min i dropped 2 plecos from another tank they cleared that thing in like mins 


if you look on the left side of this pic you would find a better larger piece from the same wood 


may be you can help me identify what kind of wood it is *old dude


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## mec102778 (Feb 17, 2011)

Ummm I'm going to say it's wood? That's my best guess.  The white alge/slime is natural and it will go away so don't worry about it to much. They way I look at the slime is like the alge bloom/cloudyness you get when cycling a tank.


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## tinman (Nov 3, 2009)

mec102778 said:


> Ummm I'm going to say it's wood? That's my best guess.  The white alge/slime is natural and it will go away so don't worry about it to much. They way I look at the slime is like the alge bloom/cloudyness you get when cycling a tank.


yea im not gonna worry much about it  

just have to keep atleast one pleco in that tank i guess 

so it keeps on eating it lol


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## mec102778 (Feb 17, 2011)

Nope it will go away all by it's self or should anyway.


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## slurik (Dec 19, 2010)

That looks like malawian drift wood, which I would say should be perfectly fine in an aquarium. Woods from temperate zones is the types to cause concern, the reason for it is that due to the change of temperatures, the organic materials inside of wood from temperate regions takes extensive amounts of time to decompose, decades... Wheras in tropical regions that maintain a consistently warm temperature will allow the organics to rot out of the wood, all year long, without any impeding force of seasons in its way. This is why tropical woods will sink, and temperate woods less than a millionteen years old will float.

If theres a lot of organic material left to decompose on your wood, you can see this pop up some fungus colonies. Fuzzy white stuff, not harmless, not necessarily harmful either though.

When I use driftwood in my setups, I always age the wood about a year in a bucket to remove the excessive tannins. Why? Well im lazy and its easy for me. Some people will bake their wood in the oven at about 300F, others will boil it in water (i feel this removes the point of having driftwood as i use it for tannins, and boiling your wood is the best way to strip these out).

So... I'd say you have some tropical malawian driftwood of whatever species of tree, this is what I see it sold as in stores. Perhaps it still had some material left to rot away on it?


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

It's not any kind of rot. If you read about driftwood on the net, it is a common occurance and goes away after a while. Usually happens within a month or two of putting in the tank. A few of my pieces got it. I have 10 pieces of Malaysia driftwood.


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## slurik (Dec 19, 2010)

jrman83 said:


> It's not any kind of rot. If you read about driftwood on the net, it is a common occurance and goes away after a while. Usually happens within a month or two of putting in the tank. A few of my pieces got it. I have 10 pieces of Malaysia driftwood.


I'd be curious exactly what is occuring in this "common occurance" If you argue no organic material is possibly present to decay, I'm curious where you're buying you're quality aged wood, and more so, what catalyzes this effect on the wood?

I checked online, as you suggested but didn't find information to fit into this, could you provide me a link?

Let me provide one: Driftwood FAQ

Quote: Q: Can driftwood decompose in my aquarium?
A: Yes, after extensive boiling to rid the wood of tannins and to help sink the wood, this process can weaken the woods protein structure and within a year or two it can start to decompose causing a nitrate build up. FYI If you dont boil driftwood it can last decades.

Q: What is this white fungus growing on my driftwood? 
A: The white stuff is fungus and it harmless.

I can provide far more comprehensive information to support this if you'd like...


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## M1ster Stanl3y (Dec 10, 2010)

I though you needed to boil it to remove bacteria n bad stuff


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

slurik said:


> I'd be curious exactly what is occuring in this "common occurance" If you argue no organic material is possibly present to decay, I'm curious where you're buying you're quality aged wood, and more so, what catalyzes this effect on the wood?
> 
> I checked online, as you suggested but didn't find information to fit into this, could you provide me a link?
> 
> ...


I think your link answered your question just fine. Must be common enough for the question to arise in a FAQ. Fungus doesn't mean rot, does it?


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## slurik (Dec 19, 2010)

If a meteor struck the earth such as we believe did in ancient times such as the event which drove dinosaurs to extinction were to re-occur and wiped mankind off the planet, fungus would rule the world.

Fungus is the predominant form of life responsible for decomposition. Microbes will indeed aid in this process, but if you leave bread out to go bad, when it begins to decompose you will find mould (fungus). Mushrooms in the forest growing from the rotting plant life (Fungus). When you take a tree, a living animal from the plant kingdom and let it die, such as with driftwood it will just like any other living thing begin to decompose.

This process will inevitably show cultures of fungus feeding on the decaying organic material.

Is this the same fungus that hurts my fish? No, this fungus is specialized to consume and decompose this type of material, however, fungus does exist in your water in small amounts, their spores are microscopic. For these reasons we treat our water with chemicals until we reach an accepted level of contaminants which we then deem safe to drink. This doesnt mean at all that your water is 100% pure, even industrial manufactured RO/DI water is only pure to a certain point, as a technological fact, we cannot produce 100% h2o. This leaves margin for error. As these spores can exist in your water, and fungus specialized to consume decaying plant can show up, it clearly shows that fungus has the capacity to thrive in your aquarium, as all other factors required for decomposition are clearly present.

As the spores are able to get in through water, and you have meaty flakes being used for food, fungus which are specialized at attacking rich protein animal material have a more likely chance to escalate into a proper attack. But again, this doesnt mean it will actually happen, just that the environment is able to allow it to occur.

If this is the case, we must assume that fungal growth on a piece of driftwood be attributed to some form of material this fungus is thriving off of. Pleco's are well known for grazing across driftwood, and some people even state that you should have driftwood if you own a pleco for this reason, and sometimes may even confuse it for the pleco eating the wood itself. 

Can a pleco eat the fungus and not become ill? Why not? I eat mushrooms of all sorts, my bread and beer are made of yeasts, I consume penicillin when I get bacterial infections too. Fungus isnt always bad, but fungus does need a set environment to thrive within. 

As noted in my previously provided link, the boiling process which people use to conveniently strip excessive tannins, and remove contaminants will damage proteins within the wood, allowing them to decompose quicker. It notes that skipping this allows the wood to stay intact longer, although they do not clearly present this in sentence form, it tells me that even avoiding boiling, leaves you with a lump of rotting organic matter, that simply rots slower.

Blackwaters in south america get this name due to their dark colouration, due to decaying plant material which has fallen into the waters and laid set into the substrate. This means that there is a continuous process of decomposition going on, which is not only contributing to the chemistry of the water, but the ability for the species that live within it to thrive, survive, and predate, and ultimately evolve into the specimens we have today.

Im sorry for any confusion we may have had before and I hope this reinforces what I was trying to say more clearly. I do not see this fungus as a threat at all, I would not be overly concerned with it. However it ultimately lies within natural biological processes we see everywhere in nature around us. When you take out decomposition, life on earth ceases to exist.

EDIT: Yes, you do need to decontaminate your wood. Boiling is a more violent, but quicker procedure. As noted I age mine in a bucket in the closet for an excessive period of time. When I change water, I also change water in this bucket, though instead of using tank water, I use tap water. I do this because the tap water as i mentioned in this post is treated with chlorine, chloramines, and so forth, being stripped of most contaminants for it to be safe for humans, i feel this has a great impact on destroying the organisms on the wood. After a long period of time, (8-10 months) I will then start using old tank water to re-condition it to a more ecologically friendly state incase anything has leeched into the wood. Even after this, I will still often find that some fungus pops up, however it prolongs the life of my wood, and doesnt strip out too many tannins. I use wood to colour my water naturally, I do not put carbon inside my system, my water is pretreated with carbon before a water change, then put into the aquarium. This helps keep the colouration that I feel closer relates to natural south american fish colours.


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