Fungi

[Aurora]

Hi everyone,

I just noticed this last night. There is like a fungal growth on the two suction cups on my heater. It isnt anywhere else, its not on the plants or driftwood or even on the suction cups of the spray bar.

Does anybody know what caused it and how to fix it? also will it be a problem when I get the fish?

There is also a thin film on the waters surface, I dont know what caused this either. Could it be all the ammonia I've been adding to cycle?


P.S Tried to put a pic but it wouldnt let me. The pic is only 77kb, the other one I tried was only 44kb.

[Essayons89]

The fungus could just be from old, decaying food or some other organic matter that got hung up around the suction cups, it doesn't take long for fungus to appear if the food/matter isn't removed.

Just wash the suction cups off in some hot water and scrub them off to remove the fungus.

Are you doing a fishless cycle? What are your current readings for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?

Bryan

[Aurora]

It cant be from food because I dont have any fish yet so I havent had anything to feed.

Yeah Im doing a fishless cycle.

The readings last night were:
Ammonia = ~2 mg/L
Nitrite = 0 mg/L.............yay its finally got back to 0.
Nitrate = Dont have a test for it

I dont know why the nitrite has managed to fall to 0, but the ammonia hasnt. Does it take longer for the bacteria to break down ammonia to nitrite than to break down nitrite to nitrate?

[Essayons89]

Yeah, I saw your other thread about cycling after I replied here.

The longest phase of the cycling process is the nitrite to nitrate phase. The bacteria that converts nitrite to nitrate is very slow growing. How much ammonia did you use to start the cycling process with?

Add enough ammonia to bring the level to around 7ppm (7mg/L) then bring it down to between 3-5ppm and keep it there until you get a noticeable buildup of nitrite. Once you get nitrites, cut back the amount of ammonia being added to around 2-3ppm. It doesn't take much ammonia to keep the cycle going, after around 6 weeks or so the entire cycle should be complete. When that happens you should have a reading of zero for both ammonia and nitrite and a noticeable reading for nitrate. Once the cycle is finished, do a water change and add your fish.

The best way to keep nitrates low is by doing water changes along with gravel vacs to remove any uneaten food and waste. Ideally, nitrates should be kept between 5-10ppm. Live plants will take in a limited amount of nitrate but the majority is removed through water changes.

HTH,
Bryan

[Dave76]

I've found on every tank I have setup I get the same sort of thing on my heater suctoin caps - is it a sort of white/opaque slime covering ?

I've had it on fishless & fish cycles - it normally goes away after a month or two - and bristlenose catfish love to munch on it as well I found.

Dave

[Aurora]

I added 20ml to start with (of Superior Ammonia 40g/L). That took it over 5ppm (which is as high as my test goes). Then it started producing nitrite after 2 weeks, and the ammonia came down to 3ppm. I was then adding 10ml a day, and it was staying about 3ppm. Then the other day the nitrite started dropping, so I stopped adding ammonia so they would both drop to 0. The nitrite has gone to 0, but the ammonia is still between 1.5 and 3. It seems to stay the same level wether I add it or not......it strange.

[kevkoi]

Let me guess, it's one of those AquaOne heaters? The new suction caps get a sort of a gel like coating over them when new. It's harmless and it goes away after a little while.

[Essayons89]

I added 20ml to start with (of Superior Ammonia 40g/L). That took it over 5ppm (which is as high as my test goes). Then it started producing nitrite after 2 weeks, and the ammonia came down to 3ppm. I was then adding 10ml a day, and it was staying about 3ppm. Then the other day the nitrite started dropping, so I stopped adding ammonia so they would both drop to 0.

You need to keep adding ammonia until you have a very noticeable buildup of nitrate, around 10-15ppm or so. The bacteria that turns ammonia into nitrite is very slow growing and it take take 4-5 weeks from the time that the nitrites start to build until there is a buildup of nitrates. The entire cycling process can take six weeks on average, give or take a week.

Bryan

[Aurora]

Dave:
Yeah it is white and opaque, but its not a slime coating, its like cotton wool, its definately fungi. Did you clean it off, or did you just leave it till it went away?

Kev:
No its not an AquaOne, its actually a ViaAqua. Its definately not just a gel coating, its fungi Im sure. Its now spread from just the suction cups to the black bit around the top of the heater. If this thing will let me post a pic I'll attach one.................it wont, is anybody else having trouble posting pics? Its only 43kb, and its a jpg.

Bryan:
I dont have a test kit for Nitrate, but there should be a noticeable reading as I was adding 10ml a day for a week while there was nitrite, and now its down to 0, so it should all be nitrite. I checked the ammonia again last night and it is still the same! Do you think that somehow the ammonia --> nitrite bacteria have died? Because they were definately there, as they produced nitrite in the first place.

I know that cycling can take 6 weeks, but if you add seeded filter media and bacteria in a bottle it should only take 3-4 weeks. I've done that. Its been 3 and half weeks now. It cant just be that I have to wait for them to grow, because they had grown and produced nitrite, then the nitrite ones grew and removed all the nitrite, and now suddenly the ammonia ones have gone walkabout.

[Aurora]

Yay it finally let me put the pic up. Well this is it.

[Dave76]

Hi Aurora

That looks similar to what I had - I've had it on Aqua One, Jagar, Via Aqua and Resun heater suction caps - I haven't had a problem with it - I just wipe it off with a paper towel if it gets really bad, but I've found bristlenose will munch on it - and they are still all alive so it can't be too bad.

Dave

[lesley]

I've had the "fungus" on occasions, most times I wipe it away, other times I have left it and its cleared up.

You definitely need a nitrate kit!!! My experience with the bottles of bacteria were not good. I found them totally useless. I have started all my tanks off with filter material from another tank. When I bought my first discus, I got the guy in the discus LFS to squeeze the waer out of some of his filter material into a bag and bought it home, tpped it into the tank. Looked disgusting, but the beneficial bacteria went into the filter, etc. and I never had a problem with cycling.

HTH, Lesley

[kalebjarrod]

i,ve had the same "gooky" stuff apear on my sucition caps

i find it appears on my heater caps more so than anything else

must be the extra heat, just a bit unsightly not to harmful

P.S nice plug for "eheim" LOL

[Pyroman]

I believe it's actually a bacterial growth, specifically feeding on VOC's (organic compounds) that are a byproduct of manufacturing the rubber the cups are made out of. Generally you see it in situations where the water in the tank is harder, as they seem to also use calcium in the water. As the cups age, the VOC's dissepate and they don't have anything else to feed on... so they dissapear, but the chalkey residue may remain on the cups.