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Hello.

A couple of months ago I set up several 20g long's and bought several 25 pound bags of gravel and placed it in four of the new tanks. In one tank there are "patches" in the gravel that are starting to turn black and get a fuzzy substance on it. (The gravel is natural rock color like light brown, beige, etc.)

Can anyone identify what it is and how I can get rid of it by looking at the picture below? I've tried melafix and primafix with no luck so far. Thank you in advance for your help?

P.S.
I wasn't sure which forum to post this in, not really water quality necessarily nor are the fish sick.

what sort of bacteria from outta space causes that? W

What are your other parameters?
Water changes are how often?
Amount of light? Proximity to window?
Stock levels? & changes (added any)

Did you put the new gravel in a stocking (or gauze bag) and place in the tank for a few weeks before doing the gravel change over?

Melafix and primafix might be for diseases for fishings not alien gravel-creeping mould.

Anyone else?

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~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

There is not any real natural light, all artificial but it is the same on all tanks and the others do not have problem. There has not been any changes in the tank since I set it up. I had used a pre-seasoned filter which came from the tank that the fish were originally in before I moved them which was a bare bottom tank. There are 2 L399(?), a betta and a mystery snail. Water changes are 20-30% weekly. Water parameters are as follows: A=0, pH=7.6, NI=0, NA=10-20.

how much are you feeding?i got this in my tank,but it started as white then turned brown,then i siphhoned it up after i got back from Vacation so it never again changed in color.but last weekend in my friends patricks oscar tank who overffeeds had brownish balck stuff like yours in it.just by reducing waste and not overfeeding will help w/this.

I really wouldn't put this tank in the "over fed" category. The plecs do a good job of eating what I put in there and anything left is eaten by the mystery snail. I feed at night and check every morning and the food is gone. Thank you for the replies.

how're the phosphates?

If it comes off easily, it'll be fungus, just vac it

If not, its probably ikky algae
Short of complicated monitoring and adjusting ferts etc, you could bleach the patch and plant with stem plants.



For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

I would reduce the feedings & add the water changes.


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Thanks! This stuff does not come off during gravel vacs. Nothing on the plants to bleach and there are no ferts added to the tank. I will decrease feedings perhaps to everyother day instead of every day and add an additional w/c during the middle of the week too. Thanx for the help.

Edit: I have not checked the phosphates but I will get a test kit for them and let you know.

btw overfeedings isn't necessarily the bits floating uneaten. It is also:
a) the bits that are teeny tiny that you don't see that flake off and foul the water
b) the waste output from the amount eaten

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~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

Thank you Wishga, I do realize that. I have over fourty tanks so fishkeeping is not new to me. But I appreciate your input.