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In one of my fish tanks, the water looked a little cloudy, but when i looked down the top of the tank it was clear. I found that there was some short pale blue (i think) fungus, on the glass, waving in the current. I am not sure what it is, any ideas? And any ideas what the cause is and how to go about removing it?

Thanks!

†Aquapickle†

Hi,
I have never run into "pale blue" growths in my aquariums.
Could you, like my wife, be slightly color blind? She
often mistakes greens for blues (a dead give away when
playing "UNO" )

You don't say anything about the tank, such as the
water chemistries (pH, GH, KH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate,
etc.) Nor did you mention what is in it such as fish
(quantity, size, etc.) Nor did you say anything about
any plants or light (what kind (type of bulb), how strong
(WPG), how long the light(s) are on, or if the tank gets
any sunlight. You should also mention how often you
clean the gravel (if you do or have), or when you last
changed the water and how much at each change.

Without any other information, what you could have is
more likely the beginnings of a hair algae bloom.
I would scrape the insides of the tank with an old credit
card or a single edge razor blade ( if the tank is glass),
and then do a 10-20% water change.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

I tested the ph about a week ago and it was about 7.6-7.8, I have a couple African cichlids in the tank, ammonia level was zero. The lighting is very low, about one third of a watt per gallon. It isn't really blue, but a really pale color that makes the water seem foggy.

Thanks!


†Aquapickle†

The only thing blue might be cyano but that wouldn't likely be waving about on the front glass. It tends to cover the tank in slimy sheets starting more along the bottom. Fungus is almost always white and I've never seen it on the glass. Driftwood and fish, yes but not glass. Ph isn't really the most useful test when trying to solve a problem like this. Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate would tell us alot more. If you don't have your own test kit try asking stores that sell fish if they'll run a quick test for you. Preferably not a test done with strips but with liquid because the strips are quite inaccurate.

Aside from color it does sound most like a hair algae bloom which a big contributing factor would be excess nutrients. A good indicator of excess nutrients is a nitrate test or if the tank isn't quite done cycling(I don't think you said how long it had been setup?) a nitrite test to go with that ammonia test. Along with how much and how often you not only do water changes but gravel vacs? If there's a lot of junk on the gravel or hidden somewhere around the decorations it will still give the algae food even if you do enough water changes to keep the nitrates low.

Also how much sunlight does the room get throughout the day? Hair algae doesn't usually grow well in that low of tank light but even if the sun is on the tank for less than an hour a day it will grow a nice thick wall of the stuff. I had a small tank on a bookshelf that you couldn't see in the side nearest the window and halfway across the front panel. Turns out it got a bit of sunlight early in the morning from a north facing window. Took me a month to figure it out cause I didn't even get out of bed and check on the tank early enough to see it. Most of the day that room is rather dark but with that little bit of time the hair algae soaked up the sunlight and went nuts.