Odd white stuff in my fish tank?

Question

30 gallon, 1 male betta, 3 glass cats, 2 albino corys. Recently, I've noticed this white wispy stuff attached so some of my live plants, and I'd like to know what it is. It's a lot like spider webs, and it's taken over some of my smaller plants. Are these harmful, or are they okay?? Algae?
I've been using a lot of bacteria recently because my filter is about a month new, so I've been trying to stabilize it. Is this 'growth' bacteria?

Help please!

Answer 1

My first thought is that this is a water "fungus" - see photo: http://www.visualsunlimited.com/images/watermarked/227/227311.jpg , but as MM said, this only grows on dead tissue - like the bug in the photo. It wouldn't be on living plants.

Another possibility is that this is a brush or beard algae, which will grow on live plants - see photo: http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Algae/brush-algae-small.jpg This can be gray or whitish. If this is what you've got, it a tought algae to get rid of. About the only thing that will eat it is a Siamese (NOT Chinese) algae eater. It's particularly hard to get off plants, because you end up damaging the leaves. Your best bet here is to clip off any affected leaves and get them out of the tank. Since you have aquatic plants, turning off the lights won't be an option, but if you've got a few leaves that aren't too badly affected, try leaving the lights on longer - the plants will take up nutrients faster than the algae. Keep up on water changes to remove any excess nutrients from the tank. It seems to prefer low pH conditions, so try adding a little crushed coral or seashell in a mesh bag to your filter, but keep an eye on the pH of the tank - you don't want to change too much, too quickly.

You can control new growth by controling nutrients (doing lots of water changes, which wouldn't hurt your nitrite level) and adding a phosphate pad to your filter. Don't use a liquid plant fertilizer because this will aslo feed the algae.



ADDITION: Another possibility - see thread algae (under filamentous algae) in this link: http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/plants/Algae_description_control.html - indicates too much iron in the water.

Answer 2

It sounds like strands of fungus to me. Probably living on the bacteria you are adding (most of which dies in no time) and dead cells on the plants. I would remove what I could by water changes and stop adding the bacteria. If your filter is a month old, it should be colonized with bacteria and reasonably stable by now.

MM

Answer 3

do you've any plant life? because its in all likelihood poop and the plant life devour and use something thats contained in the feces. my black molly were given stuck in some crap and died :( yet ya it may in all likelihood be white or sparkling once you've plant life contained in the tank

Answer 4

There's no bacteria. Just fish poop. They're okay. Your fish should eat them.