Weird Material Growing in Tank

Hello Everyone,

I have a 30 gal. tank that is currently housing 2 female axolotls. Recently we have discovered an odd substance growing on the bottom of the bedrock covering the sand and stones. The substance is growing near their food bowl (we feed them sinking salmon pellets) and appears to grow as a film over the rocks. We were just wondering if anyone has encountered this substance as well or if anyone can identify it. We are hoping it is not some form of fungus.

Thanks for any help!

It looks like you have a fair amount of brown algae growing on your rocks too. Brown algae in freshwater tanks are caused from high amounts of silicates and nitrates, low lighting and low oxygen levels.

When is the last time you did a water change? Did you gravel vac your tank or just skim from the top?

It really looks like you need to syphon out the bottom of your tank (only take out 1/3 of the water....any more than that you could remove too much of the good bacteria that keep your tank balanced). I would probably also scoop out the river rock and scrub them down in luke warm water to remove the brown algae and add a bacteria booster to the water to bring the good bacteria levels back up after a good cleaning.

Meggersxoxo said:

It really looks like you need to syphon out the bottom of your tank (only take out 1/3 of the water....any more than that you could remove too much of the good bacteria that keep your tank balanced). I would probably also scoop out the river rock and scrub them down in luke warm water to remove the brown algae and add a bacteria booster to the water to bring the good bacteria levels back up after a good cleaning.

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Majority of the beneficial bacteria live on ornaments, substrate, glass and media filter. The actual water contains hardly any so you could do almost a 100% water change without affecting your cycle.

Things like scrubbing the rocks and ornaments with untreated water can crash your cycle. If anything in the tank gets gunky- looking like media or ornaments rinse only in old tank water to ensure you don't kill your bacteria.

OP - use a siphon and suck up as much goo as you can. I would remove these rocks as half of them look ingestable. You'd be suprised what axolotls could eat. The rocks should be atleast bigger and wider than it's head, otherwise it's a potential risk for impaction. You could use sand or bare bottomed. Rocks like the ones you have also create pockets so waste and food can get stuck and create a mess of your water quality.

hayleykahnita said:

Majority of the beneficial bacteria live on ornaments, substrate, glass and media filter. The actual water contains hardly any so you could do almost a 100% water change without affecting your cycle.

Things like scrubbing the rocks and ornaments with untreated water can crash your cycle. If anything in the tank gets gunky- looking like media or ornaments rinse only in old tank water to ensure you don't kill your bacteria.

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But to make sure that you were successful in killing off the slim and brown algae you would need to use untreated water. Yes, you are going to kill off beneficial bacteria but that's why I said to use a bacteria booster after the cleaning. It would be terrible to have the stuff "re-bloom" a week later because spores were left behind.

Plus it looks like there are live plants in the tank...live plants and filter media carry the highest amount of beneficial bacteria due to higher oxygen levels, surface space and nutrients. Right now it just looks like the rocks are holding waste and due to the fact that it's brown algae growing and not green, indicating a low level of oxygen in the tank (not great for good bacteria growth).

Meggersxoxo said:

But to make sure that you were successful in killing off the slim and brown algae you would need to use untreated water. Yes, you are going to kill off beneficial bacteria but that's why I said to use a bacteria booster after the cleaning. It would be terrible to have the stuff "re-bloom" a week later because spores were left behind.

Plus it looks like there are live plants in the tank...live plants and filter media carry the highest amount of beneficial bacteria due to higher oxygen levels, surface space and nutrients. Right now it just looks like the rocks are holding waste and due to the fact that it's brown algae growing and not green, indicating a low level of oxygen in the tank (not great for good bacteria growth).

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Spores are always in the tank and brown algae will bloom in bad water so if eveything is check, along with scrubbing rocks in tank water it should start to disappear. OP should be getting rid of the rocks completely which would alter their cycle. Most bacteria "boosters" aren't the greatest invention and not needed. Water changes and ammonia source is all that's needed.