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Algae? Fungus? wont go away, good quality water

w_hagg

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There been this strange white, furry algae or something that has been collecting in my tank. This began a while back. Noticed white stuff in aquarium, went to the pet store which suggested i buy a mingon 150 carbon filter for extra filtration and then deep clean everything. Which i did. i scraped it off every wall of the tank and removed everything except the substrate and scrubbed the stuff off with hot water. My tank is non-planted and it had grown on hides, fake plants, and even my divider. I even removed the filters and gently cleaned the sponges in dechlorinated water and cleaned off the tubing and all plastic parts. Ive been keeping as much light off my tank as possible (aside from sunlight through the window, it gets nothing) but to my dismay the stuff has come back. This time it seems to be stemming from the sponge fliters' bubble column and has even made its way inside the carbon filter's water chamber, to the point where it's slowed it down. This white stuff doesn't float in the water and only clings to surfaces and it seems the only way it could have made its way back into the aquarium is by growing inside the sponges. Im going to set up a new planted aquarium for each of my axolotls soon, just waiting on plants and substrate to come in the mail, but I'm worried that if i use my cycled filters to start new tanks, this stuff will make its way into them as well.

TLDR: I cleaned off EVERYTHING and my parameters are fine, yet I keep having some sort of white, furry algae bloom that has gotten in my filters.

I currently have two axolotls just under 6 inches separated in a 20 gallon long. i have one sponge filter on each side of their divider with a Mignon 150 HOB carbon filter as well.

Water parameters
pH: 7
nite: ~0 ppm
nate: ~0ppm
ammonia: 0ppm



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w_hagg

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forgot to mention that i did a 50% water change and briefly removed the axolotls, vacuumed substrate with siphon, etc when I "deep cleaned" it
 

JM29

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Fungi in aquarium usually need an organic substrate to grow, so I suppose they are algae.
I suppose they don't look fully green because they are very thin.

Axolotls excrete ammonia.
Carbon can fix ammonia (but not destroy it).
If the water parameters you gave are those of the aquarium itself, then we must suppose ammonia is shared by the carbon filter and the algae...

With real living fast-growing aquatic plants, maybe you wont have this problem anymore.
 

GulfCoastAxolotls

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There been this strange white, furry algae or something that has been collecting in my tank. This began a while back. Noticed white stuff in aquarium, went to the pet store which suggested i buy a mingon 150 carbon filter for extra filtration and then deep clean everything. Which i did. i scraped it off every wall of the tank and removed everything except the substrate and scrubbed the stuff off with hot water. My tank is non-planted and it had grown on hides, fake plants, and even my divider. I even removed the filters and gently cleaned the sponges in dechlorinated water and cleaned off the tubing and all plastic parts. Ive been keeping as much light off my tank as possible (aside from sunlight through the window, it gets nothing) but to my dismay the stuff has come back. This time it seems to be stemming from the sponge fliters' bubble column and has even made its way inside the carbon filter's water chamber, to the point where it's slowed it down. This white stuff doesn't float in the water and only clings to surfaces and it seems the only way it could have made its way back into the aquarium is by growing inside the sponges. Im going to set up a new planted aquarium for each of my axolotls soon, just waiting on plants and substrate to come in the mail, but I'm worried that if i use my cycled filters to start new tanks, this stuff will make its way into them as well.

TLDR: I cleaned off EVERYTHING and my parameters are fine, yet I keep having some sort of white, furry algae bloom that has gotten in my filters.

I currently have two axolotls just under 6 inches separated in a 20 gallon long. i have one sponge filter on each side of their divider with a Mignon 150 HOB carbon filter as well.

Water parameters
pH: 7
nite: ~0 ppm
nate: ~0ppm
ammonia: 0ppm



View attachment 87640View attachment 87641
How long has your tank been set up?
That slimy stuff is basically like a slime algae. Its very common and accumulates very easily in axolotl tanks. It's annoying and kind of gross looking, but overall not harmful. I find the longer a tank has been set up, the better it gets, but you will still get some here and there.
 

axolotl nerd

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i have some mild white algae as you do, and it’s never been a real problem for me :)
 
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