# Strange stuff growing in my tank



## Sinopa (Dec 29, 2009)

Some strange grey-ish green tentacle like stuff is growing from the lip of my air tube and on the nearby plastic plant that touches it. Algae also seems like it has made itself comfortable on the air tube and the coliseum decoration. Is it safe to leave it be or is there something I should do about it? I've never had this problem before, but this is the first time I've tried my hand at having live plants in the tank.

I would take a picture of it but my camera has decided to die and refuses to charge.

I have a 9 gallon biube, 3 tiger shrimp, two cherries, three ghosts, 5 neon tetras, 5 danios, one oto, live elodea. Halogen light.

No fish have died, all shrimp are accounted for. No strange behavior from any of the fish, they're all eating healthy.

current readings: 
Temperature kept at an even 80 degrees

Nitrate - 80 (Unsafe)
Nitrite - 0 (Safe)
Hardness - 300 (very hard)
Total Chlorine - 0
Total Alkalinity - 120 (Ideal)
pH - 7.8

5mL of Nutrafin Plant Gro added every Tuesday.

Edit: AmQuel + (removes Nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, chlorine & chloramines) added to take care of the nitrate level.


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## nomel (Jul 20, 2009)

"Nitrate - 80"

Since you're not changing your water often enough for the amount of fish and feeding, the algae is attempting to get rid of those nitrates for you.


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## 1077 (Apr 16, 2008)

Weekly water changes of 25 percent would work better at lowering nitrAtes.
Would also suggest lowering the temp to 75 degrees F. Eighty degrees is a bit too warm for neons and danios. Oto too would prolly like it a bit cooler.;-)


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## Angel079 (Feb 14, 2007)

I'd pers do a large water exhange with a Nitrate reading that high, like 60-70% large and then do weekly of like 30%....and always make sure to use a conditioner.


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## Sinopa (Dec 29, 2009)

I'll start lowering the temperature today and doing water changes more often.

But does anybody have any idea what the grey tendrils are? Or is it just some form of algae?


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## cmc29 (Jan 10, 2010)

It might be string algae...it's pretty common in newly planted setups if you're out of balance with your light, ferts, and co2. One of the gurus can help you with that. Ddoes it look like this?


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## Sinopa (Dec 29, 2009)

The stuff in my tank resembles that, but thicker

The shrimp are currently in the process of devouring it, I've never seen them move so fast


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## Angel079 (Feb 14, 2007)

There's a ton different types algae out there the only way we could give a good advise is either a picture or you googel different algae's and see what looks like yours and let us know.


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## cmc29 (Jan 10, 2010)

what kind of shrimp do you have?


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## Sinopa (Dec 29, 2009)

YouTube - Strange stuff in tank
I took a video of it, the camera wouldn't focus on the algae

I have cherry shrimp, ghost, and tiger


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