# is this water mold?????



## martian123 (May 21, 2011)

i came home today to a dead guppy in my 26 gallon completely covered in white fuzzy stuff. there is also a white film in a peace sign rock that i have and there is some pieces of food at the bottom covered in it too. i have a done a little rescearch and i think it might be water mold. 

1. Size of tank: 26 bowfront

2. Water parameters
a. Ammonia: 0
b. Nitrite:0
c. Nitrate:0
d. pH, KH and GH: ph 6.5
e. Test kit?

3. Temperature: 78

4. FW (fresh water) or BW (brackish): fresh water

5. How long the aquarium has been set up? 3 weeks , but cycled

6. What fish do you have? How many are in your tank? How big are they? How long have you had them?
2 honey gouramis, two guppies, one female betta, one swordtail, two painted glass fish, two cherry barbs, 5 ghost shrimp and two otos

7. Were the fish placed under quarantine period (minus the first batch from the point wherein the tank is ready to accommodate the inhabitants)? i do not have a quarantine tank

8. a. Any live plants? Fake plants? six fake plants and some java ferns and amazon swords
b. Sand, gravel, barebottom? black gravel
c. Rocks, woods, fancy decors? Any hollow decors? a peace sign rock

9. a. Filtration? aqueon quiet flow 20
b. Heater? aqueon 20

10. a. Lighting schedule? What lights are used? 10 hours a day one 30 watt tube
b. Any sunlight exposure? How long? moderate all day sunlight

11. a. Water change schedule? once a week
b. Volume of water changed? 30 percent
c. Well water, tap water, RO water? filtered tap water
d. Water conditioner used? aqueon with aloe
e. Frequency of gravel/sand (if any) vacuumed? once a month

12. Foods? flakes, bloodwoorms, and brine shrimp 
How often are they fed? twice a day

13. a. Any abnormal signs/symptoms? white fuzz 
b. Appearance of poop? normal
c. Appearance of gills? normal

14. a. Have you treated your fish ahead of diagnosis? no
b. What meds were used?

15. Insert photos of fish in question and full tank shot if necessary.


Read more: http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/...orm-read-before-you-post-61135/#ixzz1X8EJzaM4


----------



## Zorse (Jul 9, 2011)

Yes, I believe it's a mold. I experienced the mold in 2 of my tanks while they were still new. I was told that it was called 'slime mold' and that it's caused from decaying food or decaying fish in the tank. Since you have pieces of food laying on the bottom with mold on them it sounds like you're overfeeding which might have caused it. That's what caused mine.

I'm not an expert, but I'll tell you how I got rid of mine.

I took out all the rocks and the 2 fake plants that were in the tank, rinsed all the mold off of them with tap water. Cleaned the filter out (unfortunately, I had to since it was full of slime) and while the rocks were out I vacuumed the gravel real well. Netted all suspended slime out of the water. I then treated with Maroxy and it was completely dead by the end of the treatment (5 days). After the treatment I did a final vacuuming to get any left over slime and netted out all remaining suspended slime from the water. Wiped out my filter one last time and put all the rocks back in the tank. The fish lived through it in both my experiences with it, and it hasn't come back in either tank since. I tried this same process without the Maroxy in my first experience with it and the mold didn't go away, it kept growing, so I do feel that the Maroxy was necessary. A guy who works at my LFS recommended it to me to kill the mold.

Hopefully this will help you in deciding how to rid your tank of it. I definitely recommend the Maroxy treatment if your real plants can handle it.


----------



## martian123 (May 21, 2011)

did your real plants handle it fine.. i really don;t want them to die

thank you for your response


----------



## Zorse (Jul 9, 2011)

I've never kept real plants due to the fish I keep so I'm not sure how plants would handle it. I tried to do a search for it and couldn't find anything, and the bottle doesn't mention anything about plants. Maybe you could ask someone who knows a lot about plants or call a LFS you can trust to see if they know. Good luck with your tank, hopefully someone will come along who knows if this medication is safe for plants or not.


----------

