# Is this biofilm that’s spread from the wood or a type of algae?



## BenR24 (21 May 2020)

So I’ve had this tank set for almost two weeks, seen some good growth, co2 injected, twinstar 600s, my wood had the usual biofilm quite a lot and I think in the flow has spread onto plants or is this algae? 











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## dw1305 (21 May 2020)

Hi all,





BenR24 said:


> I think in the flow has spread onto plants or is this algae?


Fungi from the wood.

cheers Darrel


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## BenR24 (21 May 2020)

Cheers Darrel,

Will this affect plant growth if its covering them as its kind of hard to remove without plucking the plants out of their position as they are still rooting.


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## jaypeecee (21 May 2020)

Hi @BenR24


dw1305 said:


> Fungi from the wood.



I agree with @dw1305 that it's a form of fungus. I don't know if @dw1305 would agree with me but I have a theory that the fungal spores are in the water and they feed on something that is leached from the wood. I once did some experiments that led me to that conclusion.

Although it's unsightly, it usually disappears without you needing to do anything. I'm not sure why this happens but give it a couple of weeks and let us have an update. That would be my suggestion.

JPC


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## Geoffrey Rea (21 May 2020)

BenR24 said:


> wood had the usual biofilm quite a lot and I think in the flow has spread onto plants or is this algae?



Part of the process... but it will affect plant health in the interim if don’t manage it a little bit. Siphoning the fungus off the plants at water change temporarily abates its progress, but either way it burns out when whatever it’s feeding on has been consumed or something else dominates the surface area.

The picture above is from a new scape with reused manzanita. As you can see it’s the first customer to appear when there’s organic matter to consume in an immature system. Best to think of the fungus as a helper rather than a hinderance as it’s easy to deal with and it’s processing organic waste early on when it’s highly beneficial.


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## Geoffrey Rea (21 May 2020)

On a more practical note... If you have a bamboo stick you can attach airline tube or small diameter hose (12mm or less) to it with sandwich ties for a rigid siphoning wand. Can remove the lot easily and quickly without upsetting your plants and the siphoning volume is slow so will only require a quick water top up, rather than a water change.


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## IconicHornbill (21 May 2020)

I used the smallest pipe I had to siphon it away each day, like some CO2 tubing. I found the suction was enough to lift the super lightweight slime but not the plants. Took about 3 weeks for it to clear up but totally gone now.


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## BenR24 (4 Jun 2020)

Ok, so this is an update, things growing out well however now had this growing, I gather its so some algae, also my Monte Carlo has gone whiteish in one patch, any help of what to do with this, i've begun dosing a small amount of Tropica ferts without N and P as according to the tropica advice. and upped my light period on 600s to 7 hours at 55%


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