white stuff ALL over the aquarium!

Question
Hi Karen!

I have an established (for 5  months) 10 gallon tank with live plants along with 2 platies, 8 guppies, and 2 otos.  I have a filter, heater, and as far as I know water parameters are pretty good.

I bought a few new plants 2 days ago, and planted them in without much problems.  The next morning, I woke up, turned on my light, and saw TONS of white stuff coating the aquarium walls from the bottom to the top, the filter tube, and the java moss!  There was a literal outburst of something overnight.  It was really gross.  I tried to see what it was online, but there really wasn't an answer.  The fish seem fine though, still swimming along happily without a care in the world.

It looks like teeny tiny white dots that sway back and forth due to water movement. The best way to describe them would be fluff balls, but more on the stringy side.  There are no tentacles or anything like that.  Some are more stringy than others, most look more like dots that are really close together.

I decided to do a 25% water change, and I scraped everything off the walls with an algae scrubber.  It wasn't too hard to get off, but there was just so many.
I took apart the water filter to clean the inside and it was COVERED in whitish/yellowish/slimy stuff.  It also wasn't too hard to get off, but it was in all the tiny crevices, so it was impossible to get everything off.  After painstakingly rinsing everything (ornaments, filter, plant and all) out, I put them back in, and hoped it would be better.

It has been 5 hours since I did the water change and clean...and the aquarium walls are starting to be covered again.  The back wall is already dotted with the white stuff from top the bottom.  The wall where the java moss is is also waking on a nice shade of white, eeyuck.  Do you have any idea on what it could be, and could you please help me out?

Thanks!!


Answer
Hi Judy,
It sure sounds like a type of aquarium fungus that often develops where there is leftover fish food or decaying plant matter. It may be just coincidence that it appeared after you added the plants or the plants may have brought something along with them and dispersed it into the water. Were the plants in pots when you bought them? If they were, that may be part of it.

But the best thing to do is to water changes. Its a lot of work but that would be the only solution to the problem. You have done good already by doing a water change and scrubbing the walls with an algae scrubber. I would try 50% water changes everyday (with gravel vacuuming and scrubbing with the algae scrubber) and the white stuff should go away without coming back. It may take some time.

Let me know how things are going along! ;-)
Karen~