[Guillermo]

I wonder if any of you have had this "stained spots" in your driftwood. 2 weeks ago I noticed some sort of dark red spots had appeared on some mopani pieces in my 82 low-tech planted tank. I have never seen this stuff before in any tank. Recently I've got rid of 2 ancystrus because they were messing a lot with my plants, I was replanting some of them weekly, a real pain for sure. I still have my 6 otocinclus, but they don't seem to take care of the red stuff. In those mopani pieces it's growing some clado by the way.

I have not made any change in water parameters, just added some plants (hygro siamensis, hygro rosanervig, cryptocorine parva and dwarf saggitaria, I have added some black lava rocks (previously boiled and brushed madly :hihi: )

Do you think it would be red algae ?

This weekend I will take out all the mopani, mangroove and some driftwood to clean them deeply, I will boil the small pieces just to be sure.

Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post.

 

[Guillermo]

I suppose this "rusty" spots are not very common :hihi:

My camera is broken, so I can't post pics, thanks for reading.

 

[Betowess]

Is it old or new wood? Might be diatoms?? Edit: I see you said the Otos didn't care for it so must not be diatoms... I have had problems with red algaes before. I'm hoping the stuff I'm working on now is diatoms. Seems my Otos are going after it a bit.

 

[Guillermo]

Hi Betowess, thanks for the input. The mopani roots have been for quite a while in my 82, it's really strange, I haven't changed anything recently, only got rid of my 2 ancistrus.I didn't take them out to clean them this weekend, I will wait one more week, looks like my neocaridinae are picking some of the stuff. I hope you are working on diatoms, they are easier to get rid of than red algae.

Good Luck.