Strange growth on gravel

OK then this is my first post,Ive been keeping tropical fish for over 40 years,but Ive never seen what has happened in one of my tanks recently,its a sort of sticky slime that sticks to the gravel and ordinary use of the gravel cleaner will not pick it up,the only way I have found to remove it is to stir up the gravel which releases the slime then it can be sucked up and removed but.....it will return in about 3 days and it has to be done again and again and again,very frustrating of course,looking at it through the glass it looks like a very fine cotton wool coating on the gravel,does anyone know what this is? :|

 

It sounds like a fungus, maybe from uneaten food. Try cutting down on the food and stepping up the w/c's.

 

I thought that at first so didnt feed very much for a week or so,also water changed every day,asked the expert at my aquarium centre and he had heard of it but said it was nothing to do with overfeeding and that he knew of no cure so thats why Im posting here in the hope someone does know about it,my only thoughts are a complete overhaul of the tank that I dont really want to do for obvious reasons,many thanks for your reply

 

no sweat!!!!

that fungus is actually kind of beneficial, it takes care of the uneaten food in my tanks and is harmless to the fish.

 

I think I had the same problem you have. The only way I got rid of it was to completely clean every square inch of the bottom of the tank and keep the light off for a while. It took a couple of cleanings but I finally did it.

 

Re: no sweat!!!!

Ok thanks for your reply and I dont see it as any threat to the fish but in this particular tank I have an undergravel filter,and this fungus sort of becomes a sticky carpet over the entire surface of the gravel so was wondering about its effect on the filtering process .... take care

 

Many thanks bwknox for your reply thats what I was sort of told at my aquarium centre,every little morsel needed removing or it would continue (which it does) so it looks like Ive got a lot of cleaning to do when I can face it :lol: still wondering how it came to be ther in the first place though,its only in this one tank and Ive never come across it before in over 40 years of fishkeeping....take care