Help ID problem - whitish ribbons attached to plants

[pawelski]

Hi, Newbie help! I setup my first aquascape 6 days ago and today I noticed whitish/transparent ribbons attached to a lot of the plants, the problems wasn't there yesterday. There seem to be also a whitish film on the surface, which breaks easily when touched. I wonder if it's some sort of fungi or bacteria rather than algae. Can you help identify it, suggest a solution? I've been doing daily 50% water changes since setup and have good circulation.

Setup:
nano tank - 25 litres
Lighting - LED, 5W
Daily photoperiod - 7 hours
CO2 - none
Filtration - External Eheim ecco pro 130, 500LPH
Fertilisation - All in one theaquascaper complete liquid plant food - 1/2 ml a day after water change
Temperature - 20 C (no heater)
Substrate - ADA aquasoil Amazonia

Thanks!
Pawel

 

[Sarpijk]

It looks like white fungus that appears on the wood in new tanks. It should go away on its own soon enough. During the water change you could also siphon it out with a hose.

 

[pawelski]

Thanks for that. I've siphoned them out and they seem to have gone, but appeared the next day. I'll just keep up the water changes and try to remove them as much as I can. Hopefully they'll disappear altogether soon!

 

[Rob Wilkinson]

I've got the exact same problem in my new-ish tank with no wood.
I was thinking (but not sure) that it was a film forming on the surface of the water, which is broken up and gets stirred into the tank whenever I work on it.

I'm looking at options for a surface skimmer, let me know how you get on / if you find out what it is.

 

[pawelski]

I was also wondering if these are the bits broken off the surface film, but they seem to different in structure. The surface films cracks/breaks easily, while these ribbons keep their shape, so not sure. I have been keeping up with the water changes and there seem to be a lot fewer of them, hopefully the'll be gone soon.

I also need to look at a skimmer, there is the Eheim Skim 350, but I don't really want to add it permanently and putting it in and out is going to get boring. I was also looking at lily pipes with the skimmer, so that'll be the option I probably go for. I need to find the right size for my little cube tank, as the height of the tank is only 30cm.

What skimmers are you looking at?

 

[Rob Wilkinson]

I looked at the lily inflow with skimmer but it looks a bit bulky and I don't really like the design
I also looked at the Ocean Free SurfClear (cheaper alternative to Eheim Skim 350) but like you I don't really want anything additional in the tank.

I think I'll just keep clearing the surface manually during weekly maintenance for now and if it becomes a big problem I'll get the OF SurfClear, perhaps on a timer to run a few hours a day.