# Black Specks Floating in Tank



## TheWindWaker (Feb 25, 2012)

I have a 2.5 gal filtered tank with a silk plant. I've had the plant for about a week and everything was fine. My fish loved it and even made a giant bubble nest under one of the leaves. However I noticed this last time when I cleaned the tank that the filter had a giant green spot.

I would've changed the filter, but as I was cleaning the tank my mother was having trouble with our new puppy and started screaming at me every three minutes over how I needed to hurry up and get the dog so admittedly I rushed figuring it was just parts of the plant. I'm moving in a week anyways so I thought it could last until I reset up the tank.

However I noticed this morning that the top of the tank suddenly had a lot of floating black specks. A lot of them are clustered on the plant itself. I'm not sure what caused these specks and I'm honestly at a loss over what to do to get rid of it.

I'm going to move my fish to a smaller tank in the meantime, but I would like to know the cause of this, how I can prevent it, and if it will cause any damage to the fish.


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## Micho (Aug 22, 2011)

Pictures would greatly help to be honest. 

The giant green spot is probably algae but the black specks, could be anything. . Mold, debris from the air, etc. Hard to tell for certain.


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## TheWindWaker (Feb 25, 2012)

Drat, I really should have done that but it didn't cross my mind. Again I was being rushed by parents to get to puppy duties.

I guess they were sort of the size of fleas, but they didn't look like insects. I initially thought it was something from the silk plant since that's when my problems started. Like perhaps burned fragments from the edges since I had the tank light on and one leaf was very close to the water surface. I doubt this now judging by how many groups of this stuff was floating along the top of the water. That seemed to be where it was staying.

As for the green stuff...I assumed again that something came from the silk plant. But it could very well have been a mold or algae. I've never dealt with algae.

I've only had the tank for slightly over a month and it was only that last cleaning that I noticed anything unusual. Actually I'd also just changed the filter so perhaps that caused something strange?

I'll be starting the tank over again this Sunday and letting my fish go back on Monday.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

what substrate do you have? gravel/sand/dirt/marbles/etc.?


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## TheWindWaker (Feb 25, 2012)

Marbles.

The only things in that tank were the marbles, one silk plant, a thermometer, a leaf hammock, and the fish himself.


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