# Other Aquarium Forums > Fish Care, Nutrition and Water Management >  White Stuff Growing on Substrate

## AlexPoon

Hi please help!

I came back home from my overseas trip and all of the sudden my shrimp tank smells really bad and upon closer inspection there are some weird white stuff growing on the substrate, Im very worried it may be mould, might need to rescape soon. Any Advices?

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## eugenelzj

bad smells is usually from "blue green algae", check if you tank has it

not sure about the white stuff thou, maybe some kind of fungus/mould? but i dont see recall reading about fungus or mould problem in shrimp tanks thou, maybe the shrimp eats it?

also what soil is that? if someone has a similar problem with the same soil then we know its probably the soil

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## AlexPoon

The next day all m shrimps was wiped out with no survivors  :Sad:  


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## Blutrance

> The next day all m shrimps was wiped out with no survivors  
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Hi Alex, did you manage to find out what the white stuff was?

I seem to be getting something similar on the 5th day of cycling my tank. I wonder is it the subtrate. I'm using Tropica aquarium soil. But I capped it over some potting mix and really hope I don't regret that.

The pictures below are of the white growth on the subtrate. Is it similar to yours?

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## AlexPoon

> Hi Alex, did you manage to find out what the white stuff was?
> 
> I seem to be getting something similar on the 5th day of cycling my tank. I wonder is it the subtrate. I'm using Tropica aquarium soil. But I capped it over some potting mix and really hope I don't regret that.
> 
> The pictures below are of the white growth on the subtrate. Is it similar to yours?
> 
> Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk


Omg I had the same thing on my substrate and it made my tank water and the wood very smelly like everything has turned mouldy, shrimps were dying by the hour and I had no choice but to discard everything and boil my substrate to remove the white stuff on it.

I hope yours dont happen to be the same as mine, all the best !


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## ross.chang

I've similar white stuff experience on my newly started tank, notice the white stuff appear while doing DSM, after 1 month of dsm, decided to flood the tank as the white stuff is killing off plants. After flooding, the white stuff continue to spread, growing especially on dead leaves. I've similar growth on the substrate as well as white thread like stuff from dead leaves all over, basically consumed all my crypt, however the growth on my substrate is not as bad as yours, mainly dead plants.

Didn't have any solution, decided on daily water change while trying to siphon the white thread & dead leaves away as much as possible, think my tank now pretty much stabilised.

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## kklim

Think it's a fungus known as slime mold. Commonly found on rotting wood so could have come with the driftwood. Hydrogen peroxide is said to kill it.

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## hann

This is generally seen at the kick start of a tank. Slowly they will go away after some water changes.

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## rogerlim

I compare the photos between Alex and Ross. They look different. I have bio film growing on my drift wood. It looks the same as Ross and does not smell. 

Alex said his tank water smells. So it may be something else.

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## ross.chang

> I compare the photos between Alex and Ross. They look different. I have bio film growing on my drift wood. It looks the same as Ross and does not smell. 
> 
> Alex said his tank water smells. So it may be something else.


Yea, mine didn’t smell. during the early stages of flooding, this white stuff killed off a lot of my plants and stalled the growth on my HC...  :Sad:  Tackled it with daily water change then while trying to suck up as much white thread as possible. It took a while to get rid of it, even so, plant grow had stalled for quite a fair bit.

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