You’ve seen these growths, little white hairy tufts but what are they?

I asked this question when I first saw these so I put them under the microscope. Sadly the images of that are soo blurry.

But what do I think is here:

• Vorticella
• Bryozoa
• Rotifers

Which is it then? Well definitely I have seen Vorticella, these look like little springy balloons under the microscopes. The other organisms I have seen could be either Bryozoans or Rotifers and I have definitely seen people with great Bryozoan colonies compared to this.

What is the cause?

These organisms are all filter feeders. These seem to really bloom to a high suspended sediment load so it is logical why these organisms are here. Like anything they are indicator species particularly when on the glass. I personally find they grow particularly well when using botanicals but as do biofilms so likely a lot of bacterial load in the water too.

What can I do?

Reduce the amount of sediment load so maybe using less botanicals in future? It’s difficult to say entirely.