Lots Of Whitish Slime

[fishboytoo]

I've recently set up a 29 gallon tank in my lunch room at work. I took some gravel from one of home tanks and put it in a bag in the filter to help the cycle along. About one week later, the next time I saw it, there was a whitish/clear slime over everything. It doesn't look like any algae or diatom film that I have ever seen and I assumed it was a bacterial film. At this point I added some live plants, a few zebra danios, and a mystery snail. I hoped the snail would eat the slime. The tank has not cycled as I am only reading low ammonia (0.5 mg/L) and zero nitrites, the danios are showing no signs of distress. It's now 11 days and the slime has increased. It is about 2cm long, waves in the current like algae, and is covering everything-even the plants. It plugged up the filter, which I changed, but the water is very clear. It wipes off the glass easily and doesn't have much odour. The only decoration in the tank is a large piece of fake wood. Any ideas on what this stuff is? Should I do anything about it? I have cycled tanks before but have never seen this nor can I find any info on the internet about it.

 

[fishboytoo]

I guess nobody knows what this slime is.

I had another thought about it. When I set up the tank I added some Bio-coat made by Marineland labs, which came with the setup. It says on the bottle "promotes natural slime coat". The ingredients: "polyvinylpyrrolidone,EDTA,TRIS, and BIO-GARD". I have not used this before so I was wondering if it may be the cause. Anybody use this stuff?

BTW I performed a 40% water change and wiped the slime off as much as I could. The filter was plugged solid and the intake as also clogged with this stuff. I rinsed the filter and replaced. I also put in an old filter sponge taken from one of my home tanks, maybe it will tip the bacterial balance-if that is what this stuff is. The water is still clear and the fish are very active and healthy.

My boss wants to get an algae eater of some kind. He thinks it will eat the slime. I don't think this stuff is algae because it is clear or whitish where it gets longer. As far as I know algae is green, brown or black. Does anyone think an otto or two would help? I am quite clueless about this situation right now and would appreciate any input.

 

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

I recently cycled another marine QT and I never use those products to promote slime coat, but had the same white stuff for a while. I have also been wondering what it is, but have just been assuming that it is part of cycling.

 

[fishboytoo]

I recently cycled another marine QT and I never use those products to promote slime coat, but had the same white stuff for a while. I have also been wondering what it is, but have just been assuming that it is part of cycling.

The slime you had, was it covering everything? How long before it went away? Did you do anything or did it just go away on its own?

 

[docbanzai]

Hi, first post so please be gentle!

I had a similar (maybe the same) problem and couldn't figure it out, and then today my local Aqua-Guru explained that was probably the fact that I had used Stress Coat, which contains large amounts of Aloe Vera. Apparently this can coat everything in the tank (including the residents) with an extra thick slimey straight-jacket if not used sparingly.

So far I've controlled it with liberal cleaning (removing one or two items per day) and giving them a bloomin good scrub until the 'slimeyness' had gone. This seems to be helping, but with the new info I've now got I've switched to another product instead of Stress Coat. Stay tuned for further info...

SO... Have you used any products like this? If so then I suspect that's your culprit. Scrub, scrub, scrub and get some new additives...!

Hope that's some help.

 

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

Well sparingly or not, those products are worthless if being used for anything other than a dechlorintaor IMO.

I cant tell if the slime covered everything, but it did cover the walls for what seemed like about 2-3 weeks. I just scurbbed it off once in a while and did a water change immediately after to remove it from the system. But again, mine wasn't caused by a product so I dont know about that part of it.

 

[fishboytoo]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm not sure if the additives are responsible or not. Either way I guess I'm left with cleaning and water changes until it goes away. I will keep you posted on my progress. I suppose as long as the fish are fine with it, then it's not that big of a worry.

 

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

Yeah I am still curious about what it is though...

 

[fishboytoo]

Yeah I am still curious about what it is though...

Me too. It's driving me nuts actually. I was considering taking some into a lab for identification.

 

[Tolak]

It's part of a tank cycling. Had the same problem with a 72 gallon at work. The filter fried, so the owner's son replaced it, new media & all. Nice white bacterial bloom, and the slimyness you are describing. Took about a month before it cleared up.

 

[fishboytoo]

That was my first impression, that it had to be bacterial. I've just never seen anything like it before.

Thanks for all the input. I'm glad i'm not the only one who's had this before.