Semi-transparent / White Floaters During Fishless Cycling

[hakova]

Hi there,

I am on the 4th day of my fishless cycling with a 10 gallon tank, Eheim ecco 2232 canister filter, no lights, 86 degrees F. My ammonia levels are around 1 ppm as of today already, from 4 when started 4 days ago. I saw 1-5 mm semi-transparent floaters all through the tank today for the first time. They looked like small pieces of nylon. I opened the canister to see the water inside was maybe 10 times richer than the tank as far as the floaters were concerned. I emptied the 'dirty' water in the canister and connected it back to the tank. I did *not* wash the media, since I didn't have any warm, 'clean' de-chlorinated water. Are these algae you think? I always had this perception that they would have color (blue, brown, green, etc.) whereas these are basically colorless stuff. They almost formed a thin layer around the strainer of the filter intake. What are these things? Should I be concerned?

I will add equal volume of water I emptied from the canister along with some ammonia now. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[cowboy507]

wow your temp is high! id lower that to closer to 80.
i dont know if that has anything to do with it.
i cant help though really, sorry.
good luck on your cycle

 

[hakova]

Thanks cowboy507. After dumping the water in the filter, the water in the tank got clean again within a couple of hours. I guess I will wait and see when/if this develops again.

I am reluctant to decrease the temperature at the moment. I believe 86 degree F (30 C) should not be too hot to adversely affect the bacterial growth. I also started seeing a drop in ammonia levels only after 4 days I started cycling; I tend to attribute at least part of this to the water temperature. I know waterdrop recommends 84F, but I was just too lazy to adjust the setting of heater from 86 to 84 .Of course one possibility is that these were 'biofilms ' or floating colonies of some sort, which may be directly related to the relatively high temperature setting. I guess I will wait and see if the situation recurs.

By the way any recommendations where I can find a couple of rocks of different sizes? LFSs have some but they all look like mass products, and artificial. I am just looking for some to define a focal point in the tank. I prefer black but the color is not that important, just the right size and natural look would suffice.

 

[waterdrop]

You might be describing Planaria worms and if so they are a passing common thing and nothing to worry or do anything about. On the other hand, they are usually described as a bit whitish although extremely tiny and sometimes hard to make out, so I hope there's not a possibility that you have any media that's old a breaking up and getting out into the water (polyfloss or glass-wool come to mind).. I would assume this is unlikely.

Rocks would be those things easily found on a visit to planet earth, lol. When you find'em outdoors they just need to be scrubbed and given the "vinegar test".. which just means you just put some vinegar on them and see if they fizz. If they do then that means they have enough calcium carbonate type makeup that they would raise your hardness/pH and should only be used if that's desired (which it shouldn't be without a definate decision!)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[cowboy507]

By the way any recommendations where I can find a couple of rocks of different sizes? LFSs have some but they all look like mass products, and artificial. I am just looking for some to define a focal point in the tank. I prefer black but the color is not that important, just the right size and natural look would suffice.

id agree with waterdrop about finding them outdoors somewhere a lake nearby would be good, but if not you could try a gardening store, they will usually have decorative rocks and such.

 

[hakova]

Thanks a lot for the suggestions. I will have an expedition soon to find some interesting specimens .

A day after the crisis, the water seems crystal clear, filter functional, everything OK. Whatever caused the floaters seem to have not persisted at least.



Edit:

Just checked ammonia, it is down to 2 from 4 within 24 hours! For the first time I started seeing nitrite, which is currently 1 ppm. Keeping the fingers crossed.

 

[waterdrop]