White Slime Around My Co2 Diffuser...

[B2k2]

Hi,

I have had my 24 UK Gallon tank set up for about 8 days now and started a fishless cycle 5 days ago. It is quite a heavily planted tank with lots of straight and twisted Vallis, a few amozons, 2 java moss balls and various other plants. I initially had one Nutrafin CO2 system but as my intank CO2 indicator is not green enough I have added another, this isn't producing lots of CO2 yet as its been only set up for 2 days.

The thing is I have noticed that there is some sort of white/clear slime building up around my first CO2 diffuser. Its seems to be mostly around where the CO2 comes out which initially slows the bubble down a little, its also on the suction cups and the tubing at the top. Can you tell me what this maybe? or if its going to cause any problems?

The other thing is that I'm getting quite a bit of grey hair algae growing on my Vallis and another grass that was only added yesterday. Will this dissapear when growth really starts happening or will I have to remove it?

 

[zig]

Have a look through this thread and it should answer your question and give you a few tips also, you could read gf225s pinned article at the top of this section on carbon dioxide as well for additional info on co2.

Thread

 

[B2k2]

Have a look through this thread and it should answer your question and give you a few tips also, you could read gf225s pinned article at the top of this section on carbon dioxide as well for additional info on co2.

Thread

Thanks for that zig! My water is pretty hard so I'm gonna pop out and get some proper powdered yeast now.. think I'll start the second unit first as it still isnt producing many bubbles. Hopefully the white slime will dissapear when I've done the same to the forst unit...

So what about the hair algae? what can I do about that?

 

[zig]

How much light do you have over the tank and what way are you fertilising the plants, have you any test kits and if you do what are the results?

As much info as you can provide really that will give us a better idea of whats going on, as regards the hair algae.......hmmm......pretty quick for it to show up after only 8 days, its probably a co2 issue or lack of thats causeing the problem, but without proper tank stats impossible to tell.

 

[kenneth_kpe]

hmmm and i always thought that the slimy substance was unavoidable.... i rigged my c02 system with a bubble counter and it dissapeared... probably got trapped in the bubble chamber.... then again i started adding baking soda to my yeast mixture a while back... (the water around here is around 0 KH dunno the GH though)....

*im getting confused now... somebody enlighten us !!

 

[zig]

hmmm and i always thought that the slimy substance was unavoidable.... i rigged my c02 system with a bubble counter and it dissapeared... probably got trapped in the bubble chamber.... then again i started adding baking soda to my yeast mixture a while back... (the water around here is around 0 KH dunno the GH though)....

*im getting confused now... somebody enlighten us !!

Well i think what gf wrote in the other thread is true, or is the case as it were, anytime i used bicarbonate of soda in my DIY mix i got the white wispy stuff at the end of the airline in the tank, which would get blocked and require cleaning, now i dont use the bicarbonate of soda anymore in my mix and i dont get the white buildup anymore either, i just use sugar yeast and water.

 

[B2k2]

How much light do you have over the tank and what way are you fertilising the plants, have you any test kits and if you do what are the results?

As much info as you can provide really that will give us a better idea of whats going on, as regards the hair algae.......hmmm......pretty quick for it to show up after only 8 days, its probably a co2 issue or lack of thats causeing the problem, but without proper tank stats impossible to tell.

I have a 36" 30w Interpet Triplus Tube with a reflector (only have space in hood for one bulb). The substrate is 2 bags of Red Sea Flora Base topped with sand, I am using a Rena 50w heat cable to heat the tank. I have also added a dose of Nutrafin Plant Gro which came free with the CO2 Kits.

Just tested the water with Nutrafin test kits, results are approx as I am finding it a bit difficult to compare the tubes to the scales...

Ammonia = 0.8 - 1.0
Nitrite = 0.8 - 1.6
Nitrate = 30 - 50
PH = 7.0
KH = 100 (dKH = 5.6)
GH = 240 (dGH = 13.44)

CO2 is being tested with a Red Sea CO2 Indicator which sits in the tank and give a real time reading. This currently quite blue but I have just set up both of my reactors with fresh yeast this afternoon, it may take a little while for levels to come up I guess. I did try to find a CO2 test kit that gave an actual ppm reading but couldn't find one anywhere locally.

As I've already mentioned I am currently 5 days into a fishless cycle, so these results are looking quite good for that so far...

Hope this helps

 

[zig]

Ok i thought this tank may have been a highlight tank given that you were running co2.

You measure co2 with a Ph and a KH test kit and you cross reference the results and use a co2 chart to determine the ppm of co2 in the water.

Co2 chart

^^Thats a very good site btw you should check out the other sections also if you havent come across it before, the co2 chart is at the end of the page just scroll down.

Your tank would auctually be considered a lowlight tank, you have 1 watt per gallon, your tank is 29 US gallons, we use US gallons to measure light for planted tanks.

I would wait until your tank has cycled to determine the type of algae, planted tanks at startup can suffer algae problems this is common, but doing a fishless cycle on top of this is not helping either, i would wait for the tank to cycle and settle down a little bit and hopefully the algae will disappear also.

This tank given that the light is so low does not require carbon supplementation (co2) the carbon demands of plants at this low light is minimal, this tank should also require very little fertiliser, the fishwaste and the fish food should supply most of the plants needs and other trace elements should by supplied water changes.

So basically what i am saying is that this should be an easy enough tank to take care of given that the lighting is so low, the only problem i can see is that the lighting may be to low, somewhere around 1.5 WPG is ideal for a low light tank IMO, but if you avoid plants that require high light and stick to low light plants this tank should do ok particularily given that you have the correct type tube (for plants) and are useing a reflector.

So i would just wait until the tank has cycled and then add the fish to start feeding the plants and hopefully the grey type algae will disappear.

 

[B2k2]

Thanks for the advise zig and thanks for the link, very good site indeed..

As you say I better just wait and see what happens. I may even see if there is a way of adding another light, there must be some way of putting another into my clearseal hood.

Thanks again

 

[zig]

Two 16 inch power compacts (36 watts each, total 72 watts = 3 WPG) would fit lengthways in the hood, but then you would suddenly be a highlight tank, id stick with the lowlight for the moment and just keep reading up on planted tanks and then you could take the plunge later and upgrade to a highlight tank if you wished.

Best of luck with it.