Clear/white hairy slime

E

EJN

New member
Hi Everyone, I have been having trouble with a clear/white slimy stuff growing on all of my rocks and on much of the plastic pieces in the tank. The tank is a 40 gallon long (60x12.75x12) with relatively high flow and all of the parameters I have checked seem fine (Ammonia - 0ppm, Nitrate - 0ppm, Nitrite - 0ppm, PH - 8.0, SG 1.027, Ca - 360, KH - 179, temp 80-82, lights are on 11hrs 20mins a day)
The stuff has been getting worse over the past couple months and I really and I would really like to know what I can do to get rid of it. I have been doing approximately 35-45% water changes almost weekly but everything seems to be slowly getting worse. I've tried cleaning rocks while doing water changes but have not taken them out and scrubbed them and would like to leave this as a last resort. The tank is cleaned by a Rena XP3 canister filter. I put in new filter floss and rinse the filter pads and ceramic media usually every other water change (pretty much every time now). I plan on thoroughly cleaning the filter pads and ceramic media in hopes that the stuff may be "breading" there. There are lots of bugger like things in the ceramic rings and on the stars. I'm hoping cleaning (or replacing) everything will help but at this point I'm not really sure. I should also point out that I previously had two anemones. One got stuck on the power head and was killed before I realized he what happen. The other one, a white BTA slowly got smaller and smaller (I should have removed him at this point) until one day he pretty much disintegrated over night and made a mess of the tank. I wonder if this could have caused or contributed to the problem? Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated and sorry for the long post.

Thanks in advance,
Erik
 
ok.where to begin...
GET RID OF THAT CANISTER FILTER!!!! they are terrible terrible breeding grounds for a little thing we like to call detritus... the little "bugger" things your mentioning are called ampipods and copepods which are GOOD for your tank. you want as many of them as you can get to help feed fish and corals. think of it as free food. Next find a good protein skimmer. this will be the most important tool of your tank. Before i get to far into this. PLEASE visit our "new to the hobby" area of the forums and read up on the how to start a tank before spending more cash.. using "filters" i know most of us dont these days. besides maybe some filter floss to catch floating debris before it gets in our sumps. now then. a picture in this hobby is worth a thousand words. there are tons and tons of slimy things that grow in our tank. usually unless its gonna harm another creature in your tank. dont get rid of it cuz its good. From what your describing it sounds like a encrusting sponge. or perhaps a coral producing natural slime. When a coral is fed. it secretes this "slimy white stuff" that the coral catches food in. then the coral sucks it in and devowers it. if that happens and its not blown away from the coral a good healthy coral will start to get more colorful.

cheers mate. and good luck. welcome to the hobby. READ READ READ on this forum before you blow money. I know you wanna roll fast as possible. all of us do. but usually i wait 6 months before putting in a blue leg hermit... time is everything here
 
Oh wow, I cant believe I forgot to attach the pictures, lol. I was tired and went to bed right after posting it. Anyways here they are. Thanks for the reply reefmatenate. I'm not sure the bugger things are pods because they are up to the size of peas. Your right though. I should have only got one anemone and done a little bit more homework before getting it:headwally: Here are a few pics. I will get some of the things in the ceramic rings next time I do a water change (Probably Friday evening).
 

Attachments

  • photo 5.JPG
    photo 5.JPG
    100.5 KB · Views: 0
  • photo 2.jpg
    photo 2.jpg
    72.7 KB · Views: 0
  • photo 3.jpg
    photo 3.jpg
    60.6 KB · Views: 0
  • photo 4.jpg
    photo 4.jpg
    48.3 KB · Views: 0
  • photo 1.jpg
    photo 1.jpg
    78.2 KB · Views: 0
I have similar stuff growing in my tank, but I don't carbon dose. Is it indicative of a nutrient problem?
 
Bacteria, it has nothing to do with your canister filter. Canister filters do not breed detritus, it collects it. Many of us have run canister filters for carbon and GFO with zero issues, just keep it clean and remove any sponges or particle filtration. You do not have to deep clean the ceramic rings, just swish them in the water you remove with water changes, this will remove any large particles without disrupting the biological filtration they provide.

The bacteria is there because there are nutrients available for it to grow. It will diminish on it's own but something is fueling it. Are you adding any carbon sources like vinegar, vodka, sugar or bio pellets?
 
I don't know about EJN, but I don't add any carbon sources. I am using Pukani rock. There is a distinct difference between rocks. There are two rock in particular that the white fuzzy, slimy stuff seem to accumulate on more than the others. I'm thinking there is some nutrient source for it bound up in the rock itself. I don't use any type cannister filter. My GAC goes in the baffle of my sump.
 
Pukani is famous for PO4 being bound in the outer layers, it is really nice looking but dirty rock. There are ways to clean it.
 
batchelor2169 said:
It looks alot like what happens when you first start carbon dosing. Bacteria growth... not harmful in my opinion.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by carbon dosing? Using carbon in your sump?

I have had this stuff on my rocks too for the past few months. It seems to be going away slowly. I was using a few bags of chemi-pure elite in my sump and recently took them out because my corals aren't doing so well and I'm experimenting to find out why.
 
How old is this tank? It's not uncommon for a white 'fuzz' to appear on rocks in the first few weeks/months of a new tank.

MellowReefer said:
What do you mean by carbon dosing? Using carbon in your sump?

I have had this stuff on my rocks too for the past few months. It seems to be going away slowly. I was using a few bags of chemi-pure elite in my sump and recently took them out because my corals aren't doing so well and I'm experimenting to find out why.
Click to expand...

Carbon dosing, e.g. vodka or vinegar.
 
To me, it looks like crysophytes. What is your water source? Water high in silicates will usually produce this.
 
No, I am not dosing anything. The tank is about a year old and I make my own water using a Spectrapure RO/DI system and Reef Crystals salt. I have changed all of the filters in it (twice) with the exception of the membrane filter which hasn't been replaced. It still reads 0 TDS.

It's good to know that the stuff is most likely not harmful, just ugly. Would this stuff make it harder for copepods to survive in and around the rocks?

Thanks,
Erik
 
Last edited:
I have the same white fuzz all over my Marco Rocks. When I purchased them, I pressure washed them with regular tap water then dipped them in r/o water a 125lbs worth then I put all of them and 30lbs of Carribean LR in 2 45 gallon rubbermaid containers with salt water for 7 months. I did periodic water changes once a month or so and ghost fed the rocks every week to build bacteria.
I kept the cover for the trash cans on 100% of the time thus cooking the rock. Total Darkness.

Testing P04 at Zero on 3 test kits, Elos, API, and Salifert and N03 at zero on 2 kits Salifert and API. Still fuzz....no one has been able to explain what this crap is. All I know is it was never present on any tank I have ever had started with true LR. Only this dry rock stuff.

Yesterday I broke down and scrubbed the rocks with a tooth brush for about an hour during my water change. Looks better but still there. I also think this is causing no coraline to grow considering my cal has been at 430 pretty steady for 4 months.
Tank is new at 4 months old...but rock was cured for 7 months?

I do not dose anything either so its not that. I have sump filtration with a filter sock and an H&S A150 Protein Skimmer. It has to do with something inside the rock, but again P04 and N03 are undetectable. Must be nutrients of some kind/
 
I have Marco rocks too, about 70% of my rocks, the rest were transferred over from my old tank and covered in coralline. I've noticed the clear fuzz more on the Marco rocks, so I figured it's taking hold more than the rocks where coralline is not fully established (maybe preventing it?). I don't carbon dose either. Tank's been set up for 8 months. I also have no detectable nitrate or phosphate, running a pretty large refugium, get decent skimmate, not sure what is causing this.
 
Well the majority of my rocks are actually limestone which I got a few years ago. I thoroughly cleaned it all, although not quite as well as krzyphsygy, but pretty thoroughly.
 
sirreal63 said:
Pukani is famous for PO4 being bound in the outer layers, it is really nice looking but dirty rock. There are ways to clean it.
Click to expand...

+1.

Based entirely on posts I have seen here, the bacteria film the OP is experiencing seems to have a strong association with dry rock in new tanks.

My own experience (and that of others who are carbon dosing -- e.g., dosing vinegar or vodka) is that stringy bacteria snot can appear if too much is dosed, but this problem is very easy to correct (by reducing the dose). But the bacteria film associated with dry rock seems to take a lot longer to resolve.

I noticed that Marco is offering "pre-cured" dry rocks. I wonder if folks who have used the pre-cured rock have side-stepped the problem?

Also, has anyone starting a tank with live rock (gasp!) experienced the dreaded white fuzz?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

J
Help Clear Up Debris
Replies
9
Views
357
griss
griss
H
neglected tank
Replies
3
Views
269
griss
griss
wvned
Mass algae death
2
Replies
27
Views
582
shred5
shred5
P
Overflow water level keeps rising and falling
Replies
16
Views
368
plunderisley
P
J
Old salt mix vs old salty reefer
Replies
3
Views
299
Jposch
J
Back
Top