clear/white mucus/slime in tank help

[Aquamechanic]

Well I last updated February of 2017 so it has been almost a year and a half since I discovered the alcohol source at my clients dental office. Alcohol wipes that were used to wipe chairs and equipment tables between patients.
Stopped using them. Solved.

This was unequivocally the reason and sole source of the slime bacteria that cursed the tank for nearly 2 years.

The tank is now thriving. All coral looks great and fish and inverts are all behaving normally.

If anyone considered a similar problem (VOC's) may be what is causing their slime outbreak, try to vent the room and get the air supply for your skimmer from an outside air source if possible. The improvement is nearly immediate.

Good luck

:beer:

 

[bertoni]

[welcome]

to mashmasterj.

 

[Chicago]

wow.. so glad I found this thread.. sorry to be resurrecting.. but was there ever any final conclusion on the cause.. I have it forming on my frag QT tank.. tank has little to zero nutrients. Low phosphate.. at one point I thought it was the result of low alk and low light.

I should note that I have no issue of it in my DT. Or my Fish QT tank. Only in my Frag 30 gallon QT. I was searching for pics of what I had and could not find until I hit this thread. Was thinking maybe it was Dino. Thanks for all the info you all posted.

 

[Aquamechanic]

It has been another year and the tank is still doing well. Never had an issue again once the source of alcohol fumes was eliminated.

If your frag tank is isolated from the other aquariums not effected by the slime then the source may be in the room with the frag tank. Could also be, as in my case, there was air filtration (carbon filter) that was installed in the basement. The makup water barrel located nearby stopped getting the slime but the aquarium located on another floor continued to have it. This was because the aquarium was located near the source and still had alcohol fumes getting drawn into the skimmer while return air flow from the furnace was filtered clean.

Try to consider anything that would put VOC's (alcohol fumes etc.) into your air near the problem tank. If you can get a carbon filter to run nearby that would confirm.

AM

 

[NWoods]

This has been a very informative thread. I had a 50G cube setup in my living room. Everything was great. Then one weekend my kids decided to run our small air humidifier with some scented oils. About a day later, the stringy slime appeared in my DT. I looked inside the humidifier and saw some pink residue around the bottom. Some kind of bacteria.
I went to the hardware store, and immediately bought 2 of the best 3M Filtrete filters I could find. One for my furnace, and the other to put behind a box fan. I ran the air for 8 hours and the box fan for 3 days to clean the air. Never dosed anything in the tank The white slime began to retreat and after a week and a half, I was slime free.

For those out there who find this thread, I think we are coming to the consensus that it is somewhat related to air quality in our homes. Replace your furnace filters every month and allow outside air to come into the home to replace stale air. I'm sure some is related and some is not but nonetheless, a visual inspection of our tanks is always the first indicator of an issue.

 

[bertoni]

That's interesting. A number of people have reported problems with products like that. I'm glad your tank recovered quickly.