Disappointed. Clear White Mucus all over.

[PirateLove]

Hello RC. I have been in the hobby for two years now and just spent a lot of time and money setting up a new tank after my old one sprang a leak. It is now two weeks old and cycled. I used live rock from the mature tank.

BUT today I noticed I have strings of clear/white mucus or slime on my rock, sandbed, and on the sump walls.

I have never seen this before. Is this a bacterial bloom or is it from the infestation of ugly nasty vermetid snails I notices today also. My rocks are now covered with these little spiral things. Horrible :sad2: Does anybody know what this stuff is?
Hopefully you can see the photo. Some strings are almost 6 inches long.

 

[pyithar]

spiral things are spirorbid worms. the strings look like vermetid snails web to me.

 

[CStrickland]

Yeah those are the strings that vermetids make to catch their food.
Sometimes you can slow down vermetids by not over feeding, and when you find their swirls (which are larger than the spirorbids, and have the snot coming out of them) use a needle nose pliers to snap them off. That can kill the snail inside if it gets crushed.
Maybe if you search the forums there's more tricks to deal with vermetids too, like some fish that eats them, idk.

Sorry you've hit a rough patch, chin up. People who favor mature rock say that it's totes worth it once you deal with all the hitchikers. Maybe spend some time in the hitchiker id thread too so you can know what else to look for. Hey, maybe that'll cheer you up, cause you see all the baddies you don't have! Could be worse than vermetids, some folks even like them

 

[Breakthecycle2]

Its not snail mucus. I have the same thing all over my tank. Did you carbon dose by chance?

 

[Sk8r]

Sounds like a bacterial bloom, the 'snotty' sort,---probably won't hurt much: some things will consider it food. IF you're vinegar-dosing, you can see this, and the cure is to slack off a bit. If not---just keep the aeration up, do some 20% water changes every other day, total of about 3-4, and see if that helps.