New Tank and the unknown

[sugarfree]

My profile is a bit misleading I have been taking care of freshwater aquariums for about five years now. As of three weeks ago I have never had a saltwater aquarium or been around one(other then at aquariums, zoos,...).
My tank is a 40 gallon breeder with the temperature set at 77F the Ammonia is 0, Nitrite at .25ppm, PH is 8.2, and the Nitrate is around 10ppm. I have a Penn Plax Marlin 90GPH canister filter, and a 250W aqueon pro heater. Current live stock is three small green chromis and 3 red legged hermit crabs. the last couple of days i have noticed a whitish film starting to grow on my heater cord and I am assuming else where it is hard to see though. Does anyone have any idea what it may be?

 

[bcb577]

Are you sure your tank is fully cycled? I'd be a bit worried about the nitrite in your tank.

 

[JUNBUG361]

Your tank is nearly done with cycle. White film on the cord might be salt build up. Pictures would help

 

[Randy27]

Is the white build up on the cord that's OUTSIDE of the tank, or on the portion of the cord that's submerged? If on the outside, it's salt creep. And agreed, a pic says a thousand words.

 

[sugarfree]

I will get a picture up as soon as possible I'm away from my tank today, and the white film is on the submerged portion. It moves with the current.

 

[mcgyvr]

Sounds like bacterial slime/snot..
Or just air bubbles/sand fines,etc...
All normal in a new tank..

How did you cycle your tank and did you use any bacteria in a bottle products?
How about water movement? Do you have a powerhead in the tank?
If not GET one.. That "filter" isn't enough water movement for a saltwater tank and when the water is fairly stagnant you can get film like that just from lack of water movement..

In general for a 40G tank you want about 30 times that in gallons per hour of rated pump/powerhead flow..
So a 1200GPH powerehad or close to that would be good..

 

[sugarfree]

I don't have any power heads yet, I cycled it with dry rock and LS.