White slimey stuff

[microreefguy]

hey, i'm currently using a sponge and biowheel as the only filter media in my 3.5 pico reef. there is this stuff that looks like phlegm, loogies, runny snot, white almost clear slime growing on my filter and biowheel :? . i also noticed some growing on my glass. i've removed it once before and now it's back. any one have any ideas of what it could be or how to get rid of it? thanks in advance.

[Zack]

Do you have a sand bed, how old is the tank? Could be silt from the sand bed, got on my glass for a while till the sand was all at the bottom.

[microreefguy]

yes, i do have a sand bed. the tank is almost four months old. it's a 3.5 gal pico reef. i am currently battling a red slime take over as well as ich that was brought in by a royal gramma that didn't live past two and a half weeks. he was way stressed out when i first got him and knew he wasn't going to live.

[mjc]

You probablu know this already, but small nano tanks, esp. 3.5g, will require daily monitoring and observation.

Have you dosed you tank with anything?
What are you using to treat the cyano problem you described?
What is your water parameters? NO2, NO3, Alk, Ca, NH4, SG, PH, dKH,
What type of sand are you using?

Could it be salt and calcium deposits?

[microreefguy]

i knew a small tank would be harder to keep, that's why i attempted it, even though it's my first SW tank. but damn, it really is a whole lot of work. i really enjoy it a lot. :D

i just finished using kick-ich...safe for al inverts, corals, fish, and bacteria. i'm using red slime remover from ultralife...started treatment yesterday. i put a new carbon filter pack in. i use calcium...one drop per gallon once a week. iodine...one drop per gallon once a week. natu vite (vitamins)...two drops per gallon once a week. liquid gold plus...two drops per gallon once a week. bacter vital.....one drop per gallon once a week. i dose something different every day. bacter vital gives false postives for nitrites, nitrates, and ammonia. before i started using this product, i was at all zeros. pH is low at 7.8, due to red slime remover. it's usually at 8.0. salinity is at 1.023. my sand is live sand argonite and i use bio-sea salt. i have 5 lbs of LR, 2 blue legged hermits, 2 turbo snails, 1 PJ Card, 1 baby bristle star, 1 baby tube worm, 1 little sponge, and 9 different corals. all corals are one or two of each...yellow and brown polyps, 1 blue and 1 green button polyp, yellow and green star polyps, and 2 orange and 2 green mushrooms. i've seen copepods swimming on my glass and i have amphipods that hitched on one of my corals. i see their tiny antennas sticking out of holes everywhere. i know my tank has cycled.

i do have salt creep built up on my filter that i remove, but that is grainy, this white stuff is mucousy. it has now covered my glass all around the tank and growing on one of my rocks. it happened over night!!!! i cleaned my glass and tried to pick that stuff out with a eye dropper. i couldn't get the rock though. i would be disturbing way too much in the tank. any help would be apprecited.

[Telco Guy]

Do you use RO water for your mix and top off? It is very important to NOT use tap water in a nano tank. I'd bump up the salinity a bit to 1.024 or 1.025. Do you do weekly water changes?

[H3R0]

i know what it could be... is your tank in your room? :lol:

[microreefguy]

yes i use RO water and i had to stop doing water changes due to the ich, but i had this before when i was doing weekly water changes.

ha ha, but unlike yourself H3RO, i have a wife for that :wink: