Bacterial slime possibly from carbon dosing

[HankstankXXL750 Verified Sponsor]

So I have a Red Sea XXL750 around 160 gallons total volume. Predator tank and I have continually fought high nitrates and phosphates. Well over 100 NO3, so I began dosing with homemade NOPOX and levels came down over time. I accidentally let the NOPOX run out and nitrates spiked again. I restarted dosing, but I seem to have a snot like bacteria being produced and my ORP has been crashing.

Tank has developed a foul smell similar to skim mate. Plugged up the sponge divider in sump causing my skimmer to over produce. I did a 50% water change and removed as much of the slime as I could.

Yesterday our porcupine puffer was laying on the sand and very pale. Colored up well when I put my finger to the front of tank and he swam away.

Currently running two air stones, skimmer drawing air from outside and dosing 1ml H2O2 per 8 gallons every 12 hours. When I dose H2O2 ORP spikes to 400-420 then drops into the 250-280 range over the next 4 hours.

Will water change make a significant difference? Should I replace the air stones as they are not nearly as fine of bubbles as when I first added them?

Dose stability? Dose pristine?

Any suggestions welcome.

 

[dwest]

So I have a Red Sea XXL750 around 160 gallons total volume. Predator tank and I have continually fought high nitrates and phosphates. Well over 100 NO3, so I began dosing with homemade NOPOX and levels came down over time. I accidentally let the NOPOX run out and nitrates spiked again. I restarted dosing, but I seem to have a snot like bacteria being produced and my ORP has been crashing.

Tank has developed a foul smell similar to skim mate. Plugged up the sponge divider in sump causing my skimmer to over produce. I did a 50% water change and removed as much of the slime as I could.

Yesterday our porcupine puffer was laying on the sand and very pale. Colored up well when I put my finger to the front of tank and he swam away.

Currently running two air stones, skimmer drawing air from outside and dosing 1ml H2O2 per 8 gallons every 12 hours. When I dose H2O2 ORP spikes to 400-420 then drops into the 250-280 range over the next 4 hours.

Will water change make a significant difference? Should I replace the air stones as they are not nearly as fine of bubbles as when I first added them?

Dose stability? Dose pristine?

Any suggestions welcome.

I don’t think I can help….But I would not dose anything more. In fact, I would stop NOPOX and peroxide and possibly start NOPOX dosing slowly after things get back to normal. I get slime with vinegar dosing but it seems you are at a different level. Good luck.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

@ReefSquad

This is more a reef management issue than a fish disease. I'm calling in the reef squad to see if they can assist.

IMO - the peroxide is bacteriostatic, so it knocks back the bacteria numbers, but then, that biomass is released back into the water and is now ready to feed more bacteria....it will cycle like that until you export the carbon bound up in the bacteria biomass.

Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

So I have a Red Sea XXL750 around 160 gallons total volume. Predator tank and I have continually fought high nitrates and phosphates. Well over 100 NO3, so I began dosing with homemade NOPOX and levels came down over time. I accidentally let the NOPOX run out and nitrates spiked again. I restarted dosing, but I seem to have a snot like bacteria being produced and my ORP has been crashing.

Tank has developed a foul smell similar to skim mate. Plugged up the sponge divider in sump causing my skimmer to over produce. I did a 50% water change and removed as much of the slime as I could.

Yesterday our porcupine puffer was laying on the sand and very pale. Colored up well when I put my finger to the front of tank and he swam away.

Currently running two air stones, skimmer drawing air from outside and dosing 1ml H2O2 per 8 gallons every 12 hours. When I dose H2O2 ORP spikes to 400-420 then drops into the 250-280 range over the next 4 hours.

Will water change make a significant difference? Should I replace the air stones as they are not nearly as fine of bubbles as when I first added them?

Dose stability? Dose pristine?

Any suggestions welcome.

Please provide pics of tank under white lighting for accurate assessment of what you have going on

 

[sixty_reefer]

What are your current nitrates and phosphates

 

[HankstankXXL750 Verified Sponsor]

Please provide pics of tank under white lighting for accurate assessment of what you have going on

Ok, not so much to see as the snot hasn’t really come back strong from my most recent water change. Did 80 gallons on the 3rd. And cleaned all sponges, and dividers.

Have a little that I got pics of. Porcupine seems to be the most affected.

Just tested and found some ammonia present, but I just dose stability before deciding to check so I’ll retest after I pick up my daughter.

One pic shows a little that attached to the air line going in, other shows between the Reefmat and a divider to separate from the fuge when I cleaned the slime was embedded into the divider. This time only a few pieces free floating.

Porcupine showing the most “stress”.

 

[HankstankXXL750 Verified Sponsor]

What are your current nitrates and phosphates

I’ll have to test today. Nitrates were 49.2 on the third after a 50% water change. Phosphates have been above the .75 that my Hanna reader will read, I diluted on 11/26 after a 1/4 water change and got .56.

I did vacuum some of the sand on the 3rd, but didn’t disturb a large portion as I made that mistake last year.

Prior to forgetting to refill nitrates I was running in the 30-50 nitrates growing 30’s week one and 48 week two then water change. NOPOX ran out after 10/26 and by 11/6 and nitrates skyrocketed to 75, did lrg water change and back to 100 by 13 and again by 11/23 80 gallon WC each time. Got NOPOX running again on 11/6 but it doesn’t seem to have kicked back in yet (bacteria must starve really fast)

Slime started up between 11/15-11/26 I think. Tank started to smell also when skimmer overproduced. Been trying to keep it clean and free and the odor seems to be reducing. After the deeper sump clean getting rid of the snot , it really only smelled in the cabinet. Today not nearly as noticeable in the cabinet.

I believe the H2O2 dosing is helping the fish as far as O2, but I may need to dose less more frequently as the ORP drops pretty quickly after about 4 hours.

I have spent the last several days reading all the carbon dosing slime posts on here. Think it will subside, but looking for best practices for fish health as just the last couple of days have they seemed more affected.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

You're on the right track with increasing O2. Surface agitation is even better than airstones so if you haven't already, try to point your wavemaker toward the surface.

Good luck.

 

[HankstankXXL750 Verified Sponsor]

You're on the right track with increasing O2. Surface agitation is even better than airstones so if you haven't already, try to point your wavemaker toward the surface.

Good luck.

Good point. I run the air stones in the DT so they break the surface as does my random flow generators on my two return lines.

 

[sixty_reefer]

I’ll have to test today. Nitrates were 49.2 on the third after a 50% water change. Phosphates have been above the .75 that my Hanna reader will read, I diluted on 11/26 after a 1/4 water change and got .56.

I did vacuum some of the sand on the 3rd, but didn’t disturb a large portion as I made that mistake last year.

Prior to forgetting to refill nitrates I was running in the 30-50 nitrates growing 30’s week one and 48 week two then water change. NOPOX ran out after 10/26 and by 11/6 and nitrates skyrocketed to 75, did lrg water change and back to 100 by 13 and again by 11/23 80 gallon WC each time. Got NOPOX running again on 11/6 but it doesn’t seem to have kicked back in yet (bacteria must starve really fast)

Slime started up between 11/15-11/26 I think. Tank started to smell also when skimmer overproduced. Been trying to keep it clean and free and the odor seems to be reducing. After the deeper sump clean getting rid of the snot , it really only smelled in the cabinet. Today not nearly as noticeable in the cabinet.

I believe the H2O2 dosing is helping the fish as far as O2, but I may need to dose less more frequently as the ORP drops pretty quickly after about 4 hours.

I have spent the last several days reading all the carbon dosing slime posts on here. Think it will subside, but looking for best practices for fish health as just the last couple of days have they seemed more affected.

Thank you for the very indeed description, could you test nitrates as soon as possible please, there is a small chance they have bottom out since you restarted dosing carbon. That could explain a lot of what’s happening

 

[HankstankXXL750 Verified Sponsor]

Thank you for the very indeed description, could you test nitrates as soon as possible please, there is a small chance they have bottom out since you restarted dosing carbon. That could explain a lot of what’s happening

I certainly will as soon as I get back from picking up my daughter. Might have, but I would be surprised as I they were still slowly climbing before I ran out at this same dose.

 

[sixty_reefer]

I certainly will as soon as I get back from picking up my daughter. Might have, but I would be surprised as I they were still slowly climbing before I ran out at this same dose.

That’s another thing that could of caused them to drop, once you restarted dosing carbon you should of reduced the dose instead of carry on the previous dose and build it back up again to allow the system to adjust to it. A large dose without building it could cause a sudden drop in nitrates.

 

[HankstankXXL750 Verified Sponsor]

That’s another thing that could of caused them to drop, once you restart dosing carbon you should of reduced the dose instead of carry on the previous dose and build it back again to allow the system to adjust to it again. A large dose without building it could cause a sudden drop in nitrates.

I reached out to try to determine this, but didn’t get any solid answers. Had hoped that since it wasn’t out very long it would just pick up where it left off. Know better now.

Nitrates over 75 per Hanna checker. Haven’t yanked them yet.

 

[HankstankXXL750 Verified Sponsor]

Ok so little to no improvement. Did 80 gallon water change, new air stones which increased the air flow, change H2O2 dosing to 1/2 treatment every 6 hours (@Jay Hemdal says won’t oxidize without something, but my ORP increases to 400’s and slowly drops to 280 or so over 4-6 hours) so can’t say it is truly doing anything but hopefully it is assisting in O2. Warmer here today so I opened the egress window and the back door to create some air flow. And I added carbon in a media bag.

Only other things I can think to do would be to pull and deep clean the skimmer, and maybe the UV. Doesn’t seem to be any snotty slime build up since I cleaned it out like 7 days ago.

Any further advise would be appreciated.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

How's the puffer doing?

 

[HankstankXXL750 Verified Sponsor]

Both the porcupine and the thin line are laying on the bottom together. Porcupine still seems faded, but if I entice it to move around it colors up immediately. I believe they are somewhat stressed, but don’t appear to be in immediate danger (hopefully). Everyone was active and ate during last nights feeding.

Someone suggested I should have reduced my NOPOX dose when I started it back up which I didn’t. Wondering if I should reduce it at this point. I don’t really want to stop as these fish really produce a bio load and I really want to get back into a reasonable 25-40 ppm range. Just don’t know which would have the most positive results now that I’ve been dosing for at least 2 weeks.

But don’t want to lose any babies either.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Both the porcupine and the thin line are laying on the bottom together. Porcupine still seems faded, but if I entice it to move around it colors up immediately. I believe they are somewhat stressed, but don’t appear to be in immediate danger (hopefully). Everyone was active and ate during last nights feeding.

Someone suggested I should have reduced my NOPOX dose when I started it back up which I didn’t. Wondering if I should reduce it at this point. I don’t really want to stop as these fish really produce a bio load and I really want to get back into a reasonable 25-40 ppm range. Just don’t know which would have the most positive results now that I’ve been dosing for at least 2 weeks.

But don’t want to lose any babies either.

FWIW, i run a mixed reef (with fish) with nitrates 60-80 and phos around 1.0 and everything is thriving. IMO, stop worrying about the nitrate level until you get everything else sorted out... Don't chase numbers

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Ok so little to no improvement.

Doesn’t seem to be any snotty slime build up since I cleaned it out like 7 days ago.

This sounds like improvement to me... Or do you mean no improvement in nitrates?

 

[HankstankXXL750 Verified Sponsor]

FWIW, i run a mixed reef (with fish) with nitrates 60-80 and phos around 1.0 and everything is thriving. IMO, stop worrying about the nitrate level until you get everything else sorted out... Don't chase numbers

Yes but mine are jumping to 100 or higher without intervention. Not just chasing the numbers but prior to starting carbon dosing I was changing 80 gallons a week to keep my levels from being toxic. I know fish can handle higher nitrates, but everything I have read says it is long term harmful.

I have some GSP in the tank, but it seems to love super high nitrates.

 

[HankstankXXL750 Verified Sponsor]

This sounds like improvement to me... Or do you mean no improvement in nitrates?

No improvement in eliminating whatever is affecting my ORP so strongly. Mostly worried about getting O2 stabilized. Just looked and thin lines seemed to be breathing really rapidly.

Have to run my daughters overnight guest home then going to test ammonia for peace of mind.