Clear cotton looking stuff

[joshrohrer91]

What is this stuff I’m seeing starting to show up? It looks like cotton.. tank parameters are fine except high nitrates.. all fish and inverts are perfect

 

[brmreefer]

Really hard to tell with the pic provided, but if I were to take a WAG at it, then I would say some sort of white sponge.

If that is the case, then it is harmless.

 

[joshrohrer91]

Really hard to tell with the pic provided, but if I were to take a WAG at it, then I would say some sort of white sponge.

If that is the case, then it is harmless.

Man this stuff is everywhere though.. you really gotta look to see it .. it’s like a huge butt cotton ball just covered everything

 

[Clarkjw2002]

New tank?

Bacterial bloom. If rock was live and added to new tank maybe fungus growing on the die-off if uncured. Either way, you need time for things to run their course and establish equilibrium (assuming the tank is new). This or more diversity in your microfauna assemblages.

I do recall a few folks having persistent issues similar to this and it turned out to be an air freshener they were using. Apparently it was causing some kind of chemical precipitate on the rocks. There are threads over on another forum (they were anal about mentioning other forum names over there, not sure about here).

 

[joshrohrer91]

New tank?

Bacterial bloom. If rock was live and added to new tank maybe fungus growing on the die-off if uncured. Either way, you need time for things to run their course and establish equilibrium (assuming the tank is new). This or more diversity in your microfauna assemblages.

I do recall a few folks having persistent issues similar to this and it turned out to be an air freshener they were using. Apparently it was causing some kind of chemical precipitate on the rocks. There are threads over on another forum (they were anal about mentioning other forum names over there, not sure about here).

tanks a couple years old almost three i think actually...started dosing nopox per the instructions for 4 weeks now and ***** been pretty wild in my tank..this cotton stuff..amonia spikes outta no where but everything is still good in the tank

 

[joshrohrer91]

New tank?

Bacterial bloom. If rock was live and added to new tank maybe fungus growing on the die-off if uncured. Either way, you need time for things to run their course and establish equilibrium (assuming the tank is new). This or more diversity in your microfauna assemblages.

I do recall a few folks having persistent issues similar to this and it turned out to be an air freshener they were using. Apparently it was causing some kind of chemical precipitate on the rocks. There are threads over on another forum (they were anal about mentioning other forum names over there, not sure about here).

It’s even on my outake sponges coming off my protein skimmer .. looks just like cotton

 

[MaxTremors]

tanks a couple years old almost three i think actually...started dosing nopox per the instructions for 4 weeks now and ***** been pretty wild in my tank..this cotton stuff..amonia spikes outta no where but everything is still good in the tank

It’s bacteria from the nopox, it usually means you either raised the dose too fast or the dose is too large (usually after your nitrates come down to an acceptable level, you need to lower the dose to a maintenance level).

 

[joshrohrer91]

It’s bacteria from the nopox, it usually means you either raised the dose too fast or the dose is too large (usually after your nitrates come down to an acceptable level, you need to lower the dose to a maintenance level).

My nitrates haven’t dropped at all.. still off the charts .. I’m using a api kit.. thought it might be old or something so bought a brand new one and still off the charts

 

[MaxTremors]

My nitrates haven’t dropped at all.. still off the charts .. I’m using a api kit.. thought it might be old or something so bought a brand new one and still off the charts

I would really recommend a different (non-API) test kit. I actually have the API one and compared the Hanna LR checker, it’s wildly off. I recently tested my nitrates using both and the API had my nitrates between 40 and 80ppm (judging the color can be tough), and the Hanna had them at 19.2ppm. I’ve been carbon dosing (just vinegar, recently changed to vinegar saturated with kalkwasser/calcium hydroxide) for around 3 months, and it took a good 2 months to start working, I went from well over 50ppm (the Hanna LR tops out at 50ppm) to now consistently around 20ppm (seems to still be going down but much slower, like 1-2ppm a week, part of the reason it’s slowed down is that my phosphates are bottoming out).