Snot-like Aquarium Goo

[Brian Thompson]

I need help identifying this substance. It only grows on my Tonga shelf. It grows back to its current proportions prolly two weeks after I scrub it off. Fish are healthy, as are coral. Just an unsightly nuisance. I'm guessing some type of bacteria or fungi? Thanks in advance!

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

Following:

 

[cloak]

Are you Carbon dosing at all? Sometimes this will cause a snot like growth similar to yours.

 

[Brian Thompson]

Are you Carbon dosing at all? Sometimes this will cause a snot like growth similar to yours.

Nah, no carbon dosing. I've seen threads that discuss this. My issue seems to be something different. Thanks for the reply though.

 

[Tiger-Paws]

Your white/brown/pink slime is very much like I and several others on the forum are fighting.

A suggestion was made to me a couple of months ago and I took it to heart. It appears that I was to low in nutrients and the results were this kind of bacteria. Adding anything proved worthless and may even have made it worse.

My solution so far has been to stop adding anything, stop water changes, change salt to Tropic Marin and clean, clean, clean the sump, overflow, the glass and use one of the power heads to blow off the rock. This resulted is a white slime storm which would plug my 4" x 10" 200 micron sock in a few hours. I also changed to a German pellet food and have increased my feeding as well as adding Seachem Phosphorus twice a week.

Finally after 2 months of this I am beginning to see some green algae just below the edges of the sand bed.

I am still fighting the slime but I am beginning to win, there is less and less.

I am using Ozone which also seems to be helping and I was using UV but I gave up on it as I wanted to encourage algae and the UV would kill the spores. As a side note, the slime would coat the inside of the tube to the UV unit and to a lesser extent the output tube while the inside of the UV was clean. I suspect the UV was able to kill the slime but it needed more power and a longer contact time.

 

[cracker]

Iv'e seen this in my old tank or something very similar Chrysophyte's I think. Do you have real low nutrients? No3/Po4 ?
That's what caused my issues. I wasn't able to get rid of it,but I did have zero nutrient levels. The tank(an old) 220 started leaking so I tore the whole thing down & started again with another tank.

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

Your white/brown/pink slime is very much like I and several others on the forum are fighting.

A suggestion was made to me a couple of months ago and I took it to heart. It appears that I was to low in nutrients and the results were this kind of bacteria. Adding anything proved worthless and may even have made it worse.

My solution so far has been to stop adding anything, stop water changes, change salt to Tropic Marin and clean, clean, clean the sump, overflow, the glass and use one of the power heads to blow off the rock. This resulted is a white slime storm which would plug my 4" x 10" 200 micron sock in a few hours. I also changed to a German pellet food and have increased my feeding as well as adding Seachem Phosphorus twice a week.

Finally after 2 months of this I am beginning to see some green algae just below the edges of the sand bed.

I am still fighting the slime but I am beginning to win, there is less and less.

I am using Ozone which also seems to be helping and I was using UV but I gave up on it as I wanted to encourage algae and the UV would kill the spores. As a side note, the slime would coat the inside of the tube to the UV unit and to a lesser extent the output tube while the inside of the UV was clean. I suspect the UV was able to kill the slime but it needed more power and a longer contact time.

Low nutrients is a battle I’m fighting, so I’ll start reading up a bit more on that. Heavy feeding 4x a day. Added 5 new fish. And dose nitrates. All to raise it to no avail yet. I was soooooo excited the other day to have a reading of 10ppm no3. But double tested the next day and back to 0. So I think I may have had a contaminated test the first time.

 

[Brian Thompson]

Iv'e seen this in my old tank or something very similar Chrysophyte's I think. Do you have real low nutrients? No3/Po4 ?
That's what caused my issues. I wasn't able to get rid of it,but I did have zero nutrient levels. The tank(an old) 220 started leaking so I tore the whole thing down & started again with another tank.

Yes, my nutrients are very low. Oddly enough, I am having issues with those dang Vermetid snails which, as I understand, is exacerbated by overfeeding. I run GFO however. Would you suggest decreasing the amount of GFO I use in my lil reactor?

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

Yes, my nutrients are very low. Oddly enough, I am having issues with those dang Vermetid snails which, as I understand, is exacerbated by overfeeding. I run GFO however. Would you suggest decreasing the amount of GFO I use in my lil reactor?

Does yours seem to show photosynthetic qualities and have bubbles on it when flow is cut? Mine does. Not trying to hijack, hoping to potentially come to a common ground on the root and find a solution. Mine also seems to be secluded to a single rock in my tank. Rest of the tank seems to not have this film. Happy Reefing!

 

[Brian Thompson]

Does yours seem to show photosynthetic qualities and have bubbles on it when flow is cut? Mine does. Not trying to hijack, hoping to potentially come to a common ground on the root and find a solution. Mine also seems to be secluded to a single rock in my tank. Rest of the tank seems to not have this film. Happy Reefing!

So there are lil bubbles among all the goo. The goo exists in a high flow area where my sps coral sits and is confined to two different rocks in my tank. So to answer your question, yes, your description matches my issue in that regard.

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

So there are lil bubbles among all the goo. The goo exists in a high flow area where my sps coral sits and is confined to two different rocks in my tank. So to answer your question, yes, your description matches my issue in that regard.

Yep. The single rock in question is dead center where the two gyres in mine create the most chaotic flow as well as where most of my sps is. Here’s a full tank shot for reference. It’s the rock dead center between the two Anthias. Everything seems healthy though and no losses due to the funk.

 

[Brian Thompson]

On a side note, that's a beautiful aquarium! I too have gyres in my tank. The goo exists in the high flow area of the tank. I gather from the responses that my best bet might be to increase my bio load? Judging from your bare bottom, ima guess you have some super low nutrients too?

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

Thank you. Yup. Normally undetectable no3. On salifert kit. Dosing me coral no3

 

[cracker]

Ok BT , I'm not the expert . I speak from a little experience. This stuff takes over in low to no nutrients. It has to do with out competing other organisms . This sounds completely counter ,but the tank needs some nutrients, No3 & Po4. This will allow other stuff to take back what'little is in the water. Like I said,Just from what I have learned, stop using the gfo completely . Ya need "some "nutrients in the tank. This stuff only grew on the rock exposed to light. Under the rock, none at all.
Reefer is this one rock an older piece of Live rock ?

 

[tvu]

I had that strange goo happen 4 months into my tank setup. I kept cleaning it off with a toothbrush during water changes since it comes off easy. After a month it disappeared on its own.

 

[Brian Thompson]

Ok BT , I'm not the expert . I speak from a little experience. This stuff takes over in low to no nutrients. It has to do with out competing other organisms . This sounds completely counter ,but the tank needs some nutrients, No3 & Po4. This will allow other stuff to take back what'little is in the water. Like I said,Just from what I have learned, stop using the gfo completely . Ya need "some "nutrients in the tank. This stuff only grew on the rock exposed to light. Under the rock, none at all.
Reefer is this one rock an older piece of Live rock ?

Thanks for the reply. I received a similar response on a local Facebook forum. It sounds like I need to increase my nutrient levels. I appreciate the input