Snot looking bacteria w/ NP pro and pro bio s?

[andrew james]

I started to notice a white to clear bacteria on everything in my sump with the consistency of snot. I've started to back off my dose of np pro and pro bio S and stopped adding probiotic water. I've been doing large water changes with red sea blue bucket, around 25 gallons per day for a week to get this in check but I still notice is trying to come back. I'm going to go broke buying salt if I dont find the root cause. Has anyone noticed this type of bacteria in their tanks and can help me get rid of it?

Info about my tank if anyone wants to help me diagnose the problem.
My tank is 110 total water volume, I use Comp 123 @ 25ml per day. I dose Comp 1 at night and Comp 2 & 3 starting two hours after lights on spread out into 12 doses. I run GAC & GFO in one reactor @ 20gph and one with AF Zeo mix @ 40gph. I have 15l of siporax and 5l of life bio fil in my sump, the Siporax has been in the sump for 4 months, I just recently added the Life bio fil 2 weeks ago. I do auto water changes of 7 gallons per day with Red Sea blue. I was dosing Np Pro and Pro Bio S @ 4 drops per day but I've really backed off and am currently sitting at 1 drop each per day for a week. I have used no other additives for at least one month.

I'm good with tank maintenance, I do light clean up everyday changing filter socks and blowing detritus off rock. Once a week I vac. my sand and sump bottom.

I feed 2x a day a mix of mysis, cylcop, peas, Garlic oil & fish vitamins.

My parameters are very steady, I check Alk everyday and the rest of them 3x a week. I have less than 5% fluctuation since at least Nov. Except for mg which was quiet high at 1600 up until recently.

my parameters
salinity 35
temp 78
alk 7.3
cal 400
mag 1380
no3 5ppm
po4 .03


Any help would be great.

 

[Viperdoug]

I have the same problem in my tank. I'm not sure how to get rid of it, but I have learned that it is not necessarily harmful. You can manually remove it to get your self ahead of it. I wish you luck.

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

I had it in two tanks possible cross containmentation, The thing that I used and worked was Dr Tims Waste Away either buy one large bottle and wait and see then another. This stuff likes to grow in vinyl tubing clog up pumps. I used to turn on/off my pumps and use a net to scoop it up to the point the fish weren't even afraid of the net anymore.

 

[Anirban]

From your description it seems everything is fine from your maintenance part. Now can you grab a picture of the thing? One thing I suspect which can be possible is that the bacteria produce a mulm like thing which is generally skimmable or corals can absorb it as food but if overproduced it can form as snot like thing and stay in the tank. Its not harmful but looks bad.

 

[andrew james]

I had it in two tanks possible cross containmentation, The thing that I used and worked was Dr Tims Waste Away either buy one large bottle and wait and see then another. This stuff likes to grow in vinyl tubing clog up pumps. I used to turn on/off my pumps and use a net to scoop it up to the point the fish weren't even afraid of the net anymore.

Did you notice any negative effects on coral? Im going to start reading about Waste Away right now. I have had a couple of old SPS colonies STN lately and just to be safe I've moved most of my favorites out and into my wife's tank while I get things stable. I really wish I had left well enough alone and never switched to AF. Not blaming their product just if it isn't broke leave it alone, and I certainly should have

 

[andrew james]

From your description it seems everything is fine from your maintenance part. Now can you grab a picture of the thing? One thing I suspect which can be possible is that the bacteria produce a mulm like thing which is generally skimmable or corals can absorb it as food but if overproduced it can form as snot like thing and stay in the tank. Its not harmful but looks bad.

Here is what it looked like two days ago hasn't gotten any better but I just cleaned it so no new images from today.

 

[Anirban]

I was actually thinking something like this. Exactly when you started seeing this? Its possibly those mulm like stuffs produced by bacteria, its not harmful but looks bad. Lets see if @Perry and @jsker can give you more insight in this.

 

[Perry]

Yes, not harmful but need to create more flow in areas where it seems to gather, manaul siphon, and back down on carbon and bacteria dosing for the time being. Run fresh carbon, these are a few things that may help

 

[jsker]

@andrew james
Yes I have a bit of Mulm in the sump in the dark corners. I run a light in my sump at night to maintain a steadier PH level. Here is a link to the benefits of having mulm in you system by @paul B link Here is another post where Randy answers a couple post down about mulm link Here is a thread that @Perry answered a question about mulm link and suggest to back off on the NP pro and Pro Bio if feeding lighter. Here is another article about mulm link "HOW I STOPPED WORRYING AND LEARNED TO LOVE THE MULM"

Perry also ask about parameters, which I am going to suggest that you alk is running low at 7.3 and this may be cause the RTN. Myself I am running low alk for the reason of my test reagent was indicating that I was running a higher PH then I was. Just started a new reagent for my test and noticed and was alarmed of the amount of reagent I did not use. I double checked with another reagent just to confirm and I am not bringing my alk back up to 8.3 to 8.5 were my system runs the best I have noticed. Probiotic salt has a alk between 7.2 to 8 and the reef salt which I have run since day one and will also be using for my auto water change soon is at 7.4 to 8.2. My suggestion is to bring you your alk a tad bit to 7.5 if you are running a low nutrient system or even high so that the coral starts absorbing the nutrient at a higher rate.

I also noticed that you dose your 1+2+3+ once a day and my I suggest dosing 1+2+3+ in smaller amount in 10 minute spacing at the least 2 times a day. I notice when I started dosing 1+2+3+ for different times a day that my systems parameter stay more consistent.

One other think I noticed is that with the large water changes you are changing with Red Sea blue bucket. Are you doing the same with your auto water changes? Another suggestion is not to use the probiotic salt and just use the AF reef salt and save in the long run. All the large water changes are doing is through money down the drain if you are doing a auto water change. You might cut you water change back to 10 percent weekly or 11 gals per week or 1.6 gallon a day

I my sump I am running just GFO, Life bio fil and a small bag of carbon with live rock rubble and a night light to keep my nutrient under control. I run my nitrate around 8 to 12 ppm and my phosphates between .02 and .03 ppm

Inclusion; your number are perfect except, I am suggesting to raze the alk and cut back on the volume of water changes.

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

You may have cross containmeted your other tank now as well, so be careful this stuff is not too bad on your inhabitants but it can get completely out of control, to the p0int it almost caused a failure on my old HOB overflow, the tank was rising and was about to flow over the top of the tank, lucky I had to drive home from a week vacation on Weds and saw it. I tried to clean it daily and just grows by it self, one tank I was dosing vodka and the other nothing the later tank was the one that was going to overflow. Even after curing both tanks I would get relapses.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

This is why I have a separate tank filled to the top with rock covered in sponge and other good stuff. I dose my carbon sources into this rock tank which has very low flow. The bacteria mulm will stay in the corner I dose into and I just scoop it out once a month. This rock tank really helps me adjust my carbon source higher and fast, without any nasty stuff going into my display tank or messing up pumps. The objective is to give things like this an area to grow and they will not become a problem anymore. If I have a nutrient spike I can up my dose by a large amount with nothing bad happening from it, in order to reduce the sudden nutrient spike.
This stuff is not bad but if your overdosing your carbon source to quickly and your system is not ready for it then you can get big blooms of mulm where you dose. Cut your dose if your worried about it, no need for water changes.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

You may have cross containmeted your other tank now as well, so be careful this stuff is not too bad on your inhabitants but it can get completely out of control, to the p0int it almost caused a failure on my old HOB overflow, the tank was rising and was about to flow over the top of the tank, lucky I had to drive home from a week vacation on Weds and saw it. I tried to clean it daily and just grows by it self, one tank I was dosing vodka and the other nothing the later tank was the one that was going to overflow. Even after curing both tanks I would get relapses.

I would not worry about cross contamination of bacterial mulm since a carbon source is mostly required to grow this stuff. It could be so many things that clogged your hang on the back overflow, especially since they are really well known for overflowing tanks if not ran right and maintained. Bubbles can not get in them...

 

[DarkSky]

I have this stuff too. Have had it for months. I started with dry rock, no sand, dead everything. About four months into starting the tank (right around the time the first fish and frags went in) it showed up. I used bottled bacteria to seed the tank and was ghost feeding prior to adding the livestock.

I've scrubbed every surface, it comes back. Greatly increasing flow seems to keep it in check. I've started to use Dr. Tim's Refresh and will be using Dr. Tim's Waste Away next. I will say that it is starting to slow down, it was to the point where the tank was covered in it and now it's isolated to a few areas. I don't think Dr. Tim's helped with that, it was just dying off on its own, but I have had it since September of 2016. Waiting it out took a lot of patience.

Thankfully it doesn't seem to be hurting anything. Fish don't mind, corals encrust right through it. Wherever coraline patches start growing it disappears, so I'm actually cheering on my coraline growth for once.