Ugly Sponges/stringy stuff in my tank

Breakthecycle2 · Dec 26, 2015

Not sure per say, but the article went into depth with Dr. Tim about it,

saltyfilmfolks · Dec 26, 2015

k. Look up whats in waste away. and how it works.

saltyfilmfolks · Dec 26, 2015

yup.
its bacteria.
http://www.drtimsaquatics.com/natural-aquarium-cleaner

Jizu Puentes · Dec 28, 2015

Breakthecycle2 said:
So, I grabbed some and realized its super thick and super sticky. It doesn't break apart in my hand and in fact it won't break apart at all.

Sorry I haven't been paying attention to my alerts but just to clarify the answer to what you asked me in my thread. Based on the statement above you definitely don't have chrysophytes since they break apart VERY easily. Also based on your regimen on cleaning your rocks I'd say it didn't come from that either. I'd have to say, like others already have, that it must be bacterial. On this I have no experience with though. I wish we were all able to find someone to send our samples of questionable items to haha

Breakthecycle2 · Dec 28, 2015

saltyfilmfolks said:
yup.
its bacteria.
http://www.drtimsaquatics.com/natural-aquarium-cleaner

It is, are you saying I shouldn't dose it?

Breakthecycle2 · Dec 28, 2015

I keep cleaning it and it keeps coming back. I stopped dosing NOPX close to a week ago.

bgallagher · Dec 28, 2015

I know you say you don't use air fresheners but as the article said the
root of the problem is a common bacteria, Alcaligenes xylosoxidans, found wherever humans congregate and known for its copious slime production. In my case I still have not figured out what the catalyst was the sparked the bacterial slime production to go into overdrive but I know the competing bacteria of the Waste Away is helping. The goo is almost gone after my 5th dose and syphoning. The tanks looking better and the sand is white again

Breakthecycle2 · Dec 28, 2015

bgallagher said:
I know you say you don't use air fresheners but as the article said the
root of the problem is a common bacteria, Alcaligenes xylosoxidans, found wherever humans congregate and known for its copious slime production. In my case I still have not figured out what the catalyst was the sparked the bacterial slime production to go into overdrive but I know the competing bacteria of the Waste Away is helping. The goo is almost gone after my 5th dose and syphoning. The tanks looking better and the sand is white again

Strangely, I don't seem to have any in the sand. I've dosed Waste Twice every day at 5 ml per 10 gallons.

Breakthecycle2 · Dec 28, 2015

@Randy Holmes-Farley any chance you can take a look at this thread and give me any sort of advice?

bgallagher · Dec 28, 2015

I had a diatom bloom show up on my sand bed right about the same time the slime showed up. I dosed Refresh for a week...then... I did the first two doses of Waste Away at 5 ml per 10 gal and now I'm dosing 10 ml per ten gal. I turn off my skimmer for approx 12-15 hours after dosing. When I turn it back on it skims like crazy. I'm crossing my fingers.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 29, 2015

I would make sure you are not getting organics into the tank in any way (stopping the NOPOX was good) and it may take a while for this problem to recede with lower organics. I also personally wouldn't dose any bacteria, but I can't say for sure that those will hurt.

I would export more organics (GAC, Purigen, polyfilter, more skimming, etc.) and I'd manually remove it for a while).