What is growing on my filter socks?

[NanoSteam]

This one is a first for me. RSR250 running for exactly 6 weeks now. Just cleaned my filter socks Friday with pressure tap water and let dry.

today I noticed very long brown? Algae (maybe bacterial) growing off my filter socks. It’s the only place it’s grown. The tank is clean. What’s odd is the sump is in complete darkness.

I have experience dealing with dinos and cyano but this one has be stumped. It breaks off easily with a turkey baster but stays whole. Does not disintegrate.

only thing I can think of is silicates from the tap water made it’s way in during cleaning?
only because there’s absolutely no light source.

tank Params using Salifert:

Nitrate: 5ppm
Alk: 8.6
Ca: 420
Mg: 1350
Phosphate: ? (Waiting on new kit)
Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 78f

I do have a bit of a bacteria bloom going on right now. Waiting for that to subside but don’t believe it’s related.

any thoughts?

 

[NanoSteam]

upon further research I came across "white string/slime" a biproduct of bacteria blooms. This might make sense since the filter socks are the only thing left in the tank with a fresh surface with nothing to compete against since I had just rinsed them out.

I did manually remove them. We'll see if it returns and how quick.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

So give this a try. Instead of just rinsing your dirty filter socks, put them in the wash with a 1/4 cup of bleach (non scented) by themselves. Let them dry and air out in the sun. It’s standard practice with all my reefing friends. Good luck.

 

[NanoSteam]

So give this a try. Instead of just rinsing your dirty filter socks, put them in the wash with a 1/4 cup of bleach (non scented) by themselves. Let them dry and air out in the sun. It’s standard practice with all my reefing friends. Good luck.

I use to do that with my felt socks but these are more mesh style and they clean off easily with just some pressure water and no chemicals.

I completely removed all the "stringy" stuff last night and this morning it was all back but noticed my water was much more clear.