White Slime in my Sump w/Pics!

[Asonitez]

I keep a very clean sump. I wet dry crud that accumulates and because I hated how dirty refugiums look most of the time I decided to use a algae reactor instead. Cleaning my skimmer cup and wiping down the sump walls and floor is a every 2 week process on average.

I am a heavy feeder. I feed about 2 brine shrimp cubes, 1/4th a sheet of nori and a chunk of lrs reef frenzy spread out through a day. I THINK I have what could be considered a high fish load.

2 Clowns
6 Wrasses
1 Trigger
1 Purple Tang
1 Hippo
1 powder brown
1 pearly jaw fish

Tank volume is 60 X 30 X 25 w/ a 65 Gallon Sump. This white slime has been growing ONLY in the sump and although I'm able to remove it manually with a small net I was wondering what is causing it and if it will eventually be detrimental to my reef. I did not do any base line tests of Ite/Ate/Phos.

The only "algae" I have growing is the standard brownish stuff on some rocks that is going away.
I have been feeding SEED for a bit at the beginning of my reef but I have stopped feeding it for a few weeks now after I noticed the slime. The slime is only on the SURFACE of the water and will cling to a few reactors I have in there but is easily removed.

what the heck is this boys n girls ? PICS below

 

[zachxlutz]

Do you dose any carbon?

 

[Asonitez]

The display

 

[Asonitez]

Do you dose any carbon?

No carbon dosing of any kind. No bio-pellets nothing. The only THING I could consider "dosing" but which has been stopped for weeks now was Seachem SEED.

I DO run a ozone reactor every night.

 

[Asonitez]

No carbon dosing of any kind. No bio-pellets nothing. The only THING I could consider "dosing" but which has been stopped for weeks now was Seachem SEED.

I DO run a ozone reactor every night.

I also have a habit of Vaping in the house where the tank is. I just sit browse the forums with my laptop and I'll vape. Its not daily or often though.

My wife does cook EVERY SINGLE DAY and the tank is right around the corner from the kitchen but I don't think that it could be from cooking.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

It may be a product of poor surface water flow in your sump. Maybe try putting a powerhead in the big area of the sump pointed at the water surface to break it up and get it to go through the skimmer more. I had a similar issue in the back of my Nuvo 20 once but since it was a small area I was able to clean it out to the point it never came back. I was using seachem stability at the time which arguably could be the same stuff in the Aquavitro SEED.

 

[Asonitez]

It may be a product of poor surface water flow in your sump. Maybe try putting a powerhead in the big area of the sump pointed at the water surface to break it up and get it to go through the skimmer more. I had a similar issue in the back of my Nuvo 20 once but since it was a small area I was able to clean it out to the point it never came back. I was using seachem stability at the time which arguably could be the same stuff in the Aquavitro SEED.

I believe that SEED I their pro line or something like that. I TOO was using stability before switching to seed. I no longer use it as I only used it after adding all my fish. I didn't add any corals other than a mummy eye cheap frag that I added to my sand bed to make sure that the tank was safe for corals. I planned on making sure that the entire thing was running rock solid before even attempting stocking with corals. It took me quite some time with FISH to make sure I had healthy and disease free fish after quarantining them.

The surface of that middle section "drops" into the return section effectively skimming any surface scum that happens in that section. The SKIMMER section itself gets moved around because of the overflow and all my reactors dump their water into that section. Also my skimmer dumps water into the section and will occasionally produce some bubbles that break the surface. I wouldn't say that my sump is crazy active with water movement but I THINK it has adequate movement. I can def add a powerhead though.

 

[sundog101]

Same thing with my tank. If I don’t clean it out, it will cover my sump. No carbon dosing or bacteria additives either.

 

[BlueCursor]

This is the reefing gods punishing you for keeping such a clean sump and setup!

+1 on the power head in your sump. I get some slime like that at times in my refugium when my cheato blocks the surface flow.

 

[Paulo_F]

I'm having this same problem in my tank, Asonitez did you figure out what is this? There is anything that i can do to stop this problem?


Thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'm having this same problem in my tank, Asonitez did you figure out what is this? There is anything that i can do to stop this problem?


Thanks

Are you dosing any organic carbon? White slimes are usually bacteria.

 

[Paulo_F]

No carbon dosing the only thing is that my thank is new, 2 months but amônia, no3 and no4 at zero, ph 8, alcalinity 8.

I started to brush all the slime of and doing 10% water change weekly

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

No carbon dosing the only thing is that my thank is new, 2 months but amônia, no3 and no4 at zero, ph 8, alcalinity 8.

I started to brush all the slime of and doing 10% water change weekly

Are you using a skimmer? That might also help export it.

 

[Swoody]

I recently had similar.... increased flow in this section of sump and no more since. Pretty sure was just a bacterial bloom of some sort. Nothing at all suffered in tank....

 

[litenyaup]

+1 more flow...surface agitation

 

[Paulo_F]

Randy, yes I’m running skimmer it’s skimming like crazy when I wipe/brush the slime.
Swoody and litenyaup, I have a Jebao pp-4 in a nuvo 20 to be honest I’m already thinking that is too much flow in my thank even with the settings on the minimum flow. Im having problems to find a good spot for an Duncan.