White Slime In Sump and Tank

[Carz]

So I started to notice some white slime in my sump last week. I cleaned it out and it has returned to the sump and now is on my rocks. I read up on this stuff here on the forum and come to find it is a bacteria. I have a 90 gallon tank with about 40 coral frags and 2 clowns, one damsel and a small blue tang. I am not a heavy feeder at all and I do water changes every Sunday. I run carbon and GFO reactors and a UV light. I run my skimmer so the skimate is medium. All of my levels are 0 except my phosphate is .25. I added some Dr Tims waste away today and turned off my uv light and skimmer. I called BRS and talked to them and they said it could be I killed off bacteria and needed to so called"dirty up a little" . Does this sound right?? Any other thoughts?

 

[Flippers4pups]

So I started to notice some white slime in my sump last week. I cleaned it out and it has returned to the sump and now is on my rocks. I read up on this stuff here on the forum and come to find it is a bacteria. I have a 90 gallon tank with about 40 coral frags and 2 clowns, one damsel and a small blue tang. I am not a heavy feeder at all and I do water changes every Sunday. I run carbon and GFO reactors and a UV light. I run my skimmer so the skimate is medium. All of my levels are 0 except my phosphate is .25. I added some Dr Tims waste away today and turned off my uv light and skimmer. I called BRS and talked to them and they said it could be I killed off bacteria and needed to so called"dirty up a little" . Does this sound right?? Any other thoughts?

Could be. Yes you'll need to get your N03 up a little.

 

[Carz]

what is the best way to do that

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

What test are you using?
(Guessing api as the .25 is common for the Po4 test)

No3 is constantly being produced by ammoina from fish , rotting poop and food.

Not sure how killing bacteria would give you slime honestly.

Bacterial blooms are common.
Are you using air fresheners?
Hand sanitizers?

 

[SPR1968]

I can tell you that I get the white slime in my sump, in areas of low flow on the surface, and it’s caused by bacterial blooms from using Nopox which is carbon dosing.

In my case I just ‘ripple’ the water surface with a pump outlet hose or small power head and it’s stops it accumulating, but it’s normally when the carbon dosing is at higher levels, so you could back off a little if it’s causing issues maybe.

 

[Muttley000]

I had this once and it cycled away on its own, and interestingly enough I never was able to measure nitrates in that system during that event. I did continually siphon out what I could, it lasted a couple weeks. There are several threads about sodium nitrate dosing in the reef chemistry forum. I am using it to keep my nitrates at 2 in my 500 gallons of system, and it drops to zero if I stop dosing.

 

[fabutahoun]

Do you dose some kind of carbon like Nopox, vinegar or vodka, or run bio-pellets ? Cacteria blooms are common with carbon dosing.

 

[Carz]

I only have carbon in my reactor. Thats all

 

[Carz]

I am always cautious to keep my levels low because I don't want to get algae, but I think I need to get some nitrates in the system. The tank was set up in july so it is still young.

 

[Retro Reefer]

I agree with BRS your tank is to clean.. cut back water changes, feed more, let your skimmer overflow into sump and temporarily pull your filter socks until it goes away.

 

[Carz]

Do you know how hard that is to do when you are obsessive compulsive.....

 

[Brew12]

I'm thinking you have some carbon source getting into your system. Do you smoke/vape in the house? Burn candles or spray air freshener? Did you recently have carpets cleaned? Brew your own beer/wine? Have a teen who hides next to the tank to sneak tequila and dumps it in the tank if mom walks in?

Yup... seen every one of these cause bacterial slime in an aquarium.

 

[Carz]

Starting to make a little sense.....My wife added the glade plug ins and holiday candles. We don't smoke a kids are away at college doing their drinking. I am going to remove those things tonight to see what happens in a week. Should I turn off my carbon reactor for a few days?? I am sure it wont hurt.

 

[Brew12]

Starting to make a little sense.....My wife added the glade plug ins and holiday candles. We don't smoke a kids are away at college doing their drinking. I am going to remove those things tonight to see what happens in a week. Should I turn off my carbon reactor for a few days?? I am sure it wont hurt.

Nope, I would leave the carbon reactor running. It may clog up from the bacteria, but that carbon isn't going to fuel bacteria growth.

 

[fabutahoun]

The Activated Carbon in your carbon Reactor is different than Organic Carbon. Activated Carbon will not feed the bacteria. the carbon reactor will help in absorbing the fumes that came inside the aquarium, when it is clogged up you can add some new carbon.