White Stringy Slime

[Swim Shady]

Hello reefers. Attached are photos of my issue along with explanation of problem. I'm thinking bacterial bloom.

- New reef tank 175 gallons.
- Began cycling by ghost feeding brine (about 4 cubes over 2 weeks)
- Using filter media cup (no sock) with polyester fiber, phosguard, and carbon pellets... probably was overkill for new tank
- Accidentally had UV sterilizer running which probably inhibited nitrifying bacterial growth
- Ammonia did spike and now reads 0 but I never saw a nitrite spike and nitrate shows 0-5ppm
- Accidentally overdosed Alk, Mg, and Ca (see trident reading below)... maybe precipitation issue??
- Alk = 12.28
- Ca = 475
- Mg = 1453
- pH = 8.28
- Salinity = 35.8
- Added AlgaeFix just in case it was an algae bloom. No I'm not running lights but tank occasionally does get sunlight when windows are open in living room.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[SPR1968]

It looks like the sort of slime you’d get from carbon dosing, and I see your using carbon pellets but you have zero nitrate (according to the test kit picture) so there nothing in the system

So that might be the issue.

And don’t add anything to the system until you’ve tested and found it needs adding, you probably won’t need to add any elements like alkalinity etc for a while as it looks empty.

 

[Swim Shady]

It looks like the sort of slime you’d get from carbon dosing, and I see your using carbon pellets but you have zero nitrate (according to the test kit picture) so there nothing in the system

So that might be the issue.

And don’t add anything to the system until you’ve tested and found it needs adding, you probably won’t need to add any elements like alkalinity etc for a while as it looks empty.

Thanks SPR1968. I'll remove the carbon and phosguard for now since the tank is so new. My thought is to keep the UV sterilizer on for now until the white slime is gone. At that point, was going to add TurboStart to get some of the beneficial bacteria in the tank and then ghost feed again to see how Ammonia is handled and if white slime returns. Wanting to get my Nitrates up and do a water change before I add livestock to the tank.

 

[SPR1968]

I would keep the UV off until the system settles and especially while your adding bacteria. Anything floating in the water column will be potentially killed by the UV as it goes through and if it’s been on since the start.....

You could remove the slime manually or just increase flow, or brush it off the rocks so it gets picked up in the filtration system.

Just make sure it’s cycled and once the parameters are correct add some fish, feed them and then the nitrates will increase

If you unsure just add a bottle of ATM Colony or similar, add the fish and off you go, it’s 2021 there are easier and more effective ways of doing things

 

[ZoWhat]

Welcome the "uglies" that every tank eventually goes thru

 

[Swim Shady]

As an update, I removed media cup with carbon pellets and phosguard and tank started to clear up a lot during the day. So far it indeed looks like it was caused by carbon. Turned UV off and did a 10% water change as well. Also, put a pajama cardinal in the tank to test the cycle. Will post an update to see if issues are resolved.

 

[Swim Shady]

As an update, I removed media cup with carbon pellets and phosguard and tank started to clear up a lot during the day. So far it indeed looks like it was caused by carbon. Turned UV off and did a 10% water change as well. Also, put a pajama cardinal in the tank to test the cycle. Will post an update to see if issues are resolved.

Update: all of the slime is gone!

Solution: removing carbon pellets and phosguard was the main solution I think. I also turned off UV and added some seachem stability to the tank which has nitrifying bacteria in it. Added fish and they're all doing just fine.