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#1
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Clear slime?
I've found articles on green slime, red slime, blue-green slime but nothing on
a clear type of slime which has occasionally shown up in two of my tanks. I can reduce it with consecutivel water changes but this doesn't appear to ensure that it won't reappear. The fishvet.com site advertises a product to eliminate "slime" but I'm not really sure what the clear mucous material I occasional see is. Can anyone identify it? Thanks in advance, |
#2
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Clear slime?
I may be off-base here, but what you are describing sounds like what
goldfish and koi keepers refer to as Bio-Slime. It is a build-up of denitrifying bacteria. If we are talking about the same stuff, it is a good thing. The bacteria converts Ammonia to Nitrate. It will accumulate on any surface that has adequate oxygen and nutrients. We try to grow the stuff. chet "SLEngst" wrote in message ... I've found articles on green slime, red slime, blue-green slime but nothing on a clear type of slime which has occasionally shown up in two of my tanks. I can reduce it with consecutivel water changes but this doesn't appear to ensure that it won't reappear. The fishvet.com site advertises a product to eliminate "slime" but I'm not really sure what the clear mucous material I occasional see is. Can anyone identify it? Thanks in advance, |
#3
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Clear slime?
Hmm, I wouldn't have thought Bio-slime would grow into great lengths of junk
over all the plants??? But I really haven't a clue. |
#4
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Clear slime?
when you say, grow into great lengths of junk all over the plants... are you
talking about hair algae or slime.. cause, you can't really see the slime... clear slime that is.... if you can "see" it, and "it" has color, other than clear, it's not "clear slime" more like hair algae.... R U Sure??? "SLEngst" wrote in message ... Hmm, I wouldn't have thought Bio-slime would grow into great lengths of junk over all the plants??? But I really haven't a clue. |
#5
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Clear slime?
I'll try again to describe the "clear slime". What I mean is, there is no
color such as blue, green or red. Its like a thick mucous blanket - where it's really thick, the color would then, be toward white. But, initially, I didn't notice it as it was pretty clear so indications were just that there was a disruption of normal water motion. It got thick enough that it hung in long globs from the tops of plants and I could grab quantities of it off the plants by hand. The water surface got so it had a slimy consistency - but clear. It was so bad, I eventually pulled all the plants and rinsed them and did multiple water changes on the tank. Some stress on the fish. This was a tank that was somewhat mistreated during the summmer. Regular water changes but not much attention to the forest of plants and DYI CO2 bottles not changed at good regularity, causing a rise in pH. Should note that the lighting is 3.8 watts/gal so loss of CO2 can have some consequences. Two other tanks have shown minor signs of similar stuff, even with regular maintenance. In one of those tanks I realized the CO2 system had failed, leaks around the glue to cap surface. This will cause the pH to rise from 7.5 to 8.4. A couple water changes seems to pretty much clear it up if I get right on it, and use the python, with the faucet running to skim the stuff off the top. |
#6
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Clear slime?
Dude it sounds to me like you have used a phosphate buffer in a hard water
aquarium I made the same mistake once a while back, and what I got was a huge mess of really pale whitish slime that blanketed alot of stuff in my tank (it is made up of calcium and magnesium that is in hard water) If you have used a phosphate buffer such as "proper ph" or other brands, you can solve this problem with a vacuum and a few water changes... and dont use a buffer ever again I am totally assuming that you have hard water where you are from, and that is a very common problem with buffers... "SLEngst" wrote in message ... I'll try again to describe the "clear slime". What I mean is, there is no color such as blue, green or red. Its like a thick mucous blanket - where it's really thick, the color would then, be toward white. But, initially, I didn't notice it as it was pretty clear so indications were just that there was a disruption of normal water motion. It got thick enough that it hung in long globs from the tops of plants and I could grab quantities of it off the plants by hand. The water surface got so it had a slimy consistency - but clear. It was so bad, I eventually pulled all the plants and rinsed them and did multiple water changes on the tank. Some stress on the fish. This was a tank that was somewhat mistreated during the summmer. Regular water changes but not much attention to the forest of plants and DYI CO2 bottles not changed at good regularity, causing a rise in pH. Should note that the lighting is 3.8 watts/gal so loss of CO2 can have some consequences. Two other tanks have shown minor signs of similar stuff, even with regular maintenance. In one of those tanks I realized the CO2 system had failed, leaks around the glue to cap surface. This will cause the pH to rise from 7.5 to 8.4. A couple water changes seems to pretty much clear it up if I get right on it, and use the python, with the faucet running to skim the stuff off the top. |
#7
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Clear slime?
Thanks for the information, Jason. There may be something to the phosphate
buffer theory. I've never used a phosphate buffer, knowingly - but that doesn't mean I'm not creating my own, somehow. Yes, I have incredibly hard mountain well water (KH - 16, GH - 20). There is no agriculture or other forms of human contamination above me to get into the water table (shallow improved spring) but there's a lot of potassium getting in which could be from decaying veg. matter in the forest. In general, my phosphate level measures higher than NO3 level which the plants keep at zero. I hope to fix that shortly, if I can get some of Seachem's Flourish Nitrogen. Its nice to know this isn't the slime from an alien algae or bacteria, with or without a green card. |
#8
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Clear slime?
Rich,
That may be it. Got an e-mail from another party who had it and it was a fungus. In my tank I had recently added a new piece of driftwood, and it was really covered with the junk. I got rid of the driftwood, though I hadn't suspected it as the point of origin. thanks |
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