# What the Heck is this ?



## Scherb (Feb 10, 2011)

So Sunday i did a 99% wc as always, and a few hours later i found this stuff. i was like what the heck. so i started thinking about what i did and i think i forgot to add the 2nd half of water conditioner. i dose my water conditioned in 2 steps so i don't have 8 pumps of conditioner in a quarter inch of water. anyway i thought this must be the reason, so last night i did a 98% wc removed mystery stuff and made sure i used enough conditioner even a little extra. and this morning same thing. What the heck. here is a video.


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## Immus21 (Jun 14, 2010)

Wierd is it possible some gunk built up in your water hose and is going into your tank when you refill it? Other than that I have no idea. How are the fish? Are the picking at it like it's something edible?


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## Scherb (Feb 10, 2011)

No not the hose cause i did 5 tanks after and nothing in them. no the fish don't seem to pay any attention to it, and look normal.


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## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

Did you wipe down everything in the tank when you did your water change? may be it is from the slim of the discus?


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

I highly doubt it's fish slime, though I could be wrong. I had the same exact stuff one time and it freaked me out lol was trying to dip out with a net. 
When I do large water changes I usually predissolve my Alkaline buffer and Equilibrium in a 2L bottle and add it when I am doing the WC. I had forgot about adding the bottle for a couple days and when I did add it, I got that exact result. What I couldn't net out disappeared in a couple days and didn't harm anything , but weird stuff for sure.


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## Rastapus (Apr 21, 2010)

That's interesting. I have never changed 98% of the water, I would never personally do more then 50% water change. Looks like bacteria to me, are you buffering at all?


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## Scherb (Feb 10, 2011)

I should mention this is a bb Discus tank. yes i buffer always. 1/8 tsp of equilibrium and 1/8 tsp of alkaline buffer. i sure hope it is good bacteria gone bad, which would make scene since i missed some of the water conditioner. but not sure why it happened the second time. yes i wiped down everything in the tank like i always do on sunday. one other weird thing was last night i seen some of that stuff floating on the top just before bed so i scooped it with the net and was to tired to rinse it so i placed it over an empty 1g bowl and let it sit, this morning i went to use the net to get the discus to move so i could examine them and i looked into the net to see the stuff and it was gone not a trace.


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## Scherb (Feb 10, 2011)

Diztrbd1 said:


> I highly doubt it's fish slime, though I could be wrong. I had the same exact stuff one time and it freaked me out lol was trying to dip out with a net.
> When I do large water changes I usually predissolve my Alkaline buffer and Equilibrium in a 2L bottle and add it when I am doing the WC. I had forgot about adding the bottle for a couple days and when I did add it, I got that exact result. What I couldn't net out disappeared in a couple days and didn't harm anything , but weird stuff for sure.


well that's good to hear. this stuff sure has me freaked out.


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## seanyuki (Apr 22, 2010)

When I do water changes for the discus tanks......I use two sets of hoses......one to drain and the other to fill the tanks......my two cents.


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## Lamplighter (Aug 3, 2012)

Scherb said:


> I should mention this is a bb Discus tank. yes i buffer always. 1/8 tsp of equilibrium and 1/8 tsp of alkaline buffer. i sure hope it is good bacteria gone bad, which would make scene since i missed some of the water conditioner. but not sure why it happened the second time. yes i wiped down everything in the tank like i always do on sunday. one other weird thing was last night i seen some of that stuff floating on the top just before bed so i scooped it with the net and was to tired to rinse it so i placed it over an empty 1g bowl and let it sit, this morning i went to use the net to get the discus to move so i could examine them and i looked into the net to see the stuff and it was gone not a trace.


 Bacteria would not have that much mass. Whatever it is it emulsifies in the water. I had a bottle of water conditioner tip up and the top wasn't screwed on tight. A slimy substance leaked out of there.

My guess is that it's something that was added to the water.


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## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

It seems to be a rogue bacteria outbreak. I've had this happen twice in 2 seperate planted tanks. I suggest getting some Seachem Stability or a good source of new bacteria from another tank and re-seeding your bacteria colony.

Best Regards,

Stuart


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## Scherb (Feb 10, 2011)

CRS Fan said:


> It seems to be a rogue bacteria outbreak. I've had this happen twice in 2 seperate planted tanks. I suggest getting some Seachem Stability or a good source of new bacteria from another tank and re-seeding your bacteria colony.
> 
> Best Regards,
> 
> Stuart


Glad to hear a couple people have seen something like this. i will keep an eye on the water parameters. Fish still look normal. Thanks everyone for there input. and anybody else who has seen this stuff please feel free to share.


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## Rastapus (Apr 21, 2010)

Bacteria can have mass, and it grows VERY quickly. This one reminds me of a similar bacteria I had growing in a dentist office aquarium that was feeding of one of the cleaning chemicals that was airborne in the room. I still believe it is bacteria.


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## Scherb (Feb 10, 2011)

Rastapus said:


> Bacteria can have mass, and it grows VERY quickly. This one reminds me of a similar bacteria I had growing in a dentist office aquarium that was feeding of one of the cleaning chemicals that was airborne in the room. I still believe it is bacteria.


So do you think it is harmless and will go away ?


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

interested to know what it is myself....when I had it it showed up right after I dumped in the predissolved mix of buffers but was pretty much gone within 36 hours without a trace of anything left behind


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## Scherb (Feb 10, 2011)

Diztrbd1 said:


> interested to know what it is myself....when I had it it showed up right after I dumped in the predissolved mix of buffers but was pretty much gone within 36 hours without a trace of anything left behind


Me too obviously. but it kinda seems to be going away and the fact that the stuff in the net disappeared and yours did after 36 hrs does ease my mind a bit, but i would still like an official Id and cause. just tested, ph good maybe a half a point or less than normal, nitrite 0.


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## Tiwaz (May 5, 2011)

I have had this come and go for the few months in my angel tank Always growing on the wood. I clean it off and it comes back a few days later sometimes not for a week or so. Rather frustrating as it doesn't appear in my other tanks . I just assumed that it was something in the wood still leaching out. But I see that we are both in Abby so now I am wondering what they have put in the water now.


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## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

Rastapus said:


> Bacteria can have mass, and it grows VERY quickly. This one reminds me of a similar bacteria I had growing in a dentist office aquarium that was feeding of one of the cleaning chemicals that was airborne in the room. I still believe it is bacteria.


Hi Grant,
May I know why you asked if he has buffered? Can buffering get rid of something like this?
Thank you.


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## Lamplighter (Aug 3, 2012)

Rastapus said:


> Bacteria can have mass, and it grows VERY quickly. This one reminds me of a similar bacteria I had growing in a dentist office aquarium that was feeding of one of the cleaning chemicals that was airborne in the room. I still believe it is bacteria.


I know that bacteria has mass but I would say what's in the aquarium would fill many petri dishes. My understanding is that if there's bacteria in the water it can greatly multiply with the addition of freshly oxygenated water. I would call that a bloom.

The picture did not indicate that . The white substance was sporadic throughout the aquarium floating here and there. It looks like a film of some sort.

I've never seen localized bacteria bloom in an aquarium.

I realize that I haven't seen everything there is to see.


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## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

Here's a pic of what I'm referring to.










It was definitely a rogue bacterial outbreak (something I had NEVER seen in the 30 years I've been keeping fish).

Respectfully,

Stuart


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## Rastapus (Apr 21, 2010)

Fish rookie said:


> Hi Grant,
> May I know why you asked if he has buffered? Can buffering get rid of something like this?
> Thank you.


Knowing if the aquarium was buffered gave an idea of the water chemistry and ruled out any big swings in pH etc.


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## Lamplighter (Aug 3, 2012)

CRS Fan said:


> Here's a pic of what I'm referring to.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Hi Stuart

There's no question in my mind that the substances in yours and Scherbs aquariums is the same or at least very similar. His is in a more filmy stage whereas for the most part yours seems to be in a stage where its emulsifying with the water.

His looks like it formed a film and it dropped thereby draping itself over various surfaces in the tank.

I think there's bacteria involved there's certainly no question about that. My understanding of bacteria is that it needs food to survive. Bacteria is opportunistic in that whenever it has a chance to attack a host it'll take it, if the conditions are right. What did the bacteria attack? There's nothing in tap water that can sustain the life of bacteria, that is unless it contains protein and/or other nutrients that promote bacterial growth.

There's a constant battle taking place in any water supply that contains nutrients and bacteria. Good bacteria is constantly trying to eliminate the bad and visa versa.

You may very well be correct about the rouge bacteria. I'm curious as to your reasoning. Why not a protein film?


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## Scherb (Feb 10, 2011)

so it appears to be gone. to me it looked like it was coming from my corner filter cause it seemed to be concentrated in there. i have done a few wc since, each time i cleaned the corner filter with tap water and removed all the stuff i could. today there is just a hint of it left. Thanks everyone for the help.


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## sunshine_1965 (Aug 16, 2011)

My first thought was discus slime. I had something similar to this when I had YOYO loaches. It seems it is something the body produces when stressed out. I hope you figure it out.


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## STANKYfish (Apr 21, 2011)

Maybe it was something in our water suppy because one of my planted tanks had the same stuff but thicker and it seemed to happen all at once.
I picked it out and have not seen it come back. Fish seemed to be unaffected.


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## Smallermouse (Jan 28, 2012)

99% wc LOL. looks kinda Halloween themed. time to clean filter?


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## ncutler (Apr 26, 2010)

Fascinating thread since I've been dealing with a similar effect with a tank I've been setting up. Weird thing is - there's no fish in it since I'm currently building a 3D background using lava rock. I've had it run for a month or so testing the tank when I noticed exactly as Scherb posted. I've drained and refilled the tank several times and everytime within days there's a slmy film on anything I touch in the tank. Also noticed that the water began to have a white tinge to it (which I know is bacterial bloom). I've even let the tank dry 100% and refilled, only to find it slimy again after a few days. Today I noticed that it seems to leave a dry residue that is very hard to scrape off on areas that are dry. So I can definately vouch that it's bacterial from my experiences.

I'm currently adding ammonia in order to encourage the beneficial bacteria, if that fails to change anything will try the Seachem's Stability.


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## Hollyhawk (Mar 28, 2011)

Dead plant matter? Any of your plants "melting" near the base where you may not see it?


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## ncutler (Apr 26, 2010)

Since everybody seems to agree that this is likely bacterial. I've gone ahead with my tank (no fish yet in it) and have started treating it with triple sulfa and eurythromycin since they were close to expiry and I'm curious if anti-bacterial meds might be able to kill it. I've used double dose of each since it hasn't been cycled yet.

Any recommendations of other things to try to kill this bacteria?


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