brown film on white gravel

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kingnag

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Sep 11, 2003
Messages
4
Location
Chicago
i have white gravel in my tank and during the day and when the light is on the gravel is ok. the light comes on at 10;30 am and goes off at 10;30 pm recently when the light goes on there is a brown sludge on the gravel but as the day goes on the sludge starts to go away what is this and what can i do to get rid of it

thanks kingnag
 
Well... its actually as you say.. sludge... gunk, junk etc. Like a lot of issues, tank specs are very important. It could be that you have specialized intense lighting (for plant growth) and algae like that a lot, especially if it heats up the tank, but that would be in rare cases. Also how often do you gravel clean you gravel floor? What fish are there? With this little knowledge I can only suggest a few things as for the reason that your slug appears during the morning but not after the day. Since fish chill out at night to sleep, the gunk isn't disturbed by them and can settle quite peacefully. During the day as the fish start being more active and see less things to do.. they sometimes scavenge for food or for just the hell of it, and many times this means disturbing the ground floor, which would toss around the fragile sludge around and voila... no "seeable" sludge.
 
As elecrobes says, the sludge is almost certainly a) fish waste or b) algae. Algae is *not* uncommon, and can appear in any tank! It indicates that you have too many nutrients in your tank. Lighting is an issue, but algae will grow under even weak light if it has the necessary nutrients (i.e. nitrogenous compounds such as ammonia, nitrites, nitrates).

Do yourself a favor and buy a gravel vacuum for your tank. They cost about $7-14 depending on the size (look carefully on the package to see what size is appropriate for your tank). The Gravel vac will suck up fish crap and uneaten food from on top of and in between the pieces of gravel. It's an ingenious design, as the widened body of the vacuum sucks up small particles of waste, and will not suck up your gravel! Don't be intimidated by the name--it's a simple syphon tube with a little bit extra.

Also, how often do you do water changes? You should be changing 15-25% of your water once a week.
 
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