What is the brown slime in my Salt water vat?

[joeyfromlawrenceville]

Hi Gang,
I have an 18 gallon tote I fill with 15 gallons of RO water to keep salt water at the ready. I have a powerhead laying on the bottom as well as a heater. I am getting a light brown algae like slime on the walls of the tote. The lid stays on and the room is dark/dim most of the time in my basement storage room. It only took a few days for the stuff to appear, is this normal, or is something wrong?

PS , I used a powerhead from a source I had low SG salt ( 1.009) water made for another reason, been having light tan/yellow algae in the low gravity salt bucket and I only rinsed out the powerhead real good before putting it into my new salt water vat. I did not sterilized the powerhead or anything like that.

Thanks,

 

[roka64]

Hmmm, that is a good question. I leave my 32G trash can open.
What water are you using (RO/DI, tap)?
Can you get a pic?
What brand of tote?

 

[joeyfromlawrenceville]

Gotta go to work, can send picture tonight. It is a roughneck by Rubbermaid.
I use RO water from the dispensing machine at the grocery store. I used this water in my last PWC on 3 tanks and haven't seen any funky algae growing on the glass. I might mix a fresh batch and use an airstone that is new to see what happens, also will leave the lid off like you do.
Pic coming later, I gotta go !
Thanks,

Joey

 

[joeyfromlawrenceville]

Here are the pictures, I also enclosed a picture of my handy plumbing work for easy bucket fills

what do ya think is the deal with this brown stuff, it is actually not as slimy as I thought, wipes off easily with a towel. Is a light brown color in the tub, but on the paper towel is more of an orangeish yellow color.

I cleaned the tub tonight and replaced the water with nee RO water, same source, using an air stone and heater thinking my powerhead might be the culprit.
Joey

 

[austinsdad]

I've been seeing it for years in my trashcan. Eevry once in a while, I just wipe it and rinse it out. No ill effects yet.

Samer thing. In the basement. Covered. PH and sometimes a heater - at least the day before I put it in the tank.

 

[joeyfromlawrenceville]

Alright, thanks. I won't worry about it then. I never considered saving the power to heat it all week and plug in the heater the night before PWC's.

Anything to lessen my power bill, seems like having 4 tanks running with the hypo QT daily PWC too, my bill is huge!

Joey

 

[austinsdad]

And if you ever find out what it is, let me know.

 

[roka64]

Hmm, it seems to be where the ph is pushing the water.
I think if Ray has had no issues, you should be good to go.

 

[austinsdad]

Never thought about that. My brown streak is around my circular tank where the water from the ph hits the side.

 

[joeyfromlawrenceville]

we'll see what the air stone does, or doesn't do

It is also brown at the indentions in the tub, where water forcefully comes to a stop at an interior edge. Interesting......

Joey