slimy water

[Dr.Nate]

I haven't posted in awhile but lately I'm having an issue.....

I have an external overflow (cpr) and I'm having to clean it every single day because if I don't the siphon will slow and my main tank level will begin to rise. When I go to clean it, the prefilter sponge and the floss that I keep in there is very, very slimy. Once cleaned, it works perfectly until the slime returns.

I also run an emperor hang on filter on my sump and run carbon......I have had to replace the cartridges every week due to slime bulding up and water not able to get through.

The only change in my tank of late is that I mysteriously lost a shrimp (could be my sixline, not for sure).

After this event and finding the slime, I thought maybe that could be it.....I have done three 20% PWC's over the last week, which seemed to help, but then the slime comes right back.

Any suggestions?

Oh, almost forgot......I am going to check water params today, but last time I checked them (last week) everything was perfect.

 

[roka64]

What color is the slime?

 

[Dr.Nate]

it's colorless.......

 

[Sadielynn]

We get that on our surface you may wat to add a surface skimer such as this one and increase flow we also change out our fiter media and agressivly filter . In my humble and honest opinion when this happens , usually it is due to stagnet water or not enough flow for the tank size
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&pc=1&N=0&Nty=1
HTH

 

[Dr.Nate]

Well, I've got 850 gph in a 55 gal tank running for a year and a half and have never had this problem before. Also, my oveflow skims the water off of the surface and into the sump where my protein skimmer should take of it. Any other thoughts?

and now my protein skimmer is going nuts, skimming like crazy. And the tank is starting to smell like rotten eggs......

clear stringy slime is starting to form on things now, too....

ugh

guess I'll do yet another PWC....it's getting old

OK, just did all tests using salifert test kits and a refractomer....

sg 1.026
trite 0
trate 0
alk 9.6 dkh
ca 420
po4 0 (less than 0.06)

 

[Sadielynn]

The only thing I can think of is contamination of some sort ? How old are the test kits that you are using if they are old you may be getting false readings

 

[Dr.Nate]

yeah, some of my test kits are just over a year old probably....

 

[Sadielynn]

I would say to get a new test kit as this could be part of the reason for not seeing a problem tho it may not be something you can test for . Try some phosguard or purigen ontop of your regular filter this may help you a bit