White slimy film in fish tank.

[SqueakyBed]

Hello everyone,

I am new to this community but I have read a lot of useful and helpful Thread/Topics on these forums so I thought I would post a thread here to ask for help and I am hoping that you guys can help me out. I am basically a noob trying to learn Aquascaping and fish keeping so please bare with me.

So before I setup my tank I had a big piece of drift wood that I wanted to use in the new tank but it kept floating so I filled the tank up with water and dropped it in there for almost a week hoping that it would sink but it never did and at the end of the week the tank smelled so bad and the wood had some white fungi or something like that growing on it so I got rid of the wood, Cleaned the tank and bleached it then rinsed it and let it air out to erase any bleach residue. 2 days later I setup the tank(60 gallons). Substrate, Rock's, Plant's, heater, CFilter, etc and I am now waiting for it to cycle. I decided to do a fish-less cycle since it doesn't involve experimenting with fish. It has been 6 days now and I am starting to notice some white slimy film developing on suction cups in the water and on the drop checker. Some plants may also have that stuff growing on them too. I am not sure it might be too early to tell.

I have also been watching the water parameters (well most of them) to make sure nothing is out of the normal range except for Ammonia I have been keeping it at around 4ppm+- for the past 6 days.

My water parameters for the past 6 days.
Ammonia Nitrite Nitrate PH KH
2, 0, 0, 6.8, 35.8
4, 0, 0, 7, 35.8
3, 0, 0, 6.8, 35.8
2, 0, 0, 6.6, 35.8
5, 0, 0, 7.2, 35.8
5, 0, 0, 6.5+-, 35.8

Ph fluctuation is due to the CO2 level being injected into the tank which I could never get right.

6 hours of light + CO2 everyday. (Timer).

This what the suction cups should look like.

This is what it looks like now.

I am not sure if it's the same stuff on this plant but I thought I should share it too.

So.. Any idea what that white stuff is and how to combat it. It looks really bad and the idea of a full blown outbreak terrifies me.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Delapool]

Might be just normal bio-film on the suction cups and maybe hair algae on the plants (can't really tell). As long as it isn't growing rapidly or hasn't appeared in the filter, it should be ok.

Wise call to get rid of the wood. I've tried bleaching a piece of wood I was fond of and every time the fungus / mold came back.

 

[SqueakyBed]

Might be just normal bio-film on the suction cups and maybe hair algae on the plants (can't really tell). As long as it isn't growing rapidly or hasn't appeared in the filter, it should be ok.

Wise call to get rid of the wood. I've tried bleaching a piece of wood I was fond of and every time the fungus / mold came back.

No it's not, I scrubbed it of the suction cups a few days ago and it seems to have stopped coming back.

However, on the algae point, This same plant has been dying shedding leaves for a while and now it's gotten worse. I am not sure what to make of it. Is it the plant leaves rotting away or is it actually algae. Here is a better picture if that helps.

The rest of the plants are doing so well and growing rapidly

 

[Delapool]

That's good news on the suction caps. As long as mold not doubling overnight or anything.

That plant (bearing in mind I am a brown thumb) looks like it has an element deficiency and then getting attacked by algae or mold. What ferts are you dosing? Also are the leaves being lost from bottom or top of plant? Do you have a drop checker to check CO2 levels?

But CO2 injection with 6 hours lights sounds good.

If the plant is new from the shop (or grown emersed) I find they take time to swap over. Any new growth at all?

 

[SqueakyBed]

That's good news on the suction caps. As long as mold not doubling overnight or anything.

That plant (bearing in mind I am a brown thumb) looks like it has an element deficiency and then getting attacked by algae or mold. What ferts are you dosing? Also are the leaves being lost from bottom or top of plant? Do you have a drop checker to check CO2 levels?

But CO2 injection with 6 hours lights sounds good.

If the plant is new from the shop (or grown emersed) I find they take time to swap over. Any new growth at all?

I am using liquid Seachem Flourish\Potassium\Iron.

Flourish 5ml once a week. Potassium\Iron 5ml every 2 days.

The leaves are being lost from root up the like they start turning brown at the root first. Water temperature is at 78ish 24/7.

I bought a drop checker but it never works really. I am injecting approximately 70 bpm and the tank hold 60 gallons. The PH readings are always low and no matter how low the readings are the drop checker never changes color. I keep telling myself it's because I am injecting a fair amount of CO2 into the tank but I am not really sure what to believe anymore .

The tap water PH is 8+ str8 out of the tap and it settles at 7 after 24 hours. However when I do a water change and check the PH the very next day I find it almost always at 6.4 I am not sure if it's because the tank is still cycling or it's because of the amount of CO2 I am injecting.

Thanks for helping me out

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002APILO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Delapool]

Maybe a bit of both cycling and CO2 contributing to the ph perhaps.

Sounds like a macro deficiency. Normally I'd say potassium as that will be consumed before nitrates (fish) and phosphates (fish food) but hard to know with a cycling tank.

Is there much of a root system to it that you can put root tabs around? That would cover all the bases.

http://infographics.myaquacalc.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/plant-deficiency-labeled2.jpg

Some plants just don't take for whatever reason.

I've gone back to dosing liquid carbon (e.g. seachem excel) as I find this helps keep algae down. Never used it in a cycling tank though.

http://shop.stefmar.com.au/seachem/seachem-flourish-excel-2l