You guys probably thought I died...nope, just a stalled cycle

[DesktopTankDiva]

Hi all,

I am an aquarium newb with a 3.5 gal desktop tank that I initiated a fishless cycle at the beginning of Oct. Yep, I've hung in there this long.

Somewhere in my cycling I encountered a hiccup and the cycle stalled. The frequent drops in ammonia levels stopped suddenly and the nitrites remained sky high. I didn't know what to do, became frustrated, and figured ignoring it and just letting it be might be the best course. I left the airstone on, the heater on, the lighting off, the filter cartridges in, added in a tiny baggie of biomax rings, and added water as needed when it evaporated. Every so often I put a few drops of SeaChem Stability in. Lo and behold, I half heartedly tested one day and found the nitrites at zero and the ammonia very low. I've been testing every few days and add in ammonia to reach 1ppm. I want more consistent test results over a longer period before I add fish or plants.

I do have a question though. The past few weeks the airtubing has collected a significant amount of slimy pink/orange substance. It didn't look like a necessarily good thing, so I turned down my heater to 77 thinking it may have been mold or fungus or something malignant. An almost undetectable amount collected on the heater itself, I wiped it off, but I cut off and disposed of the affected portion of the plastic airtube. A week will pass and the pink/orange slime accumulates on the airtube again.

What is this slime? I don't see it on any other part of the tank aside from the airtube. Is it harmful? Is it the reason my cycle stalled? Any advice or observations would be appreciated.

Thanks!
DesktopD

 

[Fresh2o]

Congrats on the completed cycle and, more importantly, your patience and persistence.
As for the pink slime only on the airline tubing, that’s a strange one. Often we see slime on new driftwood (it’s temporary). You could try getting a different brand of airline tubing and swapping it out. Could be far fetched but perhaps something is wrong with the batch of airline tubing you are currently using.

 

[King Fisher]

Pink slime is generally an airborne bacteria caused from standing water or moisture. Are you talking about the inside or outside of the tubing? If it's on the outside that is pretty bizarre but maybe you don't have enough water movement??

 

[DesktopTankDiva]

Hi Fresh and KingFish,

The pink/orange slime accumulated only on the outside of the airtubing, not the inside of the tube. It never extended out of the water, it was only present on the portion of tubing that remained submerged. I keep the air pump on and the slime did not grow on any surface of the airstone, and it is a large decorative airstone. I thought this offered more than a sufficient amount of bubbleage, even though the filter seems to be a little weak in regards to waterflow. The airtube is standard clear flexible plastic, not the blue or black opaque silicone type. Should I try the silicone type and see if it still happens? I purchased a new airstone per your advice, it's a large 5" bubble wand. It's a bit overkill for a tiny tank but I suppose it doesn't matter if it contains no fish. However, my air pump is small and doesn't have the output to utilize the full potential of the wand's length.

Is it possible I overdosed Stability and it resulted in pink mystery slime?

 

[King Fisher]

I'd try the silicone tubing and see if it returns. Nothing wrong with creating some bubbles [emoji16]

 

[DesktopTankDiva]

I think I will try it and see what happens.
Strangely enough, "nothing wrong with creating some bubbles" was my motto in high school. Even wrote it in my yearbook. Ha! ��

 

[King Fisher]

Lol. Now that's funny