Unknown substance in new tank!

[steph_steph]

Hi everyone Im new to this site and also new to this hobby,i hope im in the right section...anyway......i hope you can bare with me as this might be a bit long but here go's..

I seem to have a white kind of fuzzy gel substance growing on the rubber suction cups and filter hose in my aquarium and i'm not sure what it is. It's only appears to be growing on anything that's rubber. I took out the suction cups last night and cleaned it off,it's kind of clear out of the water and as i said gel like also when it was in a bunch it had a slight yellow tint to it.
I'm in the process of fishless cycling at the moment and have used a bit of media from an established aquarium that i have and put a bit of fish food in a net to feed the bacteria.I first noticed the white stuff growing on the food by the second day and didn't really think to much of it at the time. I seemed to only have a slight nitrite spike of about 0.50 for 3 days and then it went down. I tested for nitrates about a week later and couldn't tell if there was none or a very slight amount ( i have trouble reading the colour chart sometimes) so i had put a prawn in the net to try and make the cycle stronger. The next day i had a slightly larger ammonia spike and a larger nitrite spike and a bacterial bloom that lasted about 3 days. At that time I noticed that this white stuff started to also grow on the prawn and the rubber....??? I have taken it out now and am going to the aquarium store tomorrow but just wanted to run it past you guys as i find everyone seems to have a different opinion sometimes. Does anyone have a clue as to what it might be...im a bit worried that im going to have to tear it down and start again.
(oh and the readings now are around- ammonia- 0.25ppm nitrite-5.0ppm and nitrates-30ppm) thanks

 

[thomasina]

I have the same thing! My tank fult cycled the other week. I thought maybe just regular freshwater slime. My snail nor my chinese cats will touch it. If you find out, let me know!! thanks!

 

[steph_steph]

Will do...i realise that you get stuff in you filter pipes after awhile.....i just thought it was weird that it appeared almost overnight...

 

[marsh]

Any thing I've seen like that was rotting matter. I saw it on dead bulbs and on snail carcasses.

Seems like the cycle is progressing though

 

[thomasina]

You mean something is rotting? I don't have anything rotting. All my fish are there. I just trimmed all my plants. What would cause that?

 

[tarpon]

Hello! I think the white goo is most likely a fungus that is growing from the rotting fish food you left in the tank for your cycle. This has happened to me when I left food in the tank for too long before. It should be harmless in itself, but if you had fish in the tank it could be a sign that something is rotting, Which would release ammonia harmful to your fish. But in this case you are trying to create ammonia, so it should be okay.

 

[tarpon]

You mean something is rotting? I don't have anything rotting. All my fish are there. I just trimmed all my plants. What would cause that?

Maybe you are overfeeding?

 

[DavidAl]

Google "Saprolegnia". If not that, I'm inclined to believe the stuff it's growing on is used equipment that contains organic gunk from previous use.

David

 

[Zimmanski]

I think I've had the gunk on some of my stuff before too, I don't think I have it anymore or if I do I don't notice it. I had it on anything rubber or silicon that I put in the tank like the suction cups for the heater and whatnot. It should just wipe of then mostly go away on its own, I think it's just a new tank thing. Not sure if its diatom related or not but just try wiping it off and giving it some time before you do anything drastic

 

[steph_steph]

Thank you everyone for you comments.I just got back from the LFS and the manager there told me that he thinks it's just decaying matter from the fish food and that i should remove it but it's not harmful. I don't have any fish in the tank at the moment so i'll keep an eye on it for now.