I completely cleaned the tank on Friday, replaced the old water with fresh and cleaned the sand. Literally all that's in this tank is a piece of driftwood, some aquarium sand, and water. There's a filter and a heater, both running and working properly.
This is what the tank looks like Monday morning. What the heck is going on? The slimy-looking skin is covering the substrate as well.
So what causes it (I mean, I'm sure the answer is "protein"), but it literally popped up over 48 hours. What's causing the protein build up? And how do I stop it from happening again?
I would say the tannins lthat leeched from the wood or the heater... but if the filter was running... I dunno. I think something is growing in there. I know sometimes driftwood brings in weird things. and seeing how much there is in there.... it's a bacteria festival.
I've got the same kind of buildup in my 3 gallon, and there wasn't much in it. I think mine was caused by my heater (Tetra brand, 2-15 gallons) and it popped up over the course of a few days. The same thing might be causing yours, but I can't say for certain, even in my case.
Thanks vilmarisv. It's a Mr. Aqua 3-gallon rimless. I love the tank, minus the gunk.
I drained the tank, then filled a 5-gallon bucket with boiling water and emptied the tank's accoutrements (thermometer, filter (minus the sponges, which I tossed), heater, driftwood and some of the substrate into the bucket. It's been soaking for an hour or so. Meanwhile I cleaned the tank itself with hot water. Hopefully this will take care of it. I'm just going to keep the driftwood soaking in hot water until it's time to try again, I guess.
It almost looks like sand dust to me, was the sand a recent thing and did you rinse it? It reminds me of the tank I set up with sand before I realized I could rinse it... :/
Hmm bacteria you say? I had something similar to this without driftwood and it gave my fish (jabberjaw ) finrot and killed him. Some sort of oily substance on the surface of the water. Could be something different though.
Looks like your tank has the same problem as LittleWatty maybe? They provided much more disgusting pictures then you did though. I think LittleWatty wins the most disgusting aquarium problem picture award with their second picture (In my book at least lol)
Some of the brown stuff might be diatoms too. If it smells, it sounds like you probably have more then diatoms though. (....bacteria festival lol..... if your tank starts to give away T-shirts to commemorate the festival in the years to come mark me down for one lol :tanshades
Hope you can get rid of whatever it is though.
Edited to add:
Sena in the post I linked says what the heater gunk smells like even though she never did explain what happened with her heater to cause slime.
What Sena says does show heaters can cause a problem like this. She's a smart girl and I trust her opinion. I wonder how the heater causes things like this though.....
Yeah, that sorta looks like my tank after I stopped using a filter and the food pellets dissolved. That's gotta be the driftwood. I had just a few branches in mine and what a friggin' mess.
finnfinnfriend* Below is Sena's quote. I am hoping she see's this and chimes in.
"Try removing the heater... See if it stops. If it doesn't, good that is not the culprit. I am used to 1. heater snot. Icky, gooey, slimy stuff. OR 2. protein film. It could very well be the heater (or heater snot ) Is there any smell in there? Like, rubber, decay, rotten eggs, sweet, etc?" -Sena
I used to get a really thick layer of slime on top of the water when I lived in Alaska. It was also on the decor as well but it was NOT smelly. I always though it was from Stress Coat. The directions say to use 2X the dosage when using it to heal fins...
I also get a much thinner protein film on the smaller non filtered tanks. Very annoying but harmless
Yeah, I definitely think the driftwood has something to do with it. I wasn't/am not worried about the brown tannins; I'm ok with that. It's the smell and the slime. I never had this problem before experimenting with driftwood. It's soaking (again) in hotter-than-boiling water, along with the aquarium sand. I don't know how else to kill whatever is potentially growing in/on it.
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