White Slime Bacteria?

Jimbo · Oct 20, 2015

I have a 2 month old 93 Gallon cube that has had a bacterial bloom for the past month. White slime/stringy bacteria growing from the rocks. I thought it was going away a couple of weeks ago but it is back with a vengeance.

It's now growing inside the overflow and on the glass on the back of the tank and in the sump. Any suggestions on how to deal with this stuff ?

I hooked up a UV sterilizer about 2 weeks ago which initially helped to at least clear the white haze in the water. Doesn't appear to be stopping the slime though.

I have been doing 15 gallon water changes at least twice weekly for a month, blowing the slime off the rocks and using a turkey Baster to remove what I can. Nothing seems to help. I started dosing Microbacter7 on Friday and am following the directions on the bottle in the hope that the bacteria will out compete this nuisance stuff. Nothing seems to be working.

I am not carbon dosing. A lot of the cases I have found with this issue have overdosed vodka or vinegar . Not the case here but the bacteria I have is the same as what people get from carbon dosing.

Tank parameters are as follows:
SG 1.025
Alk 9.3
Calcium 420
Mag 1300
Nitrate 0
Phosphate 0.02

Any help or suggestions on what else can do would be appreciated. I'll try to get a picture of the slime growing in the overflow if I can get a good one, I'll post it .

Jimbo · Oct 20, 2015

brandon429 · Oct 20, 2015

Need you to scrape some off into a clear glass of water and photo the aggregation over a white piece of paper using regular light to help w ID

So far it looks like a plant invader more than the white slime I was picturing from that one article where home air fresheners were causing a real white slime

that above looks golden or brownish

BottomCoastReefs · Oct 20, 2015

Spaghetti worms?

Jimbo · Oct 20, 2015

I'll try to get a better pic but it's definitely white and slimy in texture. Pretty sure it's a bacterial growth

ironman31 · Oct 20, 2015

Use Dr tim's waste away and refresh

Jimbo · Oct 20, 2015

Here's a close up. It's a white stringy substance

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 21, 2015

Do you skim?

What are you feeding to the tank?

Somehow it is getting enough organic matter to thrive.

Jimbo · Oct 21, 2015

Yes, I skim 24/7. Not a whole lot of food going into the tank as I only have 2 small Clownfish and I feed them a 1/4 of a cube of Mysis a day. Nitrates are undetectable on Red Sea kit. Phosphates 0.02 on Hanna ULR checker.

Started the tank with all dry rock ( man made Walt Smith) then added about 7 lbs of Live Rock to seed. Only have a total of about 55 lbs of rock and running a barebottom tank. Added a Marine Pure Ceramic block 8"x8"x4" to compensate for the minimal LR and lack of sandbed.

Any of these possibly contributing to the bacterial bloom?

brandon429 · Oct 21, 2015

I do not think it is a bacterial bloom, they are so rare I don't recall one posted even within yrs that had a true bac bloom w no carbon dosing.

pics aren't clear enough to discern yet, any chance you could actually scrape out a sample on white paper and photo that using a cell phone macro setting, good focus, under white light? the in tank pics are simply too dim w no detail. an actual clear cup of water setting on white paper makes awesome clarity display. consider running a test like this thread:

http://reef2reef.com/threads/helpful-method-for-identifying-dinoflagellates.216508/

I can see no biological origin for a white slime, but can see plenty of ways algae variants would cast about the tank and adhere to the glass. when I leave my own tank unattended the growth isn't on the rocks, its stringy on the glass just like yours and its brownish.

the actual mass scooped up and blobbed out thin on a piece of paper might help, there would be some form of order if it was a plant. if this is a bacterial mass I cannot see what would be contributing considering the competition against bacteria, by bacteria in the reef tank.

Jimbo · Oct 21, 2015

Sorry not good with a camera but here's a couple of pics . First has white paper behind the container

brandon429 · Oct 21, 2015

excellence

those look like white bacteria=stumped !!

zwulfke · Oct 21, 2015

Almost like the stuff in my GFO that is a new one .

brandon429 · Oct 21, 2015

Jim Ive re read to see if you are dosing anything beyond feed, water changes and maybe some calcium and alk, can you clarify if there's anything being input beyond that? reaching back to the annals of 2004 there was a big online article possibly by Dr Hovanec but I can't recall now that specifically had white slimes inside a tank due to wifey using certain scents in the home, that article showed somehow that scent spray or candle exuding organics into the home via aerosol and it was feeding bacteria, im that stretched to find your cause.

GFO use has associated slimes but not like this color in my opinion. we see lots of cyano coming and going as gfo is being adjusted, so if there is literally any dosers past bare bones minimum they need to be factored here. what a challenge!!

Jimbo · Oct 21, 2015

Yeah, I've read the article about the scented candles. My wife did use those "Scentsy" brand air freshners but not in the same room as the tank and we've since stopped their use.

I only have a couple of corals so not much uptake of Alk or calcium just using a small amount of kalkwasser in the ATO water. I've been adding Reef Roids a couple of times a week as Nitrates are undetectable and PO4 very low. Only 2 fish so only tiny amounts of food go in the tank. I dosed a bottled bacteria when tank was initially set up ( Dr Tim's One and Only) also dosed ammonium chloride to feed the bacteria.

I was just reading that there is a strain of whitish or clear Dinoflaggelates. I did lose some snails recently and the ones I got as replacements seem sluggish which is another side effect of the Dino's. So just when you changed your mind about it not being bacteria, I'm thinking it may be Dino's ! LOL

Either way it's not fun and I'm at a loss at what to do. Nothing I have done seems to help. Searched high and low on the subject. Found a couple of people going through something real similar and in one case to a worse extent than mine. No answers there either.

zwulfke · Oct 21, 2015

White Dino's really ... So it would be a nutrient issue then

BetURWrasse · Oct 21, 2015

I've been following this because I also have had what appears to be a bacterial bloom in my tank. White stringy slimy hairy stuff. It just started a couple days ago and really nothing has changed in the tank.

But my wife did just put a very strong smelling Febreze Home Collection almond breeze candle about 5 feet from the tank a few days ago. Been burning it daily for a week.

Hmmmm, maybe it's time for it to go.

Jimbo · Oct 21, 2015

Definitely not a nutrient issue. The tank is nutrient poor and only 2 months old with 2 fish and a couple of coral frags.

No green algae growth of ANY kind, not even any film algae on the glass. Nitrates undetectable and Phosphates very low. Was running GFO passively in the sump in a bag but even removed that a couple of weeks ago because PO4 was so low.

Macroalgae in refugium ( Dragons Breath) is still alive but is fading in color from lack of nutrients.

I still run Lignite Carbon from BRS passively in the sump. Also threw in a bag of purigen in hopes they would remove any contaminant that has gotten in the water. Also dosing Microbacter7 in hopes it will outcompete the nuisance bacteria. Not sure what else to do except wait it out. Thinking of stopping all the water changes as they seem to have no effect , good or bad.....