Mucus on top of sump water

[Baiggann]

Anyone have any ideas as to what this stuff is? Parameters are all normal. A little cyano but nothing to speak of as far as algae is concerned.

My DT is upstairs and everything else is in the basement.

 

[Reefiness]

could be a bacterial slime? do you notice it adhering to anything else in the sump such as the glass, wires, pumps? are you carbon dosing?

 

[Baiggann]

It starts in the center section of my sump and is on top of the water so it sticks to the tubing for my gfo/ carbon reactor. In the picture, it actually made it to the 3rd section.

 

[Rick Krejci]

Looks like bacterial slime (may be caused by overdosing carbon like nopox, vodka...).

 

[2Wheelsonly]

Yes, that is bacteria slime for sure. Less dosing/more water changes will prevent it but i'm not sure it's hurting anything!

 

[Baiggann]

I don't dose nopox, vodka, etc. I dose Calc & alk (brs 2 part). So more/ larger water changes? Doing 10% weekly right now.

 

[Finhead]

I don't dose nopox, vodka, etc. I dose Calc & alk (brs 2 part). So more/ larger water changes? Doing 10% weekly right now.

@Baiggann were you able to get rid of this? Was it the water changes that did the trick if you did? Starting to ge the exact same thing going on in my sump.

 

[Bacon505]

Hope you take precaution. That’s usually the begining of a crash tank. That happened to my system before it crashed. My sumple slimed up like that then foams began to accumulate at the surface. The dying bacteria will cloud your tank and eventually crashed the system.

 

[Bacon505]

I don't dose nopox, vodka, etc. I dose Calc & alk (brs 2 part). So more/ larger water changes? Doing 10% weekly right now.

I wouldnt recommend wc, i thought the same and did wc, it gotten worse after the wc

 

[Finhead]

Hope you take precaution. That’s usually the begining of a crash tank. That happened to my system before it crashed. My sumple slimed up like that then foams began to accumulate at the surface. The dying bacteria will cloud your tank and eventually crashed the system.

I've been dealing with it for a few months now, not a bacteial bloom. It stays in the sump and plumbing, easy to scrub out and remove, but the weekly scrub is getting on my nerves. lol
I've been in the hobby for 18+ years now haven't seen anything like this before that is why I asked @Baiggann what has worked for him if anything.

 

[Perry]

definitely bacteria slime, could be from an imbalance in bacteria levels. Dr. Tim's Waste Away designed specifically to counter that imbalance. Could have resulted from some type of contaminant entering the tank, perfume, aerosols, etc. Have you steamed your carpet recently, assuming you have carpet? Manual removal, Waste Away, and change of GAC might be on order Good luck, for the most part it will not harm anything, but yeah, I had that stuff too, the clear kind like yours. Cheers

 

[cgdcinc]

I had it for a couple months too. I lowered the water a bit in my sump to get it to roll over the weir to my return. It went away. I also added a reactor for carbon and phosguard about the same time. So could have been either or a combo of both that got rid of it. Never hurt anything in the tank.
I also believe it was something from the air in the house that may have caused it. Scented candles possibly air freshener.
Now that it is winter here in South Florida we have all the windows open most of the time. Haven’t seen it since we started opening the house.

 

[Baiggann]

Sorry folks..... been awhile since this happened so......


Had this stuff for months prior to that photo. With everyones advice I did larger water changes. The end of Oct I came down with a Dino/ cyano outbreak!!! So lots of large water changes, rock scrubbing, and substrate cleaning, I got it under control. Finally did 2 rounds of chemi clean in late Dec early Jan and everything is back on track.

So I cant exactly say what got rid of the original problem but it has not returned.