White slimy film on walls of tank...

Mmathis

TurtleMommy
Joined
Apr 28, 2011
Messages
13,884
Reaction score
8,080
Location
NW Louisiana -- zone 8b
Hardiness Zone
8b
Country
United States
Not sure if you need background info [a history of the tank] for this. If so, I'll fill in the blanks on request, otherwise..... It's a 20 gal. tank with GF fry [that are fast outgrowing it]. It's been up & running for about a year, with various fishy inhabitants during that time. There are plants [stuck in a couple of cereal bowls with a little kitty litter, gravel, and marbles]. Except for what falls out of the bowl, it's bare-bottom. Filtration & air. Doing frequent water changes & keeping it siphoned of crud. No chemicals used other than anti-chlorine/chloramine drops. Ammonia tests running around 0.50, and sometimes higher, with slight nitrates [thus the freq water changes].

Any idea what it is, is it harmful, how do I get rid of it?

The babies will be going to a larger, outdoor tank in the next day or 2. I've had aquariums before, but have never seen anything like this.
 

Mmathis

TurtleMommy
Joined
Apr 28, 2011
Messages
13,884
Reaction score
8,080
Location
NW Louisiana -- zone 8b
Hardiness Zone
8b
Country
United States
got a photo of it please TurtleMommy ?

Dave;)

Sorry! I took some pics, but forgot about the stuff. I Googled "white slimy film" and got results from algae, to bacteria, to fungus, to no one knows. But one common link seemed to be related to light exposure. So I did some rearranging [it was time] in the tank, and started cutting back on the number of hours for the light.

The stuff gradually started going away, and in some spots did sorta turn into a greenish film.

These pics are before I intervened.... [even the poor snails were covered in it]....
image.jpg
 
Joined
Nov 2, 2012
Messages
2,395
Reaction score
987
Location
near Kalamazoo, Michigan
I would be more concerned about the ammonia at .5 than the white stuff. I am guessing it is something like calcium or lime building up. I got the same thing on my fry tank when there was not enough water circulation.
 

Mmathis

TurtleMommy
Joined
Apr 28, 2011
Messages
13,884
Reaction score
8,080
Location
NW Louisiana -- zone 8b
Hardiness Zone
8b
Country
United States
I would be more concerned about the ammonia at .5 than the white stuff. I am guessing it is something like calcium or lime building up. I got the same thing on my fry tank when there was not enough water circulation.
Yes, the ammonia was my biggest concern. Have plenty of water movement. I didn't think a dozen little fish could produce that much, but turns out there were 19 fry in the tank, some approaching 1". I was doing twice-daily water changes plus siphoning out crud & left over food. Too much work, sooo..... Nine have now been moved to the "nursery," which is a 50 gal. tote outside.
 
Joined
Jun 5, 2013
Messages
2,189
Reaction score
1,327
Location
NC, US
Showcase(s):
1
Hardiness Zone
7a
Country
United States
It looks kinda like my 'white stuff' that I had. It's from my 'powdered' de-Chlorine thing. If I put too much, it'll coat the surface of everything in the tank for a few days. I thought it was fungus for a while but I notice it only happened when I do water change and use the stuff.

How did your frys get big so fast? mine's still small :(
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
30,754
Messages
508,177
Members
13,003
Latest member
Tfny

Latest Threads

Top