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Grey Slime III
Ok, I spent a long time typing this up the first time
and it never showed up on the list! Auggghhhh!!!!
Here it is again from memory. My tank is being
overrun by a greyish slime that forms on the edges of
leaves and pearls profusely. It looks like the
darkish dust you see when you run your finger across
the screen of a dirty computer monitor. It grows
extremely fast, so there's hardly any point spending
lots of time cleaning it off plant leaves every day
(which I do anyway). Another form of it is a darker
grey (almost black) bubbly scum that forms on still
areas of the surface. It has the consistency of snot.
I remove it constantly with a brine shrimp net.
I had it a while ago when I had the hair algae
outbreak (added way too much phosphate). When I did a
4 day blackout, it disappeared.
I'll get to why I think it appeared in a minute.
First, my tank parameters.
30 gallons.
1 96 watt AH PCF, 2 (reduced to one yesterday) 25 watt
Zoomed T8s run on a Sylvania System 32IS electronic
ballast.
2 ml Flourish and Flourish Iron per day. 15 ml
Flourish potassium weekly.
.5ish phosphate (recently switched to Shultz
violetfood)
5-10 ppm nitrate (kno3)
30ppm co2, 6.6-6.8 PH
2 Duetto 50 GPH internal filters (to be replaced by an
Eheim 2222 Professional when it arrives, which
willalso serve as a co2 reactor)
After the first blackout, the stuff disappeared. It
stayed away until I replaced the T8s, which were about
a year old. Then it came back with a vengence.
Anther blackout failed to stop it (4 day). It was
then that I discovered that macro nutrient levels were
not what I thought they were. I have been monitoring
frequently, but have been unable to find a good dosing
regemine. Some days the tank uses up no macros at all
while other days it sucks them up like there's no
tomorrow. I think that when I replaced the T8s that
the macro need for the tank grew and threw things out
of balance. As I mentioned, I have been monitoring
them and keeping them within the parameters I want.
The slime remains. I did a short 2 day blackout that
failed to stop it. I took out a T8, thinking that I
just had way too much light. Still there. It will
not go away.
I am extremely frustrated. I no longer get any
enjoyment out of my tank whatsoever. It is being
smothered alive by the grey slime from hell. Nothing
I do even slows it down. I'm asking for help here as
a last resort before I get rid of all my plants but
Java fern and go low tech (if that would even make a
difference in stopping it). If I do that, is it ok to
give plants away as long as I clean them? Do I have
to tear the tank down and sterilize it or what? I can
handle algae just fine. I can grow almost any plant
without much of a problem. I have finally met my
match.
If anyone can analyze the stuff to find out what it
is, I will send a sample. I think it may be bacteria.
Maracin did not have any effect though.
Please help, Cavan
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