Tropical Fish Forum

Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fishtank Filtration and Cycling => Topic started by: Johno2009 on September 07, 2020, 01:27:55 PM

Title: White slime
Post by: Johno2009 on September 07, 2020, 01:27:55 PM

Doing a water change on my new 3rd week cycling tank and decided to clean the back chambers with syphon to rid of any debris.
When I removed the pump and heater to vacuum that section I noticed a type of white oily slime on the pump hose inside and out. Now this is first time I have removed and inspected as did not think it would get dirty this quickly.
The slime was like what you get in still stagnant water so a bit shocked to find it there.

My thinking is it could be grease residue from the manufacturer process but not sure.

Does anyone have any idea or come across this.

I have now cleaned it and put it all back and check more frequently to see if it reoccurs.

Thanks

Title: Re: White slime
Post by: fcmf on September 08, 2020, 01:55:04 PM

I'm afraid I don't know what it is and therefore can't offer any suggestions.
However, as you're currently cycling the tank, it might be that it's the build-up of ammonia that you're adding and, once the filter learns to process the ammonia more effectively, you'll not get the white oily slime anymore.
Once you've finished the cycling process (usually 6-8 weeks but sometimes longer) and the ammonia is being processed properly, it would be worth checking it again to see if that hunch/theory might be correct.