Green "slime" on the bottom?

[n4red]

Hey after having my plants in awhile i started noticing that my bottom became filled with some sort of green slime / sludge so i removed all the plants and it seems like it got worse. not sure what it is .. anyway ive got white sand thats really small cant really vacuum this "slime" out im only way i can see now would be to remove ALL sand and wash it .. is there any other option or any clues too what this is ? heres a pic of how it looks.

 

[ward1066]

looks like cyanobacteria

 

[Cecropia]

good ol BGA, try replacing to plants and cutting the light hours down. I gave up fighting it in my tanks though

i let it build up on the background so much it outcompetes the crap trying to grow on my sand

 

[Lupin]

Yes, it's BGA or cyanobacteria to be more precise as it is not technically algae at all but bacteria. No fish or snails will ever eat this slime as it is toxic. Erythromycin can be used to battle this aside from regular water changes but antibiotics will also disrupt the nitrogen cycle so be sure to monitor your water parameters for elevated ammonia (especially with high pH) and nitrite. See this link for more information about this problem.
http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/maintenance1/p/algaebluegreen.htm

 

[hybridtheoryd16]

yep what everyone else said. What I do is remove all bio media and palce it in another tank. And then basically nuke the tank with antibiotics. Maracyn1 is a good one as it contains erythromycin. I treated the tank with maracyn for a few days watching the ammonia levels. And then i did a large water change and removed as much of the bga as I could possibly get. And then i put the tank all back together with the old bio media. And waited a day then i added a bottle of safe start to get the bio going again. And then I cut my lighting hours by a third. Basically if you keep your plants struggling to grow because of a lack of lighting hours then they will out compete the algae. But if you give them more than they need to grow then the algae has a free for all with the left over nutrients.

 

[velanarris]

Actually, there are a lot of livestock that will eat BGA, however, the best way to deal with it is to outcompete. More plants, not less.

 

[JonF]

I'm having the same issue right now in a new 125gal tank... Right now I have the lights on for 12 hours... I'll try cutting them down to 8 to see if that helps.

 

[JonF]

Quick other question... I know some folks swear by adding a little peroxide to control algae growth. Would this work for this slimy stuff?