slime on substraite.

[D. Hedington]

this slime has become a real problem for me,
but its only in two of seven of my tanks, which are technically fine, well filtered, lights are all 'sylvania grolux, 36W bulbs.
the only way to combat this slime seems to be vacuming the substrate weekly. There is only a very thin layer of substrate.
first attempts at dealing with this was thin out fish numbers (no change),
adding around 20-25, 1'' bristol nosed catfish to a 50G growout, some result.
the slime is only a peoblem in my CA/SA tanks.
africans keep their sand stired up.

any idears on combating this slime?

cheers

 

[japes]

I presume it's a hyper green colour, It's Cyanobacteria aka Blue-Green Algae, what has been treated in Wivanhoe/Someset/Baroon Pocket/Ewen-Maddock Dams over the last decade.

I'm having issues with it in a couple of my tanks too. Excess phosphates is the main cause, however once the source of the phosphates has been removed it's still very difficult to get rid of. It is not an algae, it's a bacteria, so light does not affect its growth (it's growing in tanks of mine lit by Halogens)

There's a few treatments available - I know Age of Aquariums sells a product which treats it, but I'm trying the "wear it down" route which is slowly working. Continual stirring of the substrate and vacuuming where possible slowly wears it down. Here's a thread on ACEForums of someone down south having the same issue and using multiple treatments which is probably worth the read: http://www.aceforums.com.au/index.php?showtopic=46541

Thankfully it is in no way harmful to fish, bacteria, or water parameters. It's present in my two Peruvian setups which are 100% wild caught fish and haven't had any issues, even with Otocinclus (who don't eat it, but will suck it).

 

[D. Hedington]

cheers bloke, would've never thought of blue green in my tanks, its quite interesting.
its bin a problem in the dawson river aswell

 

[knifegill]

I find it tends to flare up in spring but by late summer there's hardly a trace of it. I am grateful for how easy it is to remove, but it does leave a considerable amount of debris if it is allowed to mature. It really helps to cut back of feeding, especially foods with high ash content.

 

[D. Hedington]

I find it tends to flare up in spring but by late summer there's hardly a trace of it. I am grateful for how easy it is to remove, but it does leave a considerable amount of debris if it is allowed to mature. It really helps to cut back of feeding, especially foods with high ash content.

my first course of action was to cut back feeding, and anything that was'nt eaten by the time i left for work was scooped out and givin to fry