WHAT IS IN MY FX5!!!?????!!!!!

[kdrun76]

Watch for it to appear in your other filters.


I would clean that FX5 Until it would pass a surgical inspection and run it on another tank in the house for 3 weeks to cycle it.


Then it goes back on the combo tank and their regular filters get bleached.

You are probably going to fight this stuff for a while. I got the pink stuff in a research lab with 20 Emperor 400's running when I was a grad student. I could do nothing to treat the infection beyond clean the tanks as it would have really messed with the protocol of the experiment I was running. I had to break down, hose out and and re-establish flow in every filter every 48 hours. I did 10 filters a day, every day for about 3 months. I couldn't go anywhere for even an overnight... I HAD to clear the filters daily. It would take me about 4 hours to do the 10 filters. The day the experiment had run its course..... the fish went into a holding bin and I used a full gallon of bleach on those filters! Bleach never smelled so good!

 

[12 Volt Man]

its just a form of algae that can smell.

nothing to panic about.

won't harm your fish at all.

 

[Wet Whiskers]

Watch for it to appear in your other filters.


I would clean that FX5 Until it would pass a surgical inspection and run it on another tank in the house for 3 weeks to cycle it.


Then it goes back on the combo tank and their regular filters get bleached.

You are probably going to fight this stuff for a while. I got the pink stuff in a research lab with 20 Emperor 400's running when I was a grad student. I could do nothing to treat the infection beyond clean the tanks as it would have really messed with the protocol of the experiment I was running. I had to break down, hose out and and re-establish flow in every filter every 48 hours. I did 10 filters a day, every day for about 3 months. I could go anywhere for even an overnight... I HAD to clear the filters daily. It would take me about 4 hours to do the 10 filters. The day the experiment had run its course..... the fish went into a holding bin and I used a full gallon of bleach on those filters! Bleach never smelled so good!

I'll probably try to do a sort of cold sterilization with rubbing alcohol on the sponge filters letting them soak for 30 minutes as I would suspect that the bleach would be impossible to get out of them. As for the filter, I will end up using a dilute bleach spray. If this gets into my sand filter on my 600, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Bad part is that hoses have gone back and forth between all the tanks weekly the entire time they've been up.

And now, you have to tell me all about the experiment! You've totally caught my interest!

 

[jr monster fish]

Watch for it to appear in your other filters.


I would clean that FX5 Until it would pass a surgical inspection and run it on another tank in the house for 3 weeks to cycle it.


Then it goes back on the combo tank and their regular filters get bleached.

You are probably going to fight this stuff for a while. I got the pink stuff in a research lab with 20 Emperor 400's running when I was a grad student. I could do nothing to treat the infection beyond clean the tanks as it would have really messed with the protocol of the experiment I was running. I had to break down, hose out and and re-establish flow in every filter every 48 hours. I did 10 filters a day, every day for about 3 months. I could go anywhere for even an overnight... I HAD to clear the filters daily. It would take me about 4 hours to do the 10 filters. The day the experiment had run its course..... the fish went into a holding bin and I used a full gallon of bleach on those filters! Bleach never smelled so good!

DAMN thats brutal.

 

[kdrun76]

Bleach is actually really easy to get out. It evaporates off completely. If the item is dry, the bleach is gone. On top of that, the regular dechlorinator you use will neutralize bleach.

I have invented and patented several formulations of fish feed for use in aquaculture and tested them for their ability to create healthy, fast growing, nutritionally complete fish. My master's degree is in fish nutrition. The paper thingy says "Marine Biology" but I studied fish nutrition.

 

[kdrun76]

its just a form of algae that can smell.

nothing to panic about.

won't harm your fish at all.

Why would there be algae in a darkened filter?


Dead algal cells building up maybe? They should be broken down fast than that though. Its an interesting thought and far more pleasant that a fungal infection.

 

[12 Volt Man]

sounds like this green smelling stuff is cyanobacteria.

the same type of bacteria (actually algae) that causes that evil green slimy algae that some people get in their tanks.

it has an odour too if you take a wiff of it. lol

 

[12 Volt Man]

the neon green water is why I believe it is probably cyanobacteria.

they are famous for neon green blooms:

 

[jr monster fish]

I'll probably try to do a sort of cold sterilization with rubbing alcohol on the sponge filters letting them soak for 30 minutes as I would suspect that the bleach would be impossible to get out of them. As for the filter, I will end up using a dilute bleach spray. If this gets into my sand filter on my 600, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Bad part is that hoses have gone back and forth between all the tanks weekly the entire time they've been up.

And now, you have to tell me all about the experiment! You've totally caught my interest!

According to my dad (I would trust him), my science teacher, and my experience, bleach (or rather hydrogen peroxide, the main ingredient) will turn into water after a time. It's because its molecular structure is H2O2 (H-O-O-H), and it will lose the extra oxygen molecule over time. If you've ever seen a bottle with a high concentration of hydrogen peroxide it looks like an accordion in the middle, so the pressure inside doesn't build too much (from the extra O molecule).


I would rinse it really throughly, and put it in a bucket of water, rinsing it and the bucket and refilling the bucket every day for about a week. That should do it.

lol im a nerd

 

[Wet Whiskers]

DAMN thats brutal.

How much do I agree. Unfortunately, I have seen stories like this so many times. When you are a student, it usually means that you are not just doing the analytical experiment, but, since you are the lackey, you get to do all of the work (including the manual labor and grunt work) in an experiment. And, the best part is that all to often your professor somehow gets to slap their name on it along with yours because they had a couple suggestions along the way.

Bleach is actually really easy to get out. It evaporates off completely. If the item is dry, the bleach is gone. On top of that, the regular dechlorinator you use will neutralize bleach.

I have invented and patented several formulations of fish feed for use in aquaculture and tested them for their ability to create healthy, fast growing, nutritionally complete fish. My master's degree is in fish nutrition. The paper thingy says "Marine Biology" but I studied fish nutrition.

I didn't know if completely evaporated. I'll still rinse well just in case, but that would do a better job of cleaning it than alcohol.

Very interesting major, certainly helpful around here! What are some of your products?

sounds like this green smelling stuff is cyanobacteria.

the same type of bacteria (actually algae) that causes that evil green slimy algae that some people get in their tanks.

it has an odour too if you take a wiff of it. lol

I got cyanobateria in one of my now broken down tanks a little more than a year ago. I also found this from wiki. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanobacteria:

Cyanobacteria are the only group of organisms that are able to reduce nitrogen and carbon in aerobic conditions, a fact that may be responsible for their evolutionary and ecological success. The water-oxidizing photosynthesis is accomplished by coupling the activity of photosystem (PS) II and I (Z-scheme). In anaerobic conditions, they are also able to use only PS I — cyclic photophosphorylation — with electron donors other than water (hydrogen sulfide, thiosulphate, or even molecular hydrogen) just like purple photosynthetic bacteria. Furthermore, they share an archaeal property, the ability to reduce elemental sulfur by anaerobic respiration in the dark. Their photosynthetic electron transport shares the same compartment as the components of respiratory electron transport. Actually, their plasma membrane contains only components of the respiratory chain, while the thylakoid membrane hosts both respiratory and photosynthetic electron transport.

Hmm... This could potentially be it. I have no sign of it anywhere else in the tank and I just pulled the sump apart for a cleaning. As far as I know, this doesn't clean up easily either, so I'll be bleaching either way...