"Brown Slime in Tanks": How can I get rid of it?

I have a brown slime in two of my largest tanks (55 gal.). I seem to have gotten it when I used Wardly sinking veggie wafers (Not Sure). They seemed to cloud the water after they got saturated. Its really clogging up my filters so I have to rinse the media everyday so it will be able to filter out and keep the tank clean. It also is covering the plants with light brown/green like mucus. I have done weekly water changes and vacuum each time, but I just can't get it all. I did notice that I have Tubifex worms in the bottom one tank , I wasn't sure they might be causing the problem. When the fish see them while I'm vacuuming the substrate they go crazy eating them.

Has anyone had this problem and how do I get rid of it?

Your plant - light - nutrient ratio is off. you can reduce your lights or increase your plants.
You could also try replacing your bulbs

How new is the tank? Brown diatom algae is usually found in newer tanks.

How on earth did you end up with live tubifex worms in your tank? Those guys like super nasty water usually with a fair amount of sewage in it......

This is not brown diatoms, I've had that in other tanks, but not this one. The tank has been running w/fish for 5 months at least. The live tubifex worms came from a LFS. I found out that they use them as food for their fish. I bought some Java moss from them and it had to be where is was from. I only found out after I bought the moss. Should I take the tank down and disinfect the gravel and plants? I have 5 very large plants growing in it.

What is your water testing out as? What kinds of fish are in the tank? See if you can get your phosphates tested..... I have seen phosphates cause so much trouble in fw tanks and that isn't normally a test done for freshwater.

You sure its tubifex worms and not blackworms? Live tubifex are pretty hard to get a hold of anymore and not very desirable because of the nastys that can come with them. Blackworms are much more common in comparison and will live in your substrate and feed on detritus. I used to seed my tanks with blackworms all the time, good living snack to help clean up!

I was told by a knowledgeable fish person, that the LFS that I bought my "Java" moss used "tubifex worms" to feed their fish. They are not black, but reddish brown in color. They come out loose and are found in little balls of worms when the substrate is vacuumed. I assumed thats what they were. I have never used live black worms, or any worms for that matter.

I have a dropper and test tube water test kit. I test the water regularly, and it comes out 0,0,0, 7.4 to 7.6. I treat the tap water with a pre-filter and dual carbon cartridges to remove chlorine and chloramines. The tap water during the summer comes out of the tap at 78 Degrees F. I had Duck Weed in the tank when it started getting the slime.

I got the duckweed from the pond out back and treated it with chlorine before use. I have it in other tanks with no problems. The original duckweed came from one of these tanks. I have been using it for over a year now with no problems.

The problem seemed to start when Walmart ran out of Tetras Veggie Wafers and I switched to Wardley brand. The water looked dark the next day, as I fed the wafers for a couple of days I noticed it getting filmy!

I had (14) Tetras (12) Cory's (2) Golden Panchax and (1) large Pleco in the tank. I fed Tetramin Flake food, Freeze Dried Bloodworms (2-4) Cichlid pellets for the Panchax and ( veggie wafers for the Cory & Pleco. They were all consumed by the next day.

I moved one large sword plant from another tank because it got too big for the 10 gal. it was in. That made 3 large swords and (2) grass type plants (Sorry don'y remember what there name is), but I.ve used them before and had no problems. The large sword had no problems in the other tank, plant and water was always clear of slime.

The tanks are 55 gal. with fluorescent lights, (2) 20-40 HOB filters w/carbon, no heater at this time, do regular weekly water changes. The only difference between this tanks the substrate it consisted of vermiculite, and the gravel came from the LFS and is different than all my other substrate which I bought from Walmart. I have (37) tanks all with the same gravel and (1) with the different gravel!

I have never tested for phosphate, but I will seeing that there is a large phosphate mine, only mines away from the aquifer that we get out municipal water from

Still sounds like black worms to me, 'California black worms' are brownish red and kept in the fridge. We sell them at the lfs I work at, any worms can be transplanted along with plants same way you end up with snails.

If your phosphate is over 2 then you should get a small amount of phosphate remover..... but that doesn't sound like the issue......

Sounds like those wafers did a number on your tank I would do larger water changes and replace your carbon a lot more frequently. It should help reduce the 'pollutants' from the wafers...... thats the best I've got. Pics may help?

I'm impressed with your number of tanks! I maxed out at 33 just shy of 3 thousand gallons
It take a special kind of person to have that many tanks

Thanks!
I have:
(3) 55 gal. SA Cichlids;
(6) 20 gal. long growout tanks;
(1) 20 gal. long w/Tetras, Flag fish & (1) Golden Panchax;
(20) 10 Gal. w/ Mollies, Platies; and Swordtails;
(5) 5.5 Gal. nursery tanks for fry;
(2) 5.5 Gal. Hospital & Isolation tanks.
______________________________________
543.5 Gallons

Florida flag fish? if so I <3 u lol. They are awesome little fish!

Thats a hefty amount of gallons! You defiantly qualify as a fish addict

Thanks Fern, but you have (6) times the gallonage as me, LOL, Who's the addict?

Yes the Florida Flags just spawned for the first time, also first batch of Bronze Cory eggs to hatched, and I have my second batch of Jewel cichlids. Only got (9) the first time, but put a divider in this time and hopefully saved them all.

lol I'm down to 125g fresh for Fred my 14" Flowerhorn and a 100g long reef tank. So you have much more than me now I had to get my salt downsized before I move.


Oh yay! I used to breed lots of corys! Now my dad does, I go over there for my cory fix! I believe they were my first fry, If you ever need any tips on corys just ask!

Jewels are an interesting fish... I used to have a lot then I got rid of all of them but my best breeding pair so they could make feeders for Fred for me. Kept them in a 10g with a pot to spawn on. One of them got some kind of issue so I separated them to medicate. Both went into instant depression, wouldn't eat wouldn't swim nothing! So I put them back together and just medicated both. Once they were back together they acted like their old selves again. Well the one ended up dieing from the issue.... The other stopped eating, wouldn't hardly move and just started wasting away. I finally had to put it out of its misery in the freezer. That whole incident was truly heartbreaking, the bond they had......

I just had my first Cory Spawn that survived and actually hatched, they were Bronze Cory's I have about (10) fry from this maybe more. I do have a couple of questions do females spawn without a male present. I know to get fertile eggs you need a male, but I have several spawns with no hatch and just mold. growing instead. I read to use methylene blue on the next batch, by I have had about (6) spawns without any hatch.

Oh by the way I got rid of the brown slime using Tetras Algae Cure liquid, it only took one treatment, and within a few days it was mostly gone. I am going to give the tank another treatment soon.

yes females will sometimes spawn without a male. Not very often though.

Ok cory breeding 101;
To induce the fist spawn is the hard part. I have always gotten my fist spawn by doing a large cooler waterchange while a storm is coming in, open windows and doors to let in the barometric pressure change and the tank temp needs to drop about 3 degrees while the barometric pressure change is hitting the tank. May take a time or 2 but with the afternoon thunder storms you can time it pretty easily!

While they are spawning you want to get the eggs out, when they are in spawning mode your hand in the tank does not phase them at all! If the eggs get hard, takes 1-2 hours from depositing for them to get hard. they are much harder to move. First laid they are supple and sticky. Standard razor blade at a 45* angle to the glass and gently scrape them off and roll them onto the blade. Have a 5-10g tank standing by with new water. Gently roll the eggs onto the side of the fry tank, try to group them if you can. Once most all of the eggs are moved (you will squish quite a few your first few times) then you dose the fry tank with methaline blue (will stain silicone so an older tank is better) Add a small cycled sponge filter to the center of the tank. Under each patch of eggs you need to put an air stone, this keeps the water flowing over them preventing fungus. Corys place their eggs in 2-4 spots all with decent current multiple places to help prevent predation and current to keep the eggs from getting fungus. Not all of the moved eggs will stick to the glass, thats fine they end up rolling over to one of the air stones and getting flow that way.
Bad eggs will turn very very blue, remove those with a safety pin, just stab and yank. Good eggs will be a golden sometimes with a touch of blue from the meth blue, the bad ones really stand out though!
Once your eggs hatch start daily small water changes to remove the meth blue. and/or add in a box/cartridge air driven filter with carbon to remove it.
Do not feed till the egg sacks are mostly used up. Then you will want to feed with a good pellet like new life spectrum brand, I like using their thera a formula it has garlic in it. No need to mash the pellets, they get soft and the corys can munch on them.
A turkey baster is your best friend when cory breeding! Use it to clean the tank bottom and do your water changes. Put the water into a dish of some kind so you can make sure you didn't get any fry.
Once they fry start looking like tiny corys it is time to add a hang on filter. Make sure the intake has a good cover like a thick sponge or something. Corys love playing in flow, this helps them grow faster and stronger. Just using a sponge at this point they grow slower and weaker.
Only give them processed foods! Anything other than pellets or flakes and they could choke and die so no blood worms or anything like that.
As soon as they are large enough put them in an established planted tank, they grow so much quicker in that kind of environment, always something in there for them to nibble on. Sterile fry tanks are great for getting them hatched and some size on them but move them to a real tank as soon as you can (without them getting eaten or lost)

so theres how I breed corys

Thanks Fern that helps a lot. I appreciate the time you spent writing it, I've copied it to my notebook and will refer to it often.

lol it didn't even seem like I wrote that much till I posted it!
Do you need anything cleared up?
Corys are really my thing, I even tried breeding adolphoi corys but could never get my hands on a female The males were stunning though! I dont have any corys any more though, my dad has all of my old ones, he even has my 8yo female who is still spawning and the one born with no eyes

Wow! What does he do with the young fry if they are still spawning? I have some Panda Catfish I can't find a female either, got 2 males then one unknown sex , it eventually died, but haven't seen any since in the LFS.

He has only kept a few spawns, he has 12+ in his 75g pleco grow out tank and 20-30 in his 125g. They will eventually get sold or get sold to the lfs.