"Slime puddles" floating on surface

[turtle66]

Hi everyone! My tank is doing well (4 wks now) except we have these little "puddles of slime" floating around the top of the water. There are usually 4-6 of them about the size of a quarter and we skim them out. Just wondering what in the world it is???

The parameters are all within acceptable range (no out of this world readings, and I'm at work otherwise I'd give them to you... Ones I do remember:
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
pH - 8.2
Amm - 0
Salinity - 1.023 (i think, yes its low)
Temp - stays between 76.5 - 78.5 depending on the time of day
Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

 

[spanko]

Do you have any agitation of the surface of the water? Does the tank have a surface skimmer, an area with slots that pull the water into a filter chamber or to a fuge or sump?

 

[turtle66]

We have an "overflow" with sump, not much water agitation up top...do we need that?

 

[sigmachris]

Point your power heads to get some water aggitation at the top. This will stir up the water to break up the slime and also help with the gas exchange.

 

[spanko]

Yes, you need to agitate the water surface to enable gas exchange. Your sump is probably giving you good gas exchange but the surface of the display is being stagnated if it is not being drawn off somehow. Pointing a power head up towards the surface, not so it shoots out a waterfall, just enough to move the surface around. You may have to play with it a little to get the right amount of agitation.

 

[miaheatlvr]

Originally Posted by turtle66
We have an "overflow" with sump, not much water agitation up top...do we need that?
These are most likely disolved proteins, Surface agitation will break them up, If you have a protein skimmer this help immensely as well.

 

[lexluethar]

Agreed, agitate the water w/ a powerhead or skimmer.

 

[newtankman]

Do you have micro bubbles in the tank? I have a tank with them and if I do not run my protein skimmer, after a week I get this as well.
Surface agitation will only re-entrain the sentiment. But will not remove it from the water without some sort of filtration or protein skimmer.

 

[spanko]

They have an overflow so at least getting the proteins mixed back into the water column will help.
turtle66 do you have a protein skimmer in your sump?

 

[turtle66]

We do have a protein skimmer in the pump. We empty it daily as there is usually a 1/4" of nasty brown stinky water & bubbles. We have some bubbles in the tank itself (tiny little air bubbles) that are usually on the powerheads and returns.

 

[spanko]

Yep the protein skimme is doing it's job. Sooooo just aerate the surface of the water with the power head like mentioned and it will put those accumulated proteins back in the water column so the the protein skimmer can turn them into that nasty gunk you get from it.
Sounds like you are okay and you will notice cleaner water on the surface of your tank for it.

 

[kingfish8302]

I have the same problem with my tank and its 4 years old and running. This only happens in the summer time here in phx. Rest of the year the slim goes away. But right now in the middle of my tank changing from a fish only to a reef tank with lr and rish ect. the next power head i get is should take that slime off the top.
IF you cant get a power just put a cup in a way to just have the rim of hte cup go under the surface to suck in the slime. You'll be taking some water out to but this method does work for me all the time. Yes a little work to do it but do everyone other day or when needed.
Soon i'll be lazy and have the powerhead do the job soon.
Good luck!

 

[turtle66]

Thanks All! I will adjust the return to make more current at the surface and see how it goes. Glad it isn't something WAY lethal and strange...