White slimy film on walls of tank...

[Mmathis]

Not sure if you need background info [a history of the tank] for this. If so, I'll fill in the blanks on request, otherwise..... It's a 20 gal. tank with GF fry [that are fast outgrowing it]. It's been up & running for about a year, with various fishy inhabitants during that time. There are plants [stuck in a couple of cereal bowls with a little kitty litter, gravel, and marbles]. Except for what falls out of the bowl, it's bare-bottom. Filtration & air. Doing frequent water changes & keeping it siphoned of crud. No chemicals used other than anti-chlorine/chloramine drops. Ammonia tests running around 0.50, and sometimes higher, with slight nitrates [thus the freq water changes].

Any idea what it is, is it harmful, how do I get rid of it?

The babies will be going to a larger, outdoor tank in the next day or 2. I've had aquariums before, but have never seen anything like this.

 

[Dave 54]

got a photo of it please TurtleMommy ?

Dave

 

[Mmathis]

got a photo of it please TurtleMommy ?

Dave

Sorry! I took some pics, but forgot about the stuff. I Googled "white slimy film" and got results from algae, to bacteria, to fungus, to no one knows. But one common link seemed to be related to light exposure. So I did some rearranging [it was time] in the tank, and started cutting back on the number of hours for the light.

The stuff gradually started going away, and in some spots did sorta turn into a greenish film.

These pics are before I intervened.... [even the poor snails were covered in it]....

 

[dieselplower]

I would be more concerned about the ammonia at .5 than the white stuff. I am guessing it is something like calcium or lime building up. I got the same thing on my fry tank when there was not enough water circulation.

 

[Mmathis]

I would be more concerned about the ammonia at .5 than the white stuff. I am guessing it is something like calcium or lime building up. I got the same thing on my fry tank when there was not enough water circulation.

Yes, the ammonia was my biggest concern. Have plenty of water movement. I didn't think a dozen little fish could produce that much, but turns out there were 19 fry in the tank, some approaching 1". I was doing twice-daily water changes plus siphoning out crud & left over food. Too much work, sooo..... Nine have now been moved to the "nursery," which is a 50 gal. tote outside.

 

[Nepen]

It looks kinda like my 'white stuff' that I had. It's from my 'powdered' de-Chlorine thing. If I put too much, it'll coat the surface of everything in the tank for a few days. I thought it was fungus for a while but I notice it only happened when I do water change and use the stuff.

How did your frys get big so fast? mine's still small

 

[JohnHuff]

What kind of biofiltration do you have in it?