Question
Gray slime on filters
My mom passed away and I was out of town for a while.
Anyway, I went much longer than usual without cleaning my
tank.
I did a 33% change one day. Took the decorations out except
for the base rock because I was having problems cleaning all
of the gravel. I stopped to give the fish a break. The
next day, I finished cleaning with a 50% water change.
Replaced all of the filters.
I have a 55 gallon tank with 4 goldfish ranging from 4" to
8". I have two filtering systems each rated for 90ish
gallons, one being a biowheel.
A couple days later, one fish started spending a lot of time
on the bottom inactive. A few days later the others
started. Three days ago they all stopped eating and spend
98% of the time on the bottom. When they are up, they dart
a fair amount of the time.
Two days ago I talked to the local big chain pet store fish
department and they told me all I could really do is try
medicated food because to dose the entire tank would also
kill all of the good stuff.
Fish are all red around the fins. It is getting worse each
day.
Today I decided to go to another pet store and they had me
buy Salt and Triple Sulfa. I was getting ready to put it in
the tank so I pulled the filters that have carbon in them
and these week old filters are totally coated in a gray
slime (see attached).
I don't see any slime anywhere else in the tank. Water is
clear. No amonia. PH is a little on the acidic side. No
nitrites.
I am really at a loss. I can seem to find what that gray
slime is online.
Help my poor fishies that we Love a ton.
AnswerHello,
I am very sorry to hear of your losses.
About the gray slime: similar brown slime is very common in that type of filter, but grey is very unusual. I would be willing to be its a combination of bacteria and sediment. Don't worry, the bacteria wont harm you or your fish, but they poin out some key aspects.
The first thing is I have found goldfish do better on the alkaline side of the pH scale, which you should rase slowly, but it's not that urgent.
Have you done big back to back water changes like that before? They can be very stressful to the fish, and goldfish have notoriously weak swim bladders, so that would explain the sitting on the bottom part.
Finally, the red around the fins in a sign of mild bactia/ fungus. the triple sulfa and water changes should help with that.
What you should do for now is use the medications, slowly raise the pH, and keep the stress level low for the fish, meaning do nothing more than you have too, keep the lights dim, but not off until night time ( even then a night light might be good; I give one to my baby arowanas at night because they are so skittish and it calms them down to be able to see).
Give it a week, and if any more of these problems continue, let me know. I would be especially curious to see if the slime is still there.
Best, Will.
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