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Help! - Orange Slimy Matter Growing On All Surfaces

Ok, I've filled up the aquarium with tap water (no de-chlorinator) and added some table salt to the water according to the LFS' advice.

I've mailed a sample of the orange slime off to Newcastle University as they kindly offered to give me feedback over what organism it is.

I accidentally switched the heater on after I had added the table salt and it began to glow orange. My guess is that salt particles should not make contact with heaters??
 
I wouldn't have thought that the salt would have an effect on the heater, unless it was undissolved salt.

Have you tried boiling the sand?
 
Salt improves water's conductivity, but not sure what you mean by the heater "glowing orange".
If it shorted out then it would have gone bang, and not glowed?

P.S. Mark, Im not trying to be insulting, but Im wondering how much you are actually helping by using these non-aquarium grade things. Ie. play sand, bleach and now table salt.
Im not very experienced but what some very smart guys have taught me (like Nate!) is that sometimes in an effort to fix things I make them worse by not doing the right thing.
The only reason I say this is not to be discouraging, but maybe to encourage you to stop for now until you know exactly what you are dealing with.
If there are no fish in there, then at least no livestock are at risk and you have time.
Just a thought! 🙂
 
Porksword said:
I wouldn't have thought that the salt would have an effect on the heater, unless it was undissolved salt.

Have you tried boiling the sand?
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I've transferred all of the sand to a bucket which is all going to be thrown away. I do highly suspect that the sand is to blame here so I am intrigued to see whether the slime recurs when the sand is absent.

I have bought replacement Unipac sand which is very popular in the aquatic hobby. I will certainly boil this and rinse it well to remove particles.
 
AndrewH said:
Salt improves water's conductivity, but not sure what you mean by the heater "glowing orange".
If it shorted out then it would have gone bang, and not glowed?
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The part of the heater that actually heats up was glowing orange (it has never glowed in this area before). I had turned it on seconds after adding salt which had not yet dissolved.
 
mark4785 said:
The part of the heater that actually heats up was glowing orange (it has never glowed in this area before). I had turned it on seconds after adding salt which had not yet dissolved.
Click to expand...

Im not sure I would be too worried about that. Its a sealed unit and the salt wouldnt have affected it.
It wasnt a short by the sounds of it, so Im guessing either its more of your orange friend on the heater or the water was quite cold and the heater kicked in on full beans and the orange you saw was just the element glowing.
 
AndrewH said:
Im not sure I would be too worried about that. Its a sealed unit and the salt wouldnt have affected it.
It wasnt a short by the sounds of it, so Im guessing either its more of your orange friend on the heater or the water was quite cold and the heater kicked in on full beans and the orange you saw was just the element glowing.
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Oh! Phew!

Believe me, the orange slime will be on the heater somewhere but it hasn't started glowing just yet lol.
 
AndrewH said:
Im not sure I would be too worried about that. Its a sealed unit and the salt wouldnt have affected it.
It wasnt a short by the sounds of it, so Im guessing either its more of your orange friend on the heater or the water was quite cold and the heater kicked in on full beans and the orange you saw was just the element glowing.
Click to expand...
Actually I think you got that bang on!
 
I just thought I'd provide a progress report today regarding the problem-tank; the following has happened:

  • The slime isn't spreading since adding 300 grams of salt (it was Wharf Aquatic's suggestion to add salt) but is still present.
  • Heater isn't broken! :happy:

So, in light of this I've done the following:

  • Removed all of the play sand and thrown it away; never to be used in fish-keeping again.
  • Replaced 100% of the water with fresh tap water
  • Used some pond disinfectant bleach to remove the orange/yellow haze on the glass (glass is now crystal clear and should remain like this as my other planted tank would do if it was subjected to little light)
  • Added 25ml of Pond Disinfectant (Interpet Pond Disinfectant) to the tank
  • Added 750 grams of salt.

I will probably need to replace all of the filter media now that I've added the disinfectant as it will be problematic to remove from filter pads with many crevices.

I have not heard back from Newcastle University as of yet.
 
Just thought I'd add something to this I had the same in my old tank and that was using unipac sand so don't think that is it. Mine really appeared when I played around with more light I cleaned the pipes and put the lighting back to normal and it didn't come back.
 
MrJames said:
Just thought I'd add something to this I had the same in my old tank and that was using unipac sand so don't think that is it. Mine really appeared when I played around with more light I cleaned the pipes and put the lighting back to normal and it didn't come back.
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There was next to no light on/over the tank so I'd be struggling if I said that whats growing in my tank is the same as what was growing in yours.

Usually when a lot of light is over a tank, photosynthesising organisms grow like algae and plants, but, the slime I have described seems to suck (every bit of) oxygen rather than CO2 out of the water.

I'd like to ideally hear from the Biology dep of Newcastle University for a concrete diagnosis otherwise there will be many speculations made.
 
Ok, I have just spent the last 3 hours replacing all of the water in the tank to remove the disinfectant and 2kg of salt. I found no orange slime in the filter system which was great. However, when I wiped the dried glass with a hand towel, a orange substance was deposited onto the towel and it was then that I noticed a hazy orange slime on the glass.

So should I presume from the above that the salt / disinfectant has stopped it from spreading but hasn't removed it completely?

Edit: Is it normal to get a orange deposit that is not algae from a new squeaky clean aquarium? It's not something I've come across before in my other aquarium or my pond.
 
mark4785 said:
Hi,

There is no substrate in at the moment but I have a bag of Unipac sand ready to put in.
Click to expand...

I would say the presence of silica in the sand prior to removal will be the problem.

Thats why its not 'growing' as the silica source has been removed.
 
Nathaniel Whiteside said:
I would say the presence of silica in the sand prior to removal will be the problem.

Thats why its not 'growing' as the silica source has been removed.
Click to expand...

Ahh I see. Should I just keep doing water changes over the next few days to dilute any remains of silica?

I don't want to commit to putting substrate in, cycling the aquarium and putting plants until the slime is completely gone.
 
mark4785 said:
Ahh I see. Should I just keep doing water changes over the next few days to dilute any remains of silica?

I don't want to commit to putting substrate in, cycling the aquarium and putting plants until the slime is completely gone.
Click to expand...

I would mate, Yes.

Bear in mind, i get some buildup in my pipes anyway, this is normal and is usually cleaned every few weeks.

But the 'thick slimy orange' substance shouldn't be on the glass. Have a scrub with the water still in the tank, Just drop all the water out of her and refill. Should be good enough, if not just repeat. It should soon go 🙂
 
Nathaniel Whiteside said:
I would mate, Yes.

Bear in mind, i get some buildup in my pipes anyway, this is normal and is usually cleaned every few weeks.

But the 'thick slimy orange' substance shouldn't be on the glass. Have a scrub with the water still in the tank, Just drop all the water out of her and refill. Should be good enough, if not just repeat. It should soon go 🙂
Click to expand...

I'll empty the entire aquarium again tomorrow; a few hours before doing the w/c I'll drop the 1.5kg bag of cooking salt that I have into the tank as I have a suspicion it is helping; salt kills slugs which are slimy; why can't it remove slime in a tank?
 
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