Red Globs In Tank Gravel

[JENUINE]

My Two Tanks (20 And 5 Gallon) Have Small Globs Of ??? In The Gravel. Doesn't Seem To Affect Inhabitants. Any Idea What It Is? Water Color Is Yellowish And I Do Weekly Water Changes Of @10-20 Percent, Using Ph Down And Aquasafe. 20 Has 4 Golden Apples Snails, 1 Large Apple, 1 Ramshorn, 1 Cory, 3 Harlequin Rasboro, 2 Filters. 5 Has 2 Golden Apple And 3 Von Rio. Mt 55 Gallon Is Crystal Clear.

[JENUINE]

Red Globs In Tank Gravel

[Crispy]

Can you suck out the red globs when you do a water change? Sounds odd. May need pics to help you out.

[JENUINE]

Yes, They Syphon Up Quite Readily. They Appear As Blood Red Flat Globs (almost Jelly Like)and My Friend's Tank Has It As Well.

[rich311k]

What do you feed?

[JENUINE]

I Feed Tetra Flakes And Pellets. Occasionally Give Variety Of Dried Fish Foods. Rarely A Piece Of Romaine Lettuce To Snails.

[Lady Hobbs]

Sounds like rotting food. Vac your gravel.

[Crispy]

Sounds like rotting food. Vac your gravel.

Wouldn't rotting food usually turn white and fuzzy?

I would just vacuum it all out of the gravel. Or does it keep coming back?

[JENUINE]

I Vacuum Gravel On A Weekly Basis And These Are Always There. Have Described To Various Pet Shops But They Aren't Very Knowledgeable. They Really Look Similiar To Blood And Are Very Soft. Don't Really Think They Are Leftover Food As I'm Not Overly Generous With Feedings. Could They Be A Type Of Algae?

[Lady Hobbs]

Sounds like fish pellets to me, honestly. They turn into a blob when they get soft and are not eaten. Also sounds as your fish may not like them or they'd be eaten.

[JENUINE]

My smaller tank (5 gallon) has same condition and there are golden apple snails (2) in tank. Thought snails would eat just about anything!

[JENUINE]

i have done an experiment with both types of food but they do not form this jell like substance. there also are small threadlike worms in the smaller tank (5 gallon). they swim quite fast and often curl up and cling to side of glass then return to substrate

[Northernguy]

I would try increasing water changes to twice a week but change up to 50%.Make sure you vacuum your tank really well.It would help to remove any decor when cleaning so you can get all the debris out.
Feed less!

[JENUINE]

as follow up to this, my tanks are now having fairly high (40) nitrates. Have double filtration systems on both tanks, plus bubble curtains. Have been doing daily water changes to lower nitrates but not working. Was suggested I stop using ph down, so have been decreasing amount with each water change. Use AquaSafe with each water change (8 drops per gallon) and let water sit for several hours before using. All fish/snails appear fine, but am concerned about their future if can't lower nitrates. I though water changes was the answer, but been doing for 5 days now with no results. Any suggestions:help:

[Little Embers]

Re: The Red globs...Just a thought, but they may be snail eggs. Apple snail eggs do have a pinkish to red colour to them.

Re: The worms...If they are tiny white worms, they are probably Planaria, harmless but are a sign of overfeeding or decaying food left in the substrate. I would siphon the gravel thoroughly. If they are larger black/brown/reddish worms, they could be blackworms, bloodworms or tubiflex worms, these can sometimes come in accidently via the tap water.

Re: The Nitrate...Up to 40, can be classed as safe (it also depends on the type of fish), but I personally wouldn't want it to get any higher, I like to keep mine below 20ppm (never goes above 10ppm anyway). Water changes are the best and imo only way to bring nitrates down, although adding live plants also helps. I would test your tap water as well; sometimes nitrate can be present in it. Overfeeding is often a cause of high nitrate, besides the water changes, I would cut back on feeding for a day or two. I would also check to make sure that a snail hasn't died and decaying in the tank.

Re: The filtration...I personally think that for the size tanks you have and the stocking numbers, if you have 2 filters on each tank, that should be plenty and I don't think you need the extra air-bubble walls at all, I would not worry about using them.

Re: The PH down....I would stop using it completely, if you are decreasing the amount, it probably is having no affect at all if the buffering capacity of the water (keeping things stable) is good and you are just adding chemicals in the tank for nothing, or the PH down may only work for a very short time causing fluctuations when the PH goes back up again, which isn't good for the fish.

[jay2487]

could it possibly be an egg laying of some sort?

[CrazedMichael]

naturally i'd say eggs, but after reading further posts from you about you having nitrate problems, i now agre with LH. Sounds like uneaten food.

Vac the gravel as best as you can, shove the vac right down to the bottom of the gravel and siphon out dirt, and do so till you have covered the whole gravel bed. Change 50% water then test the nitrates again

[Brhino]

thread's a year old, hopefully they solved the problem by now. :hmm3grin2orange:

[CrazedMichael]

LOL! Sorry guys, this thread was in the top 5 of threads in this section. Thought it was new!

[Lady Hobbs]

Probably nematodes worms. I have a problem with them in my parrot tank because pellets fall behind the rocks or wood and they don't get it eaten.

Now we have another post to an old thread. :)