What is it?

[gm72]

What is the brownish gunk that collects inside the tubing of canister filters? It doesn't smell, is a little slimy. Algae? Combination of that and waste?

[cocoa_pleco]

brown algae, and i believe its from high nitrites.

I have NEVER opened my canister filters yet. I wonder if my missing platy is in there?...

[gm72]

Nitrites are always at 0, maybe something else then? Well, hopefully the problem will be solved with the prefilter I just added. I also radically rearranged everything to get some better flow in the tank.

[cocoa_pleco]

algae eaters would LOVE that algae! As long as it doesnt distort the viewing of your tank, nothings wrong


EDIT- oh right, its in your canister. perfectly normal!

[gm72]

Nope, clear water, all is well. In the canister.

[sergo]

i kind of wondered that too. i just thought it was just all of the muck and stuff from the tank water just collecting from time.

[cocoa_pleco]

Its probably just algae forming on the natural slime in the canister tubing. nothing bad

[gm72]

That's what I was thinking, just normal gunk. Thanks!

[Chrona]

If you also have it on other parts of your tank, then it's probably brown algae, caused by silicates, but otherwise, it's just the nitrifying bacteria that forms a slime layer.

[gm72]

Not on any other part of the tank, just in the tubes primarily and some in the canister itself. I probably killed my entire culture by doing such a cleaning, but losing opaline and seeing the nitrates as they were freaked me out.

[sergo]

nah, you still have your substrate. i just did a thorough cleaning on my 305 and intake tube on my whisper 60. let me tell you, there was a lot of that "muck" in the tubes on my 305.

[gm72]

I vacuumed the you know what out of the gravel, too. But you're right it should be fine. This is a very well established tank, been running for years now.

[sergo]

ah just call it general maintenance.

[gm72]

I like that. General maintenance!

[Drumachine09]

Its probobly just the bene. bac. You should be fine, as a ton of it grows in your gravel, on your decor, and on your glass.

[gm72]

I figure at the worst I'll have a minor cycling-type spike. I am just still upset that I messed up my schedule to the point that I lost a fish. Not cool.