dmits41 Posted June 1, 2018 Report Share Posted June 1, 2018 For the past 4 days my 29g all in one has been so cloudy I can barely see the fish and the skimmer has been going nuts. This tank has been running for 5 years and I haven't made any changes recently either. The inhabitants are 2 snowflake ocellaris, a pistol shrimp, and some zoas. It's fed by an auto feeder so nothing has changed there either. I thought it would back off after a day or 2 but it came back with a vengeance today. The skimmate is productive, too. Like it's dark if it collects in the cup rather than blowing out. Any ideas? I'm going to do some water changes to see if it helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmits41 Posted June 3, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 3, 2018 Update: The tank got even cloudier, I got a bucket of water ready to go for the change and found 2 things I've never seen. There are these tiny white worms all over the place, the largest one isn't even a half inch long and they are everywhere. Also, I originally thought the cloudiness was from the skimmer bubbles going nuts and putting microbubbles in the tank, but when I went to change out the filter floss in the back (it's an all in 1 tank) I found that everything is covered in a thick clear slime, almost like mucus. It's all over everything and I can't even see if my clowns made it. I'll try to post a pic of one of the worms later. I've been in this hobby for almost 12 years and have never seen this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmits41 Posted June 3, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 3, 2018 I may have figured it out. I found people posting that alcohol causes bacterial white slime to grow. My brother and I have been building a couple things in the garage and finishing them with an alcohol based product that puts a lot of the vapor into the air. The timing works out, unfortunately it may have killed the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReefNewby82 Posted June 3, 2018 Report Share Posted June 3, 2018 Holy cow Dan this is crazy...sorry to hear man. Hopefully after a few water changes....filter floss and some carbon you can make some headway. Keep us posted... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsBugmaster Posted June 4, 2018 Report Share Posted June 4, 2018 My first thought was a bacteria bloom. Need a pic of the white worms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmits41 Posted June 4, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2018 (edited) Honestly it appears that the worms were just normal scavengers that were trying to get out of the slime coated rock/sand. Now even they are gone. Can confirm at least one dead clown, still can't see in tank to check the other one, the pistol shrimp or any zoas due to how thick it is. This is after performing a water change. It's to the point where any surface that may agitate a little is acting like a skimmer and foaming up. It appears that I have a total tank crash and there will be no survivors. I'll break it down for a while and remodel the room where I plan on housing the in-wall 300 gallon tank I plan on building. I may clean it out and run some frags to sell to help fund the big tank. Edited June 4, 2018 by dmits41 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryansweet Posted June 4, 2018 Report Share Posted June 4, 2018 That sucks. It’s cool you found what the possible culprit is and shared it. Could help out someone on the future. I’m not as careful as I probably should be with my tank, but stories like this should make us all take a step back and think. One little thing, not even related to the hobby, can take down all our hard work. Let me know when you back up and running. If I have anything you want I’ll donate some frags. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmits41 Posted June 5, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2018 Just to help anyone avoid this in their tank, the product I used was shellac. I am building a sliding barn style door for my living room out of cedar and found out that I am allergic to it. Shellac is commonly used as a sealer for cedar so I used a few coats of it. It's alcohol based and the garage smelled like cheap vodka for days. This must have fed the bacteria that took off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmrun Posted July 17, 2018 Report Share Posted July 17, 2018 I have never heard of this happening. That's awful.😟 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmits41 Posted July 18, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2018 Well, the silver lining is that I got to start work on my fish room. It's a huge project but should end up great eventually. Starting a build thread soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.