It's coating everything! The filter, the heater, the gravel, the wood the plants! UGH! My betta seems to do well enough but I'm cleaning my tank more often than necessary because of this stuff. Instead of twice weekly water changes I do 3-4 because I'm afraid that whatever this slime is it can be harmful to my water parameters if left alone for too long.
I've tried taking the whole tank apart already and cleaning everything in a diluted bleach treatment (except the filter. I merely rinsed this in hot water and took a generous portion of filter media from my other tank while my betta was in quarantine during... "maintenance").
I've looked around online and haven't found anything conclusive as to what this could be. I've been wanting to switch him to his new ten gallon for a month now but I can't begin that change if all the items I take from his current 5 gallon do the same to his new tank. Cleaning slime from this thing is hard enough. I've been thinking that it may be the filter, I purchased it for a capacity of 5-10 gallons with an adjustable flow. The filter cartridge and other tiems inside are VERY compact. Perhaps the lack of water flow between the filter parts is allowing some sort of bacteria or algae to grow? I spent nearly 40$ on this tiny filter, so I'm not to keen to toss it out if unecessary as it runs very well and it's hard to find an internal filter with an adjustable flow for such a small tank. Everything else is too big and bulky. The only other option is to toss out everything and start entirely fresh with the new tank, decorations and accesories and all.
The only problem is my betta would be forced to stay in quarantine (a small cycled 2.5 gallon I keep handy for cleaning time) and the tank is bare. I can't place him in my main tank as angels and betta would not be a good mix. Any advice on this? I've been stumped for months now.
I've tried taking the whole tank apart already and cleaning everything in a diluted bleach treatment (except the filter. I merely rinsed this in hot water and took a generous portion of filter media from my other tank while my betta was in quarantine during... "maintenance").
I've looked around online and haven't found anything conclusive as to what this could be. I've been wanting to switch him to his new ten gallon for a month now but I can't begin that change if all the items I take from his current 5 gallon do the same to his new tank. Cleaning slime from this thing is hard enough. I've been thinking that it may be the filter, I purchased it for a capacity of 5-10 gallons with an adjustable flow. The filter cartridge and other tiems inside are VERY compact. Perhaps the lack of water flow between the filter parts is allowing some sort of bacteria or algae to grow? I spent nearly 40$ on this tiny filter, so I'm not to keen to toss it out if unecessary as it runs very well and it's hard to find an internal filter with an adjustable flow for such a small tank. Everything else is too big and bulky. The only other option is to toss out everything and start entirely fresh with the new tank, decorations and accesories and all.
The only problem is my betta would be forced to stay in quarantine (a small cycled 2.5 gallon I keep handy for cleaning time) and the tank is bare. I can't place him in my main tank as angels and betta would not be a good mix. Any advice on this? I've been stumped for months now.
