Dosing Vinegar - now growing white slime/bacteria?

[gobeach]

Hi all,
I began dosing vinegar in hopes of lowing my nitrates (reading over 75 using Hanna). My nitrates never lowered until I did a major cleaning of my sump, but they’re going down now slowly. However, recently I noticed that I’ve got some white slimy bacteria? Algae? That’s growing/clogging my sump. It’s not growing in my tank, only in the sump. Photo and short video included.

I’ve started slowly lowering my vinegar dosing (100 -> 90 -> 75ml/day) for my 200g tank.

Question: any other recommendations for getting rid of this stuff? I’m ok going slow as long as things move in the right direction.

 

[GARRIGA]

Stop dosing carbon and it goes away then start back at half dose and increase slowly until it shows again. Now you know how much it took to overdose and can adjust accordingly. Nothing more than bacterial slime.

 

[morris2015]

Hi all,
I began dosing vinegar in hopes of lowing my nitrates (reading over 75 using Hanna). My nitrates never lowered until I did a major cleaning of my sump, but they’re going down now slowly. However, recently I noticed that I’ve got some white slimy bacteria? Algae? That’s growing/clogging my sump. It’s not growing in my tank, only in the sump. Photo and short video included.

I’ve started slowly lowering my vinegar dosing (100 -> 90 -> 75ml/day) for my 200g tank.

Question: any other recommendations for getting rid of this stuff? I’m ok going slow as long as things move in the right direction.

Yes, 75ml daily is a lot… first of all reduce the dosing to 10-15 ml daily.
If you have a UV sterilizer make sure it’s working properly and check if the bulb is not expired (it could be lighting but if it’s working over 8 months you must replace it) and last but not less important, calibrate your skimmer properly and clean it every day until you get everything balance….

 

[seahuy]

Careful of Dino

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Switching to a different organic carbon source, such as vodkas, may help.

 

[AlexandraDreadlocksPanda]

I had it growing in my return section of sump and pipes, as Vodka / Vinegar mix was getting dosed into that compartment… So, I gave it somewhere else to grow - I got a couple of nylon nets filled with bath scrunchies, put them in the first compartment after the rollermat and ran the carbon line straight into the middle of them. It’s making Carbon dosing far more effective and keeping the goop all in one place too!