Question: Filter Hell and clear hairy slime everywhere

[ladygodiva35]

Now the thing is I recently purchased an upgraded filter. It's a Aquaclear Fluval 50. I purchased this after reading hundreds of awesome reviews about it.

Based on my own experience it doesn't seem like it deserved any positive reviews.
The filter goes with three media. A sponge, charcoal and beads and you put them in this basket that holds them all together. About two weeks ago I woke up and my axolotl tank had only maybe 6 inches of water left inside it! This is a 20 gallon long housing two male axolotls. The filter lid was popped off and water was spilling out from inside the filter soaking my entire carpet, wall and dresser.

After further inspection I noticed that the basket was floating upward causing the filter media to push the lid off the filter thus throwing water out all over my floor. So I decided to remove the basket after I kept noticing it still keeps floating instead of sitting on the filter bottom.

A few days later I woke up to this hideous grinding sound. This time no water was inside the filter! The tubing was clogged and after cleaning that out the motor had a hard time turning on.

Now last night after work I noticed this ugly clear slime junk all over my tank. On every decoration, on the glass, in the water and mostly hanging from the filter and stuck in the filter tubing.

I cleaned my tank about a week ago and never had this issue before in ANY of my tanks in all the years I've been in the hobby. Is this another filter issue or water issue? Sadly I can't return the dumb filter since I lost the receipt.

Readings are:
Nitrate .0ppm
Nitrite .5ppm

 

[limnologist]

that's unfortunate:nono:

I believe it has something to do with the filter. It might involve the problems you were having getting the motor to run.

 

[auntiejude]

Did you cycle the filter properly before using it? That may account for your 'slime' - it will be algae, part of the 'new tank' syndrome you get when cycling a new tank ot filter.

The most common problem with filters is not assembling it right, cannisters usually have a locking mechanism so the top can't just pop off. The plastic balls always float, thats why the top lock in place. Usually by the time you have sponge medium and carbon on top it holds them down, or you could replace them with ceramic noodles.

What is your ammonia reading?

 

[ladygodiva35]

Did you cycle the filter properly before using it? That may account for your 'slime' - it will be algae, part of the 'new tank' syndrome you get when cycling a new tank ot filter. What is your ammonia reading?

I was told previously when dealing with new filters is to leave the old filter there for awhile with the new one so that was what I did. I didn't clean out the decorations or add brand new fresh water either. My old filter was a Tetra Whisper and both of these are HOB filters.

As for ammonia tester I can not find one anywhere. So I had to settle on those annoying test strips.

 

[keiko]

You can get the Api freshwater master test kit from Ebay quite cheap. It has liquid tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

How long did you keep the two filters together? You need to do that for weeks to make sure the bacteria has colonized the new filter properly and even then when you remove the old filter you essentially remove half of the bacteria taking care of the cycle. It's much more efficient to put the old filter media in the new filter if it's just possible.

 

[ladygodiva35]

I kept it in there for about 2 weeks. It was impossible to keep the old media with the new one. Type different type of filter design.

 

[Nano]

I had this exact problem with a marina slim hang on filter which came with my tank. there was all that weird white/clear slime all over the outlet and clogging things up and one day it just stopped working so I bought a fluval u2 internal filter and things are okay now. I don't have a clue what caused the sludgy stuff but it would sometimes form a weird film on the surface of the water and on the sides of the aquarium.