How to get rid of slime coating on ornaments

[mcrudd]

Hi all

I have a small little tank with two puffers in it that has the spongebob theme :gigl:

The ornaments keep on building up this thickish white slime coating, almost like that you get on the heaters suckers, but much worse, with the watermovement in the tank it breaks off and falls into the plants, how do I get rid of that?

I have taken the ornaments out three times allready and gave them good scrubs with fresh warm water and then I have to do a big waterchange as well, I usually fill up with my main tank water as not too disturb the bacteria growth in the smaller tank.

Thanks in advance for any help

[BikBok]

The slime that coats heater suckers in new tanks goes away of it's own accord. It will probably;y be the same with the ornaments too because the tank is new.

[GZ_Loach]

Yes its not uncommon for tanks to get a "slime" in the first month of setting up the tank, You could get a bristlenose to control it if you want

[mcrudd]

Yes its not uncommon for tanks to get a "slime" in the first month of setting up the tank, You could get a bristlenose to control it if you want

Unfortuanatly it is in my puffer fish tank so a bristlenose will get picked on and nipped I have removed everything from the tank and used media from my main tank, even put new gravel in and then added some of my fake plants (unfortuanatly the real plants died in that little tank since the light is not sufficient enough so I replanted them in my main tank.) and a little bridge in there. They are very happy and no slime yet. I did speak to the fish manager at animates and he said he would contact the people who supplied them and let them know, in the mean time we washed all the ornaments off and put them in water to see what happens. Perhaps we can keep on doing that till eventually it does not do the slime build up anymore :slfg:

edited to add something : I had my two little puffers in a fish bag while I cleaned their tank out and they tried attacking my harlequins through the bag, it was quite something to see, they have so much aggression for a teeny little fish

[GZ_Loach]

I forgot about the puffers, that would not be a good idea to add a bristlenose then . oops.

So its just the decorations themselves that get covered? Did they smell funny when you bought them?

[mcrudd]

I forgot about the puffers, that would not be a good idea to add a bristlenose then . oops.

So its just the decorations themselves that get covered? Did they smell funny when you bought them?

Yes just the decorations and its a super thick layer of a cloudy llike slime. I did not really note any smell to them, I do wash anything before it goes in my tank, so I did scrub them with warm water.

[GZ_Loach]

Must be a chemical reaction, dodgy resin used? who knows

[mcrudd]

Just thought I would update you guys on this subject. I have a very happy six year old daughter playing with all the spongebob ornaments. We tried and tried washing them, boiling them, and sundrying them all day but as soon as they were put in water any water they would build up slime again, so we gave them a scrub and sundried them again and now its toys for my daughter :nilly:

[BikBok]

oh well, at least someones happy. I think I know the ones you mean, I saw some at animates. very cute.