question on cycling
 

Hello! I'm currently cycling a tank I got via sinking fish wafers, and I just noticed that there are these slimy looking beds on the food, and on the sand and gravel. Are these bacteria colonies? Or something else that I should clean? Thanks!

*I'll try and get a picture up if possible*

Bacteria I am pretty sure. My shrimp or snails won't touch them once it forms in my tanks. Would wait to see what the input is on this helping or hurting the tank cycling.

Hmm. I thought so. I read up that its the bacteria that breaks down food and helps create ammonia...but the only thing I'm worried about is the lack of space for the "good" bacteria that breaks down ammonia and creates nitrites. If anyone can help out, that'd be great.

Water parameters for this cycling tanks is as follow
Ammonia: 4-5ppm
pH:7.5
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 0

Have you searching on the different cycling methods? I started one of my tanks using by adding ammonia directly to the tank and it worked just fine. I did not have any livestock in the tank obviously. Since it seems like you don't have anything in there you might be interested in that else if you know someone who can let you get some gravel from an established tank so you can seed yours that should help too. I am lucky having three established tanks running that I drop in a small bag with bio material into the filter and collect the good stuff for use in my new tanks.

Yea, I was looking into using pure ammonia, but unfortuantly I could not find any nearby store that sells strictly pure ammonia. Only found places that has additives or scents in it. And also I'm the only person in the area *and amongst friends* that has started up an aquarium, so pretty much everything is from scratch. Haha. Thanks though!

Sounds like biofilm to me, and if it is biofilm, you can vacuum it up.

Biofilm is the stuff that looks like white/transparent Jello? Like a see through cloud in a way?

Check to see if you have a local Ace hardware. They sell pure ammonia and it's about $5, but it's a half gallon.

Some have mentioned trying a dollar tree or similar dollar store.

Yeah, biofilm is the white cloudy looking stuff that hangs on the substrate, plants, decor, and decaying food...it can even look like a spiderweb or silk. Its very common, and not needed, a quick vac of it will do. If cycling though, I'd wait until done cycling, then do the gravel vac with water change just before adding fish after the tank has cycled.

Ok, so this biofilm will be alright to be left alone until the cycle is done? I did a quick gravel vac to get rid of it since it took over about 25% of the floor space, and was all over my rock and plastic plants. And my Ace hardware store closed down >_< I'll take a look at some dollar stores, but right now I think I did the trick with the fish food. Thanks everyone for the advice and help!

Yes, it is absolutely fine to leave it through the cycle. Biofilm usually forms pretty fast and easy, some tank's it isnt as noticable with fish because some bottom feeders and algae eaters will eat biofilm.