Clear film/slime on glass

I have been having a clear slime/film on the glass of my tank for the past week or so. It seems to build quickly and cause the glass to look cloudy. All my params are in check (bought new test kit for mag but was missing the filter floss, so this is the only reading I don't have). The only changes I have made recently was replumbing my tank to quiet it down a bit. I only used one new coupling though and all the hose was the same stuff in use before (no new hose). And it is all the braided pvc, so it is all barbed fittings, so no glue was used. I did add a mag 3 to sump to cycle some water in there back to skimmer section (this is a thread in itself, but it allows me more flow through fuge, and longer contact time for water in skimmer section), However this mag 3 was used as well, I took my bio skimmer offline a month or more ago, so pump was cleaned and reused in it's new purpose.

My tank is a 65, with a 20 long sump. I have fuge with cheato and 24 hour lighting. Tank was started in sept.
Amm, trite, and trate all read 0.
Cal-421 (hanna)
alk- 8.5
ph- ~8.2-8.3 (taken in mornign but stays pretty stable)
mag- ran out of tests more on way

The tank has no visible algae, very clean. Fuge does have some hair algae, but it has been declining, to the point that I would say some tanks have more in them than this fuge. Cheato does well, I put it in a month ago, about same time I took the BPs offline. I'm running LEDs on a 6 hour schedule. All corals are doing great and showing good extention and growth (mostly LPS). I use RO/DI for wc and top offs, tds reads 0 and unit has recently been sanitized and all new filters (incl. membrane). I store top off water in a rubbermaid brute with ph. I store about a weeks worth at a time and then dry out container before making more. I don't do regular water changes, I wait until I see my tests showing I should, or once every 6 weeks or so I'll do a small change (~10%) for trace elements.

This film is only on the glass, none on rocks or substrate. Any ideas? Think it's got something to do with taking BP's off line (about 3 weeks between taking them out and first film showing up)?

I know this was kinda long and I thank you for reading. I've done a search and can't seem to find any info on it.

Thanks,
Jake

 

Just curious but what is your SG at? I recently had a clear film and my SG was low not saying that is the cause.

 

Leighton, thanks for the reply. I just ran to double check the SG. It's sitting at 1.026. I even threw some calibrating fluid in the refractometer first to make sure it was reading right (I hadn't done that in a while so figured I should check).

Anyone else have amy ideas?

 

Maybe a Bacterial bloom from removing the BP's?? Thats about all I can think of.

 

I was thikning possibly something like that. Just strange that it's on ly on the glass. It's got me stumped for sure. Thanks PG

 

yeah I thought so too, but on the glass is weird, I know I have bacteria on the glass of my cichlid tank when I swap out filter media, but not like a cloudy looking bacteria haha. its hard to say! Wheres Vinny when you need a toughy answered lol

 

Lol, I'm hoping I can get it figured out soon. It's easy to wipe off with the mag float. But it makes a complete mess in the tank with all the chunks floating around.

 

I'd also say most likely a biofilm. It probably is on the rocks as well; you simply can't see it because it's clear. Removing biomedia abruptly would be a logical cause. It should clear itself in a few days or so.

 

I would say it's def not on the rocks. It's so think and slimy on glass that you would def feel it on rocks. However it is entirely possible my CUC is keeping it off rocks. I'll give it a bit and see what happens. I did let the bio pellets run down before removing them. I do agree on biofilm, so I'll give it a few more days and see what happens. Thanks Bill.