Habitat - Indoor :: How do I get rid of this slime?

[shawnbecher]

I have been fighting this issue for a while now, and I'm at my wits end. I probably should have posted this a while ago. I have this brownish slime that clogs up my Fluval 405 sponges and polishing pads to the point that the polishing pads last 2 weeks, and then I have to throw them out and replace them because they are falling apart from me rubbing them to get them unclogged. This slime also coats the insides of the filter tubing to and from the tank, and reduces the flow rate drastically.

I have about 50 gallons of water in a 75 gallon tank. The last time I did a water test, my ammonia, nitrates, and nitrites were all in safe levels, but my water is on the alkaline side of the scale. I feed my Trixie a handful (the size of her head) of fish stick turtle food every other day, and she shares with our goldfish Sunny (a feeder fish she didn't eat from about 9 months ago) and Ninja, our pleco who has also been a tank resident for about 9 months - he's always on clean-up duty I have to clean the filter out every week to maintain the flow rate, and once a month I have to remove the tubing and take a bottle brush through it to knock the slime out.

When I first got Trixie from my mom, I didn't have this problem, and I'm still using water from the same town's water supply.

I would really like to know what this slime could be, and what I can do to minimize it so I'm not having to buy so much stuff for my filter. Any ideas?

[devilduck]

Do you have clear or semi clear tubing? I maybe algae building up in your tubing. Shade your tubing from light or get black tubing.
The other thought is it's build up because your polishing pad is clogging up and reducing flow, thus causing the buildup of organic matter/algae you see. I don't use fine polishing pads because they just clog up too fast in a turtle tank. Remove it or replace it with a courser pad and see how it goes.

[shawnbecher]

I have black tubing. I will try getting rid of the polishing pads. The foam sponge blocks are more coarse, but don't clog up anywhere near as bad. Thanks for the tip!