yellow slime in toilet tanks

[umdnjay]

I found this yellow slime in the bottom of all 4 of my toilet tanks in my house. We recently noticed our fridge water filter was clogging up quicker than normal (1-2 months with the water pressure decreasing significantly, supposed to last 6 months) which prompted us to start looking into things around the house.

I live in a 7 year old home on city water with plenty of chlorine and we have a 7 year old water softener system. no filter system in place aside from the fridge.

2 plumbers have looked at this for us and can't tell us what it is. I also spoke to the water softener company and they do not feel this is any type of breakdown of the resin or anything else related to the softener. It doesn't have any particular odor and it's kind of gooey in texture. none of my neighbors close to me have this in their toilet tanks.

any help would be appreciated.

 

[Geofd]

Are you on. a well or city water,when was the last time your softner system was serviced ????

 

[umdnjay]

City water. Softener has not been serviced.

 

[Geofd]

I don't know much about those systems but what are the recommend service intervals?????

 

[umdnjay]

They don’t specify a service interval. System was checked and water was tested as being soft so they feel it’s functioning appropriately.

 

[SHEPLMBR]

They don’t specify a service interval. System was checked and water was tested as being soft so they feel it’s functioning appropriately.

When was the last time it was checked?

 

[umdnjay]

When was the last time it was checked?

This past week. They tested the water and found it to be soft and looked over the functioning of the softener.

 

[sawsaw]

You need to have the slime analyzed.

 

[umdnjay]

You need to have the slime analyzed.

What would you suggest? A pool company? Local water authority?

 

[sawsaw]

What would you suggest? A pool company? Local water authority?

I suggest your city water department.

 

[Twowaxhack]

Did you cut the fridge filter open and find same stuff ?

Is it possible that’s some sort of toilet tank tablet ? Do you have a maid ? If so ask them if they put something in the tanks.

If you have neighbors have them check their tanks for same issue.

Call your water provider.

 

[Mitchell-DIY-Guy]

Most likely this slime is either an iron or sulfur based algae. It's not terrifically UN-common, but more so on well water where there may be a high sulfur or iron content at the source. On city water of course, most of that would be treated before it gets to you. It could be something as simple as small pieces of galvanized pipe somewhere in your home's system or prior to the water getting into your home. The solution may be something as simple as using the "iron out" salt compounds in your water softener.

For some reason you may just have the right set of conditions in your home with your home's plumbing and water system to create conditions right for this to form. Inside a toilet tank is the ideal conditions for any number of things to grow, including mold. In a home I inspected this past year, the toilet on the lower level was full of mold above the water line and on the inside of the tank cover. I suspected that this was caused in the summer, when the "cold" water coming into the tank is 85 degrees, and the room temperature in this bathroom was 68-70. The relatively warm tank water condensed on the exposed ceramic parts and without light and in this nice warm environment, mold grew.

More recently I had a small bottle of water left in my own bathroom while I went away for a week. It had a few ounces of our "city" water in it. When I returned, there was a slime/algae growing in the bottle!

If this bothers you, go to a professional water testing lab and ask for an iron/sulfur bacteria test. You can find some firms online that will do this, but you can also find local places. Avoid places that sell treatment system; first you want an unbiased opinion of WHAT you are dealing with, from someone who cannot and does not sell you a solution...

 

[umdnjay]

Appreciate the responses. Replaced our softener system and the plumber opened up the old one which looked like that was the problem per him and my wife.

Hoping not to experience this any further.

 

[nonstop10977]

Yup that’s definitely resin in your tank. I had this recently, had to clean out every shower head, toilet fill valve, faucet aerators etc