Advice / help

[unusualysuspect]

Hi guys,

I'm new to the hobby and all has been going great so far....Until yesterday. I currently have a biorb 60l tank, heater etc with a better, shark, 3 penguin tetras and a bristlenose pleco currently. The tank has been great and the fish seem active etc but yesterday I noticed the tank looks slightly cloudy, not badly but it's as if there is millions of tiny bubbles in the water or bits of food matter - I am not sure it's this as I only feed them all every other day so I don't think rotting food is an issue. I have changed about 8 litres of water today and the cloudiness is still there. I do however think I may have used too much stress zyme 2 days ago, would this cause any bacterial explosion etc? It's hard to make out if they are bubbles or something else as they are that small. As I say until I used the stress zyme all was perfect. Water levels are also ok based on my test kits. Any advice or help would be appreciated. I don't want to kill my little fishy's

 

[Newkeeperotis]

Okay first question did you cycle the tank ??

 

[unusualysuspect]

Yeah, the tank was cycled - using advice and instructions from the local pet store who were very helpful with testing my water etc - before the fish were added to the tank.

 

[Newkeeperotis]

How long did the tank take to cycle and what were your last water test results

 

[unusualysuspect]

We did it for a couple of weeks if i remember correctly, maybe 3 prior to adding the fish going to the pet shop to test water. The fish have been in the tank now for about 3 weeks. I tested the water on prior to a water change Wednesday and mg/l
NO3 - 10
NO2 - 0
GH 16
KH - 10
pH - APPROX 7.6, just below
CL - 0
Ammonia - below <0.25

 

[Newkeeperotis]

Okay it could be a bacterial bloom or it could be a algae bloom when you took the water out was it tinted green at all

 

[unusualysuspect]

No green tinge at all no, the colouring is more a grey, whitish tinge when looking through the tank into clear light on the other side. Smokey is probably the best way to describe it.

 

[Newkeeperotis]

Then I think it's a bacterial bloom probably the BB going into overdrive multiplying to deal with fish see if it gets worse over then next couple of days and keep doing your weekly water changes

 

[unusualysuspect]

I will do, thanks for the advice. Put my mind at rest a bit.

 

[Rivercats]

I don't want to be a kill joy here but you have roughly a 16 gallon tank and both the Shark and the Bristlenose Pleco are too large to be in there, especially the shark. It would also be a good thing to increase your tetra's to 6 as they do better in schools. Then you could add some cory cats for bottom movement and food cleanup and you'd have a nice tank with the proper size fish.

Also WC's won't clear up a bacterial bloom. If you do a WC and it clouds back up then you do indeed have a bacterial bloom which will eventually clear up on it's own.

 

[unusualysuspect]

Thanks for the advice about the bloom. Your not a killjoy don't worry, I know, this tank is only a temporary setup, until I can save the last bit to get the larger tank I'm after - it was going cheap from a friend so I snapped it up. I was also going to get a few more penguins this weekend until I started freaking with the cloudy water. I was told however that this pleco won't grow beyond about 4-5 inches, guessing that was totally wrong then, not that it will matter too much once I upgrade tanks.

 

[Newkeeperotis]

What size tank are you saving for ?

 

[unusualysuspect]

I'm looking at a 125 gallon tank or there abouts.

 

[Newkeeperotis]

The BN would be fine in there not sure about the shark though

 

[Paul1792]

Thanks for info on bacterial bloom

Then I think it's a bacterial bloom probably the BB going into overdrive multiplying to deal with fish see if it gets worse over then next couple of days and keep doing your weekly water changes

*********************
Good analysis. After seeing your comment as it applies to my cycling tank, I did some additional research after getting a big bacterial bloom. I thought I was going to have to do some big time daily water changes only to find out it would do no good.

You are right, regular weekly water changes and the bloom should go away by itself.

 

[Rivercats]

A bristlenose only gets to 4-6 inches and is fine in a larger tank it's just not suitable for a 16 gallon IMO. The last BNP which is an Albino Longfin was about 1-1/2 inches when I got her and in a year she has grown to a good 5 inches. Although I must admit she along with the other fish get 2 blanched slices of zucchini on veggie clips every other day. She actually knows the days I feed them as she is waiting close to where I clip them on and is the first to feed off of them. Well she actually feeds on them all day.... lol!