Bacteria bloom or something else?

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IAmMP44

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Feb 27, 2019
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Sacramento Area
Hi all, my 55 falling aquarium has been up and running for about a month now, I used pre-filtered media from my other cycled 29 gallon tank to kickstart the cycle and current readings are 0-0-10. This weekend I added two pieces of cholla wood and after about 24 hours, the water became extremely cloudy. Should I be worried? I read online that it may be a bacteria bloom. Is that bad?

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Hi all, my 55 falling aquarium has been up and running for about a month now, I used pre-filtered media from my other cycled 29 gallon tank to kickstart the cycle and current readings are 0-0-10. This weekend I added two pieces of cholla wood and after about 24 hours, the water became extremely cloudy. Should I be worried? I read online that it may be a bacteria bloom. Is that bad?

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55 gallon* sorry about that.
 
Cloudy Water

Hi all, my 55 falling aquarium has been up and running for about a month now, I used pre-filtered media from my other cycled 29 gallon tank to kickstart the cycle and current readings are 0-0-10. This weekend I added two pieces of cholla wood and after about 24 hours, the water became extremely cloudy. Should I be worried? I read online that it may be a bacteria bloom. Is that bad?

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View attachment 312415

Hello I...

There's very little that can go wrong with a fish tank that a water change can't fix. If you haven't established a regular water change routine, it's never too soon or too late to do it. The best routine is to remove and replace half the water every week, no excuses. This will guarantee a steady water chemistry and this is all the fish and plants need to be healthy.

It takes several weeks, if not a few months for the water, fish and plants to establish a balanced water chemistry. As long as you're taking good care of the water, you have nothing to worry about. Everything will come into balance, if you give it a little time.

B
 
Hello I...



There's very little that can go wrong with a fish tank that a water change can't fix. If you haven't established a regular water change routine, it's never too soon or too late to do it. The best routine is to remove and replace half the water every week, no excuses. This will guarantee a steady water chemistry and this is all the fish and plants need to be healthy.



It takes several weeks, if not a few months for the water, fish and plants to establish a balanced water chemistry. As long as you're taking good care of the water, you have nothing to worry about. Everything will come into balance, if you give it a little time.



B



I do about a 30% water change on both my tanks once a week. Should I do one every day just to try to get rid of it?

Thanks for the feedback!
 
Hello again I...

The tank water doesn't need to be replaced more than once a week. But, you need to change at least half. The simple reasons are nitrogen from the dissolving fish waste won't build up to a toxic level for several days and the oxygen and minerals lost to the constant filtering process takes about a week too. So, by simply removing and replacing most of the water weekly, your fish and plants always have a healthy water environment. Tank keeping is really as simple as changing the water weekly.

B
 
I’d try a water change just to see what happens if it will clear.

Running carbon could also help if persists.

Generally my bacterial blooms were from excessive filter cleaning and also substrate cleaning (upsets bacterial populations / stirs up organics). Means tank is little unstable still even though technically cycled. Generally settles in several days I found. I would suspect that in 6 months time you could do same thing and tank wouldn’t even blink.

Generally keep aeration up as well for fish as well / make sure not gasping.

Blooms only really an issue if start to form solid mass on filters etc that need cleaning.
 
I’d try a water change just to see what happens if it will clear.

Running carbon could also help if persists.

Generally my bacterial blooms were from excessive filter cleaning and also substrate cleaning (upsets bacterial populations / stirs up organics). Means tank is little unstable still even though technically cycled. Generally settles in several days I found. I would suspect that in 6 months time you could do same thing and tank wouldn’t even blink.

Generally keep aeration up as well for fish as well / make sure not gasping.

Blooms only really an issue if start to form solid mass on filters etc that need cleaning.



I just did a water change about 20 minutes ago (I do one every Saturday). It seems about the same as before. All the fish have been doing fine (no gasping for air). I have a HOB filter and an air stone for surface agitation. Yesterday I added a rope fish because based off all of my research, nothing said that the bloom was harmful.

I absolutely love the rope fish. They were one of the fiery fish that stood out to me when I got into the hobby. Here’s a video from last night.
https://youtu.be/PHaE0fQONQY
 
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