Bloom for 4 months long?

[CEverii]

Ok so i've been fighting Bloom for about 4 months. Have had the milky white cloudy water so im pretty sure its bloom. Anyway i've been doing about 40% water changes every two weeks for about a month in a half and still it lingers. My fish look so depressed. Anything else i can do besides restart my entire tank again?


Oh, and i have 2 canister filters for it. One Fluval 70 gal rated and one Marineland 55gal rated

 

[CEverii]

Forgot to mention its a cichlid tank. I have about 12 of them with 2 suckers.

 

[meegosh]

How big is the tank? Also, what are your water parameters(ammonia,nitrites, nitrates, etc)? White cloudiness is usually a sign of a bacterial bloom. It is common in new setups, how long has it been set up - just four months?

I would increase the water changes to maybe even 30-40% daily, and see if it clears up. I'm curious to see your water params, they may explain a lot.

 

[CEverii]

its a 55gal and has been up for a year and a half. Ill post my water params when I get home. At work till 9pm east so ill get them in a couple hours.

 

[mfdrookie516]

if your parameters are in line and have been for some time, i just dont see how it could be a bacteria bloom... if not, then of course it is...

 

[CEverii]

Well my parameters were jacked... I just checked a week ago tho and they were all fine.

Ammonia - .25
Nitrate - 0
Nitrite - 0
pH - a staggering 6.0


Put some PH booster in there and preparing a 40% water change. I doubt this will get the bloom to go away, but ill give it yet another shot.

 

[7Enigma]

Yikes. Put the pH booster away (chuck it in the trash). You don't seem to be overstocked by your post so you might have a death you don't know about (or a place where detritus has accumulated). A tank setup for longer than a couple months should NEVER have ammonia. You need to do a large water change ASAP. I recommend 25% today and 25% again tomorrow. Wait another day and then do a 50% water change.

Have you had any power outtages recently that stopped the filters for many hours?

Looks like old-tank syndrome from a blind guess. How frequent and what % do you do water changes?

 

[CEverii]

Yikes. Put the pH booster away (chuck it in the trash). You don't seem to be overstocked by your post so you might have a death you don't know about (or a place where detritus has accumulated). A tank setup for longer than a couple months should NEVER have ammonia. You need to do a large water change ASAP. I recommend 25% today and 25% again tomorrow. Wait another day and then do a 50% water change.

Have you had any power outtages recently that stopped the filters for many hours?

Looks like old-tank syndrome from a blind guess. How frequent and what % do you do water changes?

I usually do about 30-40% water changes every 2-3 weeks. And nope, no power outages.

 

[7Enigma]

OK, then my hunch was correct. You need to do larger water changes, paying particular attention to getting in any caves/crevices that can trap detritus.

You could have shocked the bacteria during a water change as the filtration you have should be adequate to convert all nitrogen waste to nitrAte. Ever forget to add dechlor or have a particularly nasty storm? (sometimes municipalities load up on the chlorine/chloramine after a storm) I would have expected your nitrAte levels to be relatively high, but no ammonia/nitrIte.

 

[CEverii]

No storm lately. I mean i live in Daytona Beach FL so its always raining, but nothing crazy. Im doing a 30% change now, going to take all the rocks out and vac every where. Then do another 30% tomorrow.

 

[CEverii]

Um so real quick, i put that buffer in about 3 hours ago before i went to the gym, just got home (stopped by work and posted) and my water has cleared up almost 100%...what the **** is going on

 

[Viper]

Make sure when you take the rocks out, that you keep them in a bucket or container that has existing tank water in it (When doing the water change, drain some of the tank's water into this bucket or container). If you remove the rocks and leave them out to dry, you are killing off the beneficial bacteria that is needed. Because of the presence of ammonia, you may be experiencing a mini cycle and will need that bacteria.

 

[Jason7894561230]

Dont you love complicated fish tanks that really annoy you!!!! lol

 

[7Enigma]

You did a 30% water change correct? That along with the gravel vac and removing the rocks could definitely have corrected the issue. I'd still do the 30% today but I don't think the pH booster did anything.

 

[meegosh]

The pH would have nothing to do with the cloudiness. I agree with 7Enigma.

 

[CEverii]

The pH would have nothing to do with the cloudiness. I agree with 7Enigma.

That's the thing tho. I didn't actuay do the water change. That morning after I got my param readings I put some pH booster in there and left my house. I was replying to this topic at work, that's when I said I'm was about to do my 30% water change. When I got home and was getting things ready, I looked over at my tank and my water was 100% clear after being milky white for 4 months. All I did was add in some pH buffer.

 

[7Enigma]

Hmm. I wonder if the pH booster had some flocculating ability. I know "algae destroyer" products use chemicals that cause the particulates to clump together (flocculate). It's possible the booster did something like that (hopefully not because the algae products can clot up the fish' gills).

Still do that water change though.