Is this what a bacterial bloom & diatom breakout looks like?

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easywolf31

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Feb 15, 2017
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Hello, can someone tell me if this is normal for an 18 day old 130 gallon Aquarium to look like this? It's cloudy and green like and brownish diatom spreading on sand...really demoralizing lol. Maybe I need to add another filter next to my Eheim 2217 canister?

Ammonia & Nitrites are at zero. Nitrates are dark yellowish. Also have 16 cichlids 1-2" in sizes. I also used Seachem Stability during the first 7 days, salt, Cichlid Trace...and Prime after a water change. Fish are very active and hsppy looking. Please advise.


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Reduce light time down a lot, if there isn't a plant situation you can leave the lights off most of the time.

It looks like as you said diatoms which happen. Green maybe too much light and feeding for the cloudy causing a bacterial bloom.

As will be likely mentioned a UV sterilizer for the green in the water. You would likely be able to handle this without one.

I would think you are having too much ammonia, if you are using flake food as the staple, try some Hikari for your type of fish and feed enough but not too much. Some times other foods with lots of protein can cause a bloom. Try feeding less and divide the feeding into am/pm, so they eat it up faster and do not lose as much to waste.

Where are the tank parameters at?

Probably need a few pwc in order to get the water better. I would say if you have never done a pwc, then probably 4 25% pwc you can do back to back 2 at one time, test... If your parameters are borderline dose some more Prime and then do another round. If they are still very high then keep doing the b2b water changes until the numbers look acceptable.

Reason for doing smaller ones is a gradual reduction in the water pollution, and less shock to the fish. If you haven't been doing regular pwc, then all that stuff is built up in the water.

If things are pretty close to good do 2 b2b pwc 8-12 hours later.

If you have been doing pwc 1-2 times per week then you can do a couple larger ones b2b. Test and see how things are.

Have you done any pwc yet? Have you tested the water with a liquid test kit?

If so then make sure to test before and after the pwc and write it down, keep a log date and time tested and results,

Prime should be used in the water you are adding or in the whole tank gallon wise doseage for the use of a python/aqueon water changer. Note the additional amount needed if you have chloramines in your water.

You should not use chlorinated tap water for cleaning the filter pads or you will kill BB.

Then see where you are at in a week or so.

And test, during the week.

That is a lot of fish and feeding without being cycled, if no pwc. I realize it is a big tank that is likely why it has been this long before happening.
 
Hi, I've been testing every day with the master test kit. Ph 8.2-8.4, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate like 0-0.1?, 2 actinic 54w lights on about 5-6 hrs a day. I've done 20-40% water changes daily the last 5 days. Today i didn't do maybe it's having a reverse effect..?

I feed the fish northfin pellets, supermarket crabmeat and Hikari frozen brine shrimp they eat them all, 1-2 times a day for 1-2 mins. Algea was forming on glass but cleaned it. I use an aqueon water changer scrape the sand and barely any organic waste moving.

I had put a foam media from a friend's filter that was from an aquarium for years with a single big pacu in it and full of algea. The foam media had been taken out for about 6 hours...

I use prime with water changes, water is 80F...if anyone can figure this out...let me know lol.
 
That could be the reason (didn't do the pwc). The food sounds good, alike it could be one of those high quality ones which turns to ammonia pretty fast. It is likely a bacterial bloom.

Is your actinic light 50/50? Is it an older light bulb?
 
Hi what is a pwc? Power water change? 2 actinic new lights in the front one white powerglo blue in the back but i leave those closed for now. In day 7 of 18 did a 95%+ water change because one of the fish had camallanus worm disease. I brought it back and medication is coming this week. Today lights were on longer and it really really got cloudier. I will leave them on for 1-2 hours tomorrow or maybe none at all.
 
You know, this cycle info is crazy lol. 1/3rd of the internet says to do partial water changes daily to get rid of bacterial bloom, 1/3rd say 50% water changes and 1/3rd say do not do water changes as you make it worse. In a way all 3 make sense. But I wonder when you are doing water changes and adding prime afterwards maybe you are neutralizing the ammonia and the bad bacteria blooms with no food...or something like that. I read this article and it's very interesting as now I see this bacteria as bad bacteria lol...this is pretty crazy. I won't do a water change for a while and see what happens maybe?

Very interesting article: http://www.oscarfish.com/water/71-autotrophic-bacteria-manifesto.html

And part 2 is more interesting for bacterial blooms: http://www.oscarfish.com/water/72-heterotrophic-bacteria.html
 
cloudy water is a bacterial imbalance.Changing won't help UNLESS the fish show signs of distress.
It is ammonia being converted faster then it can be converted to nitrate.
Why most of the time people don't get a test result I don't know but your tank already has more then enough ammonia at the moment.
Add air stone if possible as O2 is being used by the bacteria very quickly.
https://northtexasaquarium.com/2011/01/19/bacterial-blooms-cloudy-aquarium-water/
If it gets green then it is algae and the UV is the way to go.
 
cloudy water is a bacterial imbalance.Changing won't help UNLESS the fish show signs of distress.
It is ammonia being converted faster then it can be converted to nitrate.
Why most of the time people don't get a test result I don't know but your tank already has more then enough ammonia at the moment.
Add air stone if possible as O2 is being used by the bacteria very quickly.
https://northtexasaquarium.com/2011/01/19/bacterial-blooms-cloudy-aquarium-water/
If it gets green then it is algae and the UV is the way to go.



Hi Coralbandit, I'm happy I got a powerful wavemaker and have it pointed on top causing nice surface agitation. I can see a lot of little oxygen bubbles almost everywhere in the aquarium. I read the bad bacteria can deplete oxygen levels a lot..

I'm trying to buy a Sunsun 704b filter with a uv sterilizer installed but they're all sold out until March.. I will stop the water changes until I see some nitrites...I don't know anymore...half the threads and half the youtube videos say do water changes the other half say don't. I tried water changes and it made it worse, now I'll try not doing any but will keep testing levels every day.
 
Hey guys, no not really. No direct sunlight curtain is closed. I just read this and it could be a big reason why there's so much heterotrophic instead nitrifying bacteria...

"Light

Nitrifying bacteria are photosensitive, especially to blue and ultraviolet light. After they have colonized a surface this light poses no problem. During the first 3 or 4 days many of the cells may be suspended in the water column. Specialized bulbs in reef aquaria that emit UV or near UV light should remain off during this time. Regular aquarium lighting has no appreciable negative effect."

My lights are 2 t5 actinic blue 10k in the front 1 more in the 2nd to last section and a white 18k in the back. I always leave the 2 back closed thinking it's too much, but perhaps the front 2 blue ones are killing off Nitrifying bacteria since they are photosensitive, especially to blue and uv lighting? Or really delaying the process. I will remove the 2nd to last blue and just use the white light for now when I want to view. They should mention on packages do not use blue or violet spectrum light during cycling lol..

Anyhow this is another very good article here: http://www.bioconlabs.com/nitribactfacts.html
 
Was also thinkin that perhaps you killed your cycle with that95% wc
I had no choice with Camallanus worms...if that jewel's worm came out alive and spread eggs and stuff...hopefully it was a dead worm coming out all stressed because of a bit of salt in the aquarium. They say once you see it coming out it's too late, the eggs have been laid and everything will get infected. Really dealing with crazy circumstances here getting back into this hobby after 20 years. Thank God I have some experience and actually noticed that worm in the 2nd day. Anyhow I'm sure I'll get through all this.
 
Best if rally a bacterial bloom to never change the water. But if the parameters are bad it needs to be a safe place for the fish. Alternate suggestion would be to remove the fish to a big plastic tote(s) (if you don't have another tank with new water - acclimate the from old to new water untill all new water and then put fish only into the new tub, no water.

Keep feeding the tank every couple days to keep cycle processing. 18-28 days should be fine. But I think there could be other issues and if fixed might clear the water always nice to try easier things first.

But hurting the fish while the bacteria go throught their cycle is a poor option. Prime can help with that if levels aren't too bad.
 
Best if rally a bacterial bloom to never change the water. But if the parameters are bad it needs to be a safe place for the fish. Alternate suggestion would be to remove the fish to a big plastic tote(s) (if you don't have another tank with new water - acclimate the from old to new water untill all new water and then put fish only into the new tub, no water.

Keep feeding the tank every couple days to keep cycle processing. 18-28 days should be fine. But I think there could be other issues and if fixed might clear the water always nice to try easier things first.

But hurting the fish while the bacteria go throught their cycle is a poor option. Prime can help with that if levels aren't too bad.
Nothing wrong with parameters...not sure what you mean by putting fish a bathtub with no water??

Do you mean empty all the water and put new water? Maybe my cheap eheim 2217 filter is not enough for this 130 gallon. I am buying a new filter soon. Maybe it's just insufficient and poor filtration?
 
Nothing wrong with parameters...not sure what you mean by putting fish a bathtub with no water??

Do you mean empty all the water and put new water? Maybe my cheap eheim 2217 filter is not enough for this 130 gallon. I am buying a new filter soon. Maybe it's just insufficient and poor filtration?


Sorry, was in a hurry. In a tote or 2 as a separate container to house fish temporarily. Not in a tub with no water. If parameters were an issue, and you just wanted the bacterial bloom to wrap up is process and be done. Then put fish back into the tank.

But you say no worries with parameters, so not a concern there. Try waiting it out.

Removing all the water is supposed to prolong the bloom cycle. I have had one and not had one again, thought I was going to have one another time but less light, less food, and change the kind of food all went right back to normal in a couple days.
 
Haha yea, that's what I thought lol. Medication for the fish might be coming today or tomorrow. This could be a big problem as I have to do huge water changes at least 2 more times.

You think I kill a lot of beneficial bacteria by emptying all or most of the water 2 more times and siphoning the sand a lot? It has to be done to clean up any eggs or stage 1-4 camallanus worm larvae. What do you think buddy?

Will I prolong the cycle even longer? This was a test done last night, do you notice any green in the ammonia? I haven't done a water change since Friday.1487675875465.jpg1487675884947.jpg
 
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