Tank Crashed - Need Advice for BBA and Bacterial Bloom

[arrik]

I’m absolutely crushed. My tank crashed. I lost all livestock. Ive had this black crud overwhelming my plants for weeks now, my fish slowly dying, and the aquarium store kept having me buy things that would make it go away. Algae eating fish, powerhead, bigger filter. On and on. It never left. I've left the light off, increased frequency of water changes and filter changes.

When i ask in various forums, the prevailing reply is that i can just rub the black off the leaves, but it doesn't rub off. I clipped a leaf and took it to the store and they identified it as black beard algae. They gave me Excel to spray on the plants so I did that Tuesday. It doesn't seem to be having an effect.

Yesterday morning I woke up to an insanely cloudy tank when it was perfectly clear when I went to bed. All the fish I had left were dead. I took a water sample in. The nitrogen cycle, pH, and phosphates are all great! The store is basically unhelpful at this point saying they've never seen this before and good luck.

What am I to do at this point? Count this as a loss and start over? can I salvage the plants and wait this out? Is there anything left to try?

 

[Aiken Drum]

Can you give some more details on the tank.

How long have you had it? What are your water parameters (numbers, not just they are good)?

Is the black stuff just appearing on your plants or is all over other things in the tank?

How long are your lights on for?

To my eyes thats not algae. Looks more like rot. Have you tried removing the effected growth? Looks like you have some new growth, does new growth get similarly effected?

 

[arrik]

Can you give some more details on the tank.

How long have you had it? What are your water parameters (numbers, not just they are good)?

Is the black stuff just appearing on your plants or is all over other things in the tank?

How long are your lights on for?

To my eyes thats not algae. Looks more like rot. Have you tried removing the effected growth? Looks like you have some new growth, does new growth get similarly effected?

It is right at 2 years old. Ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0, phosphate 0, KH 3, GH 2, pH 7.

The black stuff is on the plants and rocks.

The light is on for 1 hour in the morning and 3 hours in the evening.

Removing the affected growth is tantamount to removing all the plants. And yeah. I noticed some leaves are nice and green and haven’t gotten the black crud yet.

 

[Aiken Drum]

If your nitrate and phosphate are zero that is a serious nutrient deficiency for your plants, and your lights arent on enough. They are probably just dying. Are you dosing any fertiliser?

Im going to say your water parameters are essentially impossible. The only way you can feasibly see nothing is if you did your water test immediately after a 100% water change and you are essentially water straight from the tap. Nitrate is the end product of the nitrogen cycle. In a cycled tank you should see nitrate. In an uncycled tank you should see ammonia and or nitrite depending on how far progressed your cycle is. Seeing nothing is a good indication something is wrong with your testing, which could indicate a water quality issue you arent aware of.

 

[arrik]

That’s a really good point, I don’t know why I didn’t think to ask that when the store tested the water. I have my own kit, I’ll redo and get back to you.

 

[arrik]

ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 5ppm
pH 7.4

 

[arrik]

Here’s a silhouette shot of the leaves where you can see the fuzzy stuff coming off the edges, which is why the store thought BBA

 

[Aiken Drum]

Nitrate of 5ppm is still very low for plant health. You might want to look into a fertiliser that has a decent amount of nitrogen in it. Depends on your country of origin. Thrive if you can get it (USA). And put your lights on 8 hours a day.

None of this explains your water discolouration or fish deaths though. Are you getting good surface agitation from your filter? Might something have got in the tank? Soaps, detergents, hand sanitiser? Are the fish new? Have you added anything new or changed anything recently? Did you notice any symptoms on your fish before they died?

Take a read through the "unhealthy fish" sticky and answer as much as you can. Maybe that will jog something to the surface that explains things.

https://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f17/before-posting-about-unhealthy-fish-read-this-32451.html

 

[arrik]

Nitrate of 5ppm is still very low for plant health. You might want to look into a fertiliser that has a decent amount of nitrogen in it. Depends on your country of origin. Thrive if you can get it (USA). And put your lights on 8 hours a day.

None of this explains your water discolouration or fish deaths though. Are you getting good surface agitation from your filter? Might something have got in the tank? Soaps, detergents, hand sanitiser? Are the fish new? Have you added anything new or changed anything recently? Did you notice any symptoms on your fish before they died?

Take a read through the "unhealthy fish" sticky and answer as much as you can. Maybe that will jog something to the surface that explains things.

https://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f17/before-posting-about-unhealthy-fish-read-this-32451.html

The bacterial bloom has actually subsided over the course of today.

I’ve got the filter and a power head to provide agitation.

Nothing goes in the tank except the freshwater from the store. I don’t use tap.

The fish were not new. I’ve changed in the tank but reduced light to try to stop the BBA growth.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Are you remineralising the store bought water?

 

[Autumnsky]

That is very sad news.

Can you test for KH and GH?

If you have too low pH you could have had a literal crash in pH. You said 7.4 but was that after a pwc or just how it was in the aftermath of the loss?

How much Excel did you use?

If all the

 

[Autumnsky]

Hydrogen peroxide grocery store/pharmacy stocked 3% would be my next step if you have no more fish or inverts in there.

You need a few new fresh large bottles from the store.

Dose all at once all around the sides and areas of most nasty muck.


No light on for a few days after the first dose.

Just keep running the tank the same as usual. You can add some fish food in every few days to give any remaining BB some food. Wait for a few to 5 days and treat it the same way again.

By then you should see some marked improvement on the conditions of algae.

I would get some ferts as mentioned and start running hte light for the appropriate amount of time.

What kind of light is it? LED, CFL, K / Kelvin rating?

I have just done this on my SW tank and it was like a miracle so far excellent results.

You can use a soft bristle toothbrush on the leaves while in the tank and after a H2O2 dose and likely see some results.

The leaves can not photosynthesize properly while coated in black muck. So removing most of it should help out.

You might also find it easier to take out the plant and use some 50/50 peroxide water with the brush. A magic eraser might be helpful.