Need help with bacterial bloom recovery and water testing!

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nessybehr

nessybehr

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Joined
Mar 14, 2013
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153
Location
long island
I had a bacterial bloom I'm my 35 hexagon tank. After many small water changes it is almost at 0. I've been losing fish which is depressing but the ones still in there seem healthy but my balloon molly didn't look so good. I have 3 platies 7 mollies a pleco and assassin snails.

My 10 gallon seemed fine crystal clear but amonia is almost 0 after testing the water after the water change. I did a smaller water change this week and 20 minutes later one guppy died and this morning another. I have 2 dwarf frogs 2 small algae eaters 3 zebra danios and assassin snails. (Both tanks ended up with pond snails because of live plants).
Please help!

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nessybehr said:
I had a bacterial bloom I'm my 35 hexagon tank. After many small water changes it is almost at 0. I've been losing fish which is depressing but the ones still in there seem healthy but my balloon molly didn't look so good. I have 3 platies 7 mollies a pleco and assassin snails.

My 10 gallon seemed fine crystal clear but amonia is almost 0 after testing the water after the water change. I did a smaller water change this week and 20 minutes later one guppy died and this morning another. I have 2 dwarf frogs 2 small algae eaters 3 zebra danios and assassin snails. (Both tanks ended up with pond snails because of live plants).
Please help!

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It's not a bacterial bloom you have. They don't kill fish, come up on any test and are completely harmless. They just look unsightly.
It may be an obvious question but are you adding water conditioner to the new water???
 
Yes im not that new. And my ammonia levels, from a bloom or a mini cycle is what's killing From what ive read yhey go hand in hand. No ick either. the other 2 guppies from my small tank idk. I just got all my water tested. He said it's normal.

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nessybehr said:
Yes im not that new. And my ammonia levels, from a bloom or a mini cycle is what's killing From what ive read yhey go hand in hand. No ick either. the other 2 guppies from my small tank idk. I just got all my water tested. He said it's normal.

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I would do a few large water changes, a few hours apart. You really need to get your own water test kit.....Testing your tap water maybe a good idea too, just to be sure there's no Ammonia
 
Ok how do i test tap water I did my own test today everything is good now

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Like ian said low ammonia levels alone wont kill a fish. However their deaths are probably due to stress, im assuming their new fish. When fish get shipped and then taken home all in a few days time they get stressed, loose their slime coat that protects them from infection, and get sick and die to "opportunistic" infections. Sorry to hear it but i don't think youve done anything wrong, just got to get some more fish, maybe from a better source.
 
Yah I just ran a whole bunch of tests. Things are doing so much better! I think the small frequent water changes were stressing her so I got speacil conditioner for the slime coat and such do well see. I will have my tap water ph results in a couple of days. My ph was only a little high but I'm getting that down. Could be the tap water ya never know. One other thing. My nitrates were about 45ish so I did some clean up have had bio stars. Is water changes a good way to lower nitrates? My nitrite level is 0

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nessybehr said:
Yah I just ran a whole bunch of tests. Things are doing so much better! I think the small frequent water changes were stressing her so I got speacil conditioner for the slime coat and such do well see. I will have my tap water ph results in a couple of days. My ph was only a little high but I'm getting that down. Could be the tap water ya never know. One other thing. My nitrates were about 45ish so I did some clean up have had bio stars. Is water changes a good way to lower nitrates? My nitrite level is 0

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Great news things are getting better. Bacterial blooms will just burn themselves out. When I had mine, in a non planted tank, I just kept the lights off(as much as possible) and didn't do any water changes. Doing them doesn't do any harm but it can prolong the bloom. The only way to clear it up really fast is a UV sterilizer but imo not worth buying one just for this. Some people swear by them but I don't have one or feel the need for one.
I have ph of 8.2 and never had any issues with fish. I really wouldn't start messing with your ph. This can lead to more problems and is a cost and effort that I don't think you need. Fish can easily adopt to different ph ranges. Messing with ph is risky.
You Nitrates are nothing to worry about really. 40ish are not too bad, unless you have sensitive fish like German Rams etc. Assuming you have no or very little Nitrates in your tap, increasing your WC's will lower these. Again they can be chemically lowered but you certainly don't need to go down that road.
 
Ok but can high ph hurt the fish I have mollies platys and a pleco

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nessybehr said:
Ok but can high ph hurt the fish I have mollies platys and a pleco

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Not in my experience. PH swings are more likely to do harm. Proper acclimation is the key. I have kept mollies and other livebearers in my PH(8.2) with no problems, even though they are ideally kept in a slightly lower PH range 6.5-7.5
 
Ok I did use a little ph lower now I'm nervous

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It was over 8 before I treated it. My Gh and km are a tad high but I have brackish fish

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nessybehr said:
It was over 8 before I treated it. My Gh and km are a tad high but I have brackish fish

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It's up to you whether you want to continue buffering your water but I think it's not necessary. If you wish to discontinue using it, you can slowly raise the PH by doing small water changes, maybe 10% everyday. Please research it a bit more yourself but this is what I would do.....
 
I agree I think I just g o t worried lol. I think I had mini cycle I'm working on doing great but

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