Potential bacteria bloom?

[Zushley]

I accidentally added some expired API water clarifier to my 20 gallon long aquarium and I think I accidentally crashed my cycle.

It was like milky when I added it in and I didn't even notice until a few seconds later. I've added some Prime, Stability and Clarity all from the brand Seachem and it seems like the problem has gotten slightly better?

I woke up today to still see a slightly more transparent milky haze in my aquarium. I thought maybe it was just dirty filter media so I replaced it and cleaned my filter as well..

Also my nirtates and nitrites are at 0ppm, ammonia was at 0.25ppm and PH was at 6.0ppm. All because I did a water change before the incident.

What is in the aquarium is a yoyo loach, 4 Madagascar rainbow fish and 4 sailfin mollies. I was thinking maybe the yoyo loach was just kicking up some sand which could be possible but I don't really know..

If you have any advice for my situation please comment on my post because I feel like I've done really all I can do at this point.

 

[Aiken Drum]

I cant see expired water clarifier causing any issues with your cycle. If you are concerned, change water.

Zero ammonia can often look like a trace ammonia level. Test some bottled water which you know will be zero ammonia, and compare it with the test from your tank. If they look the same your tank water is zero ammonia.

If you did your water test after a water change, you could have ammonia in your tap water. If your water is chloramine rather than chlorine treated, the chloramine will break down into chlorine and ammonia in your tank and produce a positive ammonia test until its cycled out. Test your tap water and see if it tests positive for ammonia. Get a water report from your water supplier as it should tell you if your water is treated with chlorine or chloramine.

Milky water sounds like a bacterial bloom which would be caused by nutrient imbalances in the water. An uncycled tank or an ammonia spike could be the cause.

Lets assume your ammonia test is correct and its not from your tap.

The most likely cause would be you changing the filter media. You shouldnt do this unless its literally falling apart. Rinse it off and put it back. What kind of filter media did you replace? If you are in a position to need to replace filter media, dont replace it all in one go.

To give you some comfort, even if your ammonia is at 0.25ppm thats effectively zero and of no risk to your fish. Ammonia toxicity is dependant on pH and temperature. The higher these are the more toxic your ammonia is. At a pH of 6, ammonia, no matter high it gets wont ever be toxic. An ammonia reading of any level is a sign your cycle isnt established properly, but at such a low level in acidic water, its not a concern.

Can you give some more details about your tank? How big is it? How long has it been established? Whats a typical water change schedule? How much, how often? You mention water parameters taken after your water change, but do you know what they are before a water change? Parameters after a big water change will just tell us what your tap water is, not whats happening in the tank.

 

[Zushley]

Reply

I don't remember the exact measurements of this specific 20 gallon but it's been up and running for 3 months.

I'm going to test the tap water with the API freshwater master test kit and get back to you on whether or not there's an issue with the tap water or not.

Also I usually do a water change weekly but sometimes I get busy and am unable to perform a water change exactly every week.