Bacteria Bloom?

FireEMT · Jan 22, 2016

I think I may have a bacteria bloom. My water has been getting cloudy over the last couple days. I tested all my parameters again this morning and they were Alk = 8.01, Ca = 420, Mg = 1400, NO3 = 2, PO4 = 0.00. I am in the middle of a diatom bloom and I added a clean up crew in the beginning of the week. I just changed out my carbon a week ago and everything seems to be healthy. What should I do, should I do another water change or should I just let it be. The skimmer is producing good skimmate and I change out the filter socks every couple of days. Any help would be appreciated.

silent_circle · Jan 22, 2016

Do you carbon dose?

FireEMT · Jan 22, 2016

silent_circle said:
Do you carbon dose?

No, I run GFO and Carbon and Skim. Thats all I have had to do so far. I only have 3 fish and the clean up crew in there right now and the tank is around 150g.

bevo5 · Jan 22, 2016

Usually clears out on its own. I've found that water changes don't really do much.

FireEMT · Jan 22, 2016

bevo5 said:
Usually clears out on its own. I've found that water changes don't really do much.

Do you know what causes it and is there anything that I could have done different. On ReefBum's youtube channel he had the same issue and he ran a UV light which got rid of the problem right away. I don't really want to run a light.

silent_circle · Jan 22, 2016

Got pics? Perhaps your cuc is stirring up your sand?

FireEMT · Jan 23, 2016

silent_circle said:
Got pics? Perhaps your cuc is stirring up your sand?

Here is one from today, its a little hard to tell that its cloudy but it is slightly. Definitely noticeable compared to how crystal clear it was a couple days ago. I only have two tonga fighting conch that stir up the sand bed which I don't think is enough.

bevo5 · Jan 23, 2016

That's a slick set up man. Nicely organized stand.

I bet you'll be fine in a couple days. Things usually clear up on their own. But somebody else might have a better idea of what to do...I'm by absolutely no means an expert on any level.

Is that a vectra pump? How you liking it?

steiger33 · Jan 23, 2016

Wow that is a sweet setup

silent_circle · Jan 23, 2016

Do you have turbo snails? I had some one time and they would sit and spray white stuff to mate. Clouds the water.

biom · Jan 23, 2016

Don't worry, slight temporary cloudiness is normal during the period tank is cycling. UV light is not advisable in first weeks of tank cycling. Usually adding some denitrifying bacteria helps. Very nice setup indeed.

FireEMT · Jan 23, 2016

biom said:
Don't worry, slight temporary cloudiness is normal during the period tank is cycling. UV light is not advisable in first weeks of tank cycling. Usually adding some denitrifying bacteria helps. Very nice setup indeed.

Great, I hoping it will go away on its own. Its been a month since I added Dr. Tim's One and Only and I'm hoping this is just part of the cycling process. I would like to wait a little longer to do another water change since its only been 2 weeks and all the perimeters are good.

biom · Jan 24, 2016

FireEMT said:
Great, I hoping it will go away on its own. Its been a month since I added Dr. Tim's One and Only and I'm hoping this is just part of the cycling process. I would like to wait a little longer to do another water change since its only been 2 weeks and all the perimeters are good.

Sounds like good plan, water changes usually don't help in cases of bacterial bloom, in contrary minerals from fresh mixed water could fuel bacterial growth.

ReefBum · Jan 24, 2016

FireEMT said:
Do you know what causes it and is there anything that I could have done different. On ReefBum's youtube channel he had the same issue and he ran a UV light which got rid of the problem right away. I don't really want to run a light.

When a bloom occurs you want to oxygenate the water since the bacteria will consume a lot of oxygen and stress out the fish, potentially killing them. I increased flow near the top of my tank to get more surface agitation and increase gas exchange. Water changes are probably not going to help a lot since the "bad" bacteria causing the bloom can reproduce very quickly. I didn’t see any improvement after I did a large one. However, cleaning the filter socks more frequently, vacuuming the gravel to remove detritus and not overfeeding the fish should help.

If you want a quick resolution, then another way to go is to use a UV. I did temporarily install a UV on my system and it knocked out the problem in 2 days. However, you do need to find the source to keep it from reoccurring, no matter which method is used.

marine2463 · Jan 24, 2016

Just let it be it will clear up on its own. I was going through this about two weeks ago , like said above more surface agitation and run the skimmer a little wetter.. You will wake up one morning and it will be crystal clear

doubleJ48fan · Mar 24, 2016

I believe I am having a bacterial bloom also. Water became slightly cloudy overnight. Parameters are on point. Tank has been up and running for 1yr, never had a problem. I have a 180gal tank. When I noticed the cloudiness I put some carbon bags in the sump socks, cleared it up almost overnight, but the cloudiness returned within a few days. HELP!!

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 24, 2016

doubleJ48fan said:
I believe I am having a bacterial bloom also. Water became slightly cloudy overnight. Parameters are on point. Tank has been up and running for 1yr, never had a problem. I have a 180gal tank. When I noticed the cloudiness I put some carbon bags in the sump socks, cleared it up almost overnight, but the cloudiness returned within a few days. HELP!!

Can you list everything you are dosing?

Bear in mind this is an aesthetic problem, but isn't hurting anything.

doubleJ48fan · Mar 24, 2016

The only thing I dose manually "Fuel"

doubleJ48fan · Mar 24, 2016

My parameters are stable, I don't named to dose Cal or Alk as of yet..

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 24, 2016

Aquavitro Fuel certainly has a lot of organic matter that can drive a bacterial bloom, so if the bloom does not go away, I'd consider dosing less or none of it for a while to see what happens.