Bacterial Bloom

[trooper123105]

I have a really bad bacterial bloom that has been going for a week now. My assumption is it came from my biopellets. I had extremely overdosed biopellets due to not seeing a reduction in Nitrates or phosphates for around six months of running biopellets. The readings before the bloom were:

Salinity- 1.024
Temp- 78-80
Amonia-0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- 12 ppm
Phosphate- 0.075 ppm
Mag- 1260 ppm
Cal- 440 ppm
Alk- 8 dkh

The reason I believe the biopellets started working is the Nitrates fell to 3ppm, and the phosphates are showing somewhere between 0 and 0.025, hard to tell on the test. Tank is a 180 gal with approx 220lbs of live rock, a 75 gal sump. Total water volume around 200 gal. I run an older reef octopus 8" reef octopus skimmer with an old psk 2500 pump, 2 cups of carbon in a reactor. Biopellets were extremely overdosed at 5 cups due to not seeing any sign of them working for about a 6 month period. I reduced biopellets by half. I am just asking for any help to remedy this bloom. Thanks for reading this novel.

 

[Diesel]

Leave it to be.
It will clear up by it self.
Just don't dose any thing and leave all pumps running.
Maybe reduce flow from bio-pellet reactor a lot.

 

[trooper123105]

Just curious when you say reduce flow to biopellet reactor, do you mean to slow tumble down?

 

[Diesel]

You can but you should have a valve as well to reduce the flow right.

 

[dragon99]

You can also adjust the skimmer to run wet to pull out more.

 

[Diesel]

You can also adjust the skimmer to run wet to pull out more.

Most ppl think like that but all you do is pulling more water.
The concentration of the amount of bacteria you pull out should be the same wet or dry.

 

[trooper123105]

The reactor I use has a pump attached. The pump has a valve to adjust tumble, and technically flow as well. Would you suggest slowing everything down. Thank you guys for the help.

 

[dragon99]

Most ppl think like that but all you do is pulling more water.
The concentration of the amount of bacteria you pull out should be the same wet or dry.

Can you explain? Or even better point to some research?

I'm looking, but so far I have only come up with this:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-08/rhf/index.php#21
For this reason, the most effective skimming, in terms of total organic removal, comes from removing somewhat wet foam, rather than waiting for this same wet foam to drain prior to removal. The primary difference between wet foam, and drained dry foam, is that additional water and some organics have drained away.

 

[Diesel]

I'll tag Todd in here he can explain.
@twilliard

 

[BluewaterLa]

Can you explain? Or even better point to some research?

I'm looking, but so far I have only come up with this:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-08/rhf/index.php#21
For this reason, the most effective skimming, in terms of total organic removal, comes from removing somewhat wet foam, rather than waiting for this same wet foam to drain prior to removal. The primary difference between wet foam, and drained dry foam, is that additional water and some organics have drained away.

Protein skimmers will pull some of the bacteria out of the water column but not as much as we hope.
By design and function Protein skimmers remove dissolved organics from the water, mainly the proteins left over from fish foods and the fish waste products as well as other items that may break down in the tank of organic nature.
These substances are by nature will gather, attatch or float to the top of the skimmer chamber and into the collection cup in the foam that is produced.
Running your skimmer dry or wet doesnt make much difference as long as the skimmer isnt removing too much water and not enough skimmate.

For removing the bacteria in the water, I would suggest a large water change in the 50 percent range if you want to see a large difference quick as this will remove a large portion of the bacterial bloom. If the source of the bloom is the bio pellets then you can slow the flow in the reactor or take the amount over what is needed out the reactor and the bacterial bloom will go away in a few days or a week or two.

Nothing is being harmed in the tank with the bloom, the only Concern would be the amount of oxygen the bacteria will consume.
You may want to run a power head across the surface of the tank to help with air /water oxygen exchange.

Good luck and happy reefing
BluewaterLa / Mike