# bacteria bloom ?s



## Adz1 (Apr 21, 2010)

what causes bacteria blooms?
can they be controlled?
is the re any way to stop them.
how to remove the cloud from the water?
thanks in advance.
gonna test water now will put up results when finished.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Ammonia spike and excessive nutrients in the water column. Did you increase the bioload, clean out a filter, or change something major in the tank recently? Or maybe a fish died?

UV, water changes, lowered feeding will all help, along with polishing pads or diatom filters to extract the particulates.


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## onefishtwofish (Apr 21, 2010)

mmmm....was it you with that big pesky blue dolphin...if so, that is likely the cause and it should be removed to my tank asap.......


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## Adz1 (Apr 21, 2010)

onefishtwofish said:


> mmmm....was it you with that big pesky blue dolphin...if so, that is likely the cause and it should be removed to my tank asap.......


no, no pesky blue dolphins hear.
no fish death either Gary.
seems both my big tanks are doing it all of a sudden.
bioload is definatley not the issue.

tank #1 is 110g tall with fx5 for filtration.
biggest change was several mnths ago gravel to 3m sand.
occupants are 2 tiger oscar 8"s and 2 severums 7-8".

tank #2 is 150g with fx5,ac110 and fluval4 internal.
occupants are 14" flagtail, 4 severums 3-5", pbass 7", geophagus 7" and the head stander.
only change is removal of 14" bala shark.
also change over from gravel to 3m sand several mnths ago.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Hmmm....that's interesting, since there are no big changes. The substrate change, if it caused a problem, would have happened already. Have you changed the type of food you're feeding at all? Added lights?


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## Adz1 (Apr 21, 2010)

2wheelsx2 said:


> Hmmm....that's interesting, since there are no big changes. The substrate change, if it caused a problem, would have happened already. Have you changed the type of food you're feeding at all? Added lights?


i have changed the food a bit.
i am feeding more blood worms and frozen tilapia.
and less commercially store bought food.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Could be the frozen tilapia. When the fish are feeding does it break apart and leave meat particles lying around? This was the same thing that Ben_mbu was experiencing as he started to feed with market shrimp.


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## Adz1 (Apr 21, 2010)

2wheelsx2 said:


> Could be the frozen tilapia. When the fish are feeding does it break apart and leave meat particles lying around? This was the same thing that Ben_mbu was experiencing as he started to feed with market shrimp.


it does do that but it would only explain one out of 2 tanks.
the 110g only gets cichlid gold pellets and nls large .


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

The other possibility I have heard of is a water supply increase of chlorine (and owners using insufficient dechlorinator or none) causing a die-off of the bacteria colonies in the filter. I assume you use tap water and prime for you water change so it shouldn't happen.....


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## Rastapus (Apr 21, 2010)

The Chlorine levels in the LML are so low, even if increased it would be unlikely they would have that effect. What are the water parameters like? It may very well be something else causing the condition and not bacterial. Any imbalance can cause cloudiness.
What is your Nitrate, KH, GH and pH levels?


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Rastapus said:


> The Chlorine levels in the LML are so low, even if increased it would be unlikely they would have that effect. What are the water parameters like? It may very well be something else causing the condition and not bacterial. Any imbalance can cause cloudiness.
> What is your Nitrate, KH, GH and pH levels?


You're correct Grant, but it depends on how close you are to the secondary treatment plant. At a VAHC meeting it was discovered by a member who lives close to a secondary plant that his house had 7x times the normal amount of chlorine. Enough of an increase that it killed his biofilters. The VAHC members here can maybe elaborate (I'm not one, but I was told this by a VAHC member).

I'm not sure where the treatment plants are out in Port Moody and just thought I would throw that out there.


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## ibenu (Apr 21, 2010)

I use to get bacteria blooms after water changes, Now I switch off all filters while I do change and I add prime directly to tank, running python from tap, when its all full I swish again after adding another shot of prime, If we shouldnt use tap water to clean filter sponges it shouldn't go directly in contact with your sponges in canister I figure>

Problem has been solved for me. That being said, we have had a lot more sunny days, do your tanks get any even indirect light from windows?


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## Rastapus (Apr 21, 2010)

Interesting. We top up all our systems by filling the sumps. All this water goes directly into the pressurized bio filters. Although it is being dechlorinated, there is some interaction there. I have never had a biological or algae bloom in a system. I contribute the stable hardness levels to this. We also perform huge water changes to the pods. No problem.


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## Rastapus (Apr 21, 2010)

2wheelsx2 said:


> You're correct Grant, but it depends on how close you are to the secondary treatment plant. At a VAHC meeting it was discovered by a member who lives close to a secondary plant that his house had 7x times the normal amount of chlorine. Enough of an increase that it killed his biofilters. The VAHC members here can maybe elaborate (I'm not one, but I was told this by a VAHC member).
> 
> I'm not sure where the treatment plants are out in Port Moody and just thought I would throw that out there.


That would have to be very high. For those of you who have heard of or used a med called "Lifeguard" it is actually Chlorine tablets that slowly release into the water column. IT has shown to have significant effect against parasites. To destroy the bacteria in the filter, that would have to be VERY high levels.


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## bonsai dave (Apr 21, 2010)

I would try and age your water before a big water change. That way you can get the right perimeters and it won't be such a problem. Have you changed the water conditioners you use? I had problems with in the pass with false reading when i changed water conditioners..


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Rastapus said:


> That would have to be very high. For those of you who have heard of or used a med called "Lifeguard" it is actually Chlorine tablets that slowly release into the water column. IT has shown to have significant effect against parasites. To destroy the bacteria in the filter, that would have to be VERY high levels.


Yeah, I'm not sure either Grant. I've never actually experienced these chlorine spikes myself, so I can say for sure. I was just throwing out theories to test.

As for Lisa's post, it seems to have merit, but I've always shut off all filters to do my prune, mist excel, clean the glass etc, so I've never tried a water change with the filters running.


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## Adz1 (Apr 21, 2010)

well after some water tests on the tanks in question I'll be heading in to Island pets tomorrow for some stuff.

----- 110g -- 150g
GH - <20 -- <20
KH - <10 -- <10
PH - 6.0---- 6.0
Nh3/Nh4- 0 -- 0 
No2- 0---- 0
No3- N/A -- N/A


thanks for the responses every one.


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## Meum (Apr 21, 2010)

This issue has been on my radar a lot lately too since I keep snails and recently started using CO2 for the first time. My water in the tanks is usually quite stable at 7.0 and the tank to which I added CO2 dropped down to 6 from the get-go. I added a half dose of CaCO3 tonite and my PH came up to 6.2-6.4. I will add the rest of the dose tommorow and see what the effect is. I suppose I still need to address the issue of GH though. Man, I just never thought I would have cause to regret skipping out on Chem class in high school. 

Whoops, I thought I was posting this in the thread about soft water in BC. Sorry.


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