Does it take longer to get rid of a bacterium bloom when you do water changes??? I have been having such a headache with my tank lately and now i have a bacterium bloom going... I have done a 2 water changes in the last 2 days and it seems like every time i do a change it gets worse... do water changes have an effect on it?
water changes and bacterium blooms
- Thread starter Jeffd1979
- Start date
jeffd, can to tell us more (tank size, water parameters, filtration, inhabitants etc.)
Water changes will help rid bacteria blooms, but more importantly you need to find out what is causing the blooms to begin with.
Water changes will help rid bacteria blooms, but more importantly you need to find out what is causing the blooms to begin with.
Oh geeze i don't know where to begin...
The tank is a 37 gallon with 3 baby angels and 2 small corey cats... I have had the tank for 4 months now... The first 3 months were great.... no ammonia, no nitrate and no nitrites... had 1 bacteria bloom the 2nd week i set the tank up but that went away... A month ago my nitrate and nitrites spiked... about 3 days later they went down to 0 and the ammonia went up to about .7ppm... it has been between .5 and .7 ppm for the last month.. this is my 3rd bloom in the last month... I had an emperor 280 and just just replaced it with a 400 on thursday. i transfered the bio wheel from the 280 to the 400 as well as the filter... To top it off my ph was holding steady at about 7.2 till about 3 days ago when it tanked at 6.0 or even lower.. pee yellow in the test tube... I normally do about a 20% water change a week where i vacuum the gravel... I did a 50% water change on friday and one on sat... ph out of the tap is 7.0 but after testing today it is back to 6.0.. so i put some ph up in the tank today... I am really lost on this tank.. it is really depressing that i cannot get this thing right... I searched for anything decaying in the tank and i cannot find anything... i just don't know what to do...
btw.. i took my water to a fish store and confirmed the water conditions.. i thought it might have just been my tester..
Jeff, we need specifics to really make sense of this. What water conditioner, if any, do you use? Any other additives?
What is your tap water's pH after it has sat out in a bowl over night? Testing right after drawing it can give inaccurate results. Also, how low does your pH test measure? If it only goes to 6.0 and your water shows that level, its true pH could be 6.0 or 5.0 or 4.0....
Do you have any information on the water's carbonate hardness (KH)? KH helps buffer the water against pH changes, so it's pretty important. Most LFSs will test your water for KH if you ask.
"Bacteria blooms" are generally not related to the beneficial bacteria that populate our tanks (and the blooms are generally not bacterial, either). Frequent blooms of these waterborne microorganisms suggest the tank is not stabilizing. Could be a variety of things causing it. I'd ignore the white water for now and concentrate on stablizing pH and KH, and keeping ammonia and nitrites (if present) at low levels.
I'd be doing frequent (nightly) small water changes of 10-20%. I'd also get my water tested for KH and see what the pH of aged-overnight tapwater is. That would be a start.
Good luck,
Jim
What is your tap water's pH after it has sat out in a bowl over night? Testing right after drawing it can give inaccurate results. Also, how low does your pH test measure? If it only goes to 6.0 and your water shows that level, its true pH could be 6.0 or 5.0 or 4.0....
Do you have any information on the water's carbonate hardness (KH)? KH helps buffer the water against pH changes, so it's pretty important. Most LFSs will test your water for KH if you ask.
"Bacteria blooms" are generally not related to the beneficial bacteria that populate our tanks (and the blooms are generally not bacterial, either). Frequent blooms of these waterborne microorganisms suggest the tank is not stabilizing. Could be a variety of things causing it. I'd ignore the white water for now and concentrate on stablizing pH and KH, and keeping ammonia and nitrites (if present) at low levels.
I'd be doing frequent (nightly) small water changes of 10-20%. I'd also get my water tested for KH and see what the pH of aged-overnight tapwater is. That would be a start.
Good luck,
Jim
I had this happen and after losing fish! GRR! It got worse and worse even after huge twice daily water changes. I finally realized I neaded to clean the entire filter too. Of course not the biowheel. Problem solved! If I see a bloom after a water change I clean the filter too. After that, my water is clear....
Absolutley nothing would get rid of the slightly cloudy water I had on my old 80 gallon set up. I bought the Vortex XL diatom filter and I have crystal clear water..
I blame it on the water here since everything was tried to clear it up. It was just slightly cloudy, never real bad, but having water that seems like fresh air is so much nicer!
I blame it on the water here since everything was tried to clear it up. It was just slightly cloudy, never real bad, but having water that seems like fresh air is so much nicer!
:dance