Bacteria Bloom: How Aggressively Should I Respond?

[simonero]

I have a well-established, planted 20gal tank.  In the last couple days I had an intense bacteria bloom that I did not get in time to prevent blowing up...  One of my apple snails died and also apparently my apple snails don't love kale; so, instead of the kale getting eaten, the tank very quickly became disgusting.  I checked the water the day before this began and it was perfect - I'll be checking again tomorrow.
 
I've obviously done a partial water change, and I've also rinsed out the sponges on both filters I have running so they can continue collecting debris.
 
How aggressively would it be ideal for me to respond to this?  Would daily water changes (I do weekly otherwise) be best, or should I do a massive (50%+) water change and remove all plants temporarily (even though it's snail food!) until this is cleared up?
 
Also, my apple snail (aka conveyor belt) is still nomnoming on everything.  Is this harmful for her to eat?  I have a tank I can move her to, but wouldn't want to move her unless it was absolutely necessary for a host of reasons.

 

[sawickib]

I would just do a 50-75% water change, just to take away as much food that the bacteria feeds on as possible.
 
I would say your snail is fine, especially since its just a bacterial bloom.

 

[Byron]

If this is a bacterial bloom, it is normally harmless.  I certainly would not remove plants.  Water changes may or may not help, but here i would suggest that they would help as they will remove the "food" that the bacteria is feeding on.
 
Bacterial blooms are caused by a sudden increase in heterotrophic bacteria that occurs when dissolved organics in the water suddenly increase beyond the capacity of the bacteria to handle.  New tanks frequently have bacterial blooms because of the level of organics in most tap water, and the bacteria multiply in response.  Increasing water changes rarely helps in this situation because it is introducing even more organics.  But in established tanks, a bacterial bloom is the result of an increase in organics caused by something that upsets the biological balance by increasing the organic matter too quickly, such as overfeeding, excessive decaying plant and animal matter, excess waste from overcrowding, etc.  Here, the heterotrophs quickly reproduce by feeding on this organic matter.  This produces ammonia as a by-product, and the sudden surge in ammonia overtakes the nitrifying bacteria that need time to "catch up." Live plants help here, as they can assimilate and/or take up considerable quantities of ammonia faster.  Note that the bacterial bloom causes the rise in ammonia, not the opposite as some may think.  In this situation, removing/reducing the source via water changes can help.  I wouldn't go overboard though; I tend to do a 50-70% change as sawickib suggested, and then get back to the normal weekly 50% changes.
 
Heterotrophic bacteria appear sooner and faster than autotrophic bacteria (the nitrifying bacteria are autotrophs).  They build many of the biofilms that all bacteria use to adhere to surfaces, and they reproduce much faster, around 15 to 60 minutes, compared to hours for the autotrophs.
 
Byron.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The one hidden danger in a bacterial bloom is that the bacteria involved aerobic which means they use oxygen. The bloom can be fed by ammonia/organic wastes but it is not the risk of ammonia that may kill, it is the drop in the oxygen content of the water. Therefore beyond changing water etc. you may need to add more surface agitation by changing spraybar positioning, adding a temporary hang on filter or using an airstone.
 
Not only can bacterial bloom removed Do from the water, algae blooms can do so as well.
 
Also, if you have not already done so, vacuum the tank to remove excess organic wastes from the surface of the substrate.

 

[simonero]

Thanks you guys, you were all really helpful!
 
I have one more question based on what Byron said about plants.  Yea, the reason I removed some of my plants (mostly java moss) was because they were all mixed up with the bacteria and kale.
 
I have what feels like a never-ending supply of java moss in another tank.  Would it actually be helpful to put more, "fresh" plant in my problem tank?  

 

[Byron]

Thanks you guys, you were all really helpful!
 
I have one more question based on what Byron said about plants.  Yea, the reason I removed some of my plants (mostly java moss) was because they were all mixed up with the bacteria and kale.
 
I have what feels like a never-ending supply of java moss in another tank.  Would it actually be helpful to put more, "fresh" plant in my problem tank?  

 
Java Moss that has algae is a mess, and I would remove this moss.  As for using nutrients like ammonia, moss is not the best plant as it is relatively slow growing.  Floating (surface) plants are best, along with fast growers like stem plants.  Swords are also good as they are heavy feeders.
 
Byron.