Bacterial Bloom

[rosydee]

I upgraded my tank to a 12 gallon (48L) fluval edge tank around christmas. i did a fish less cycle using biomax and media and small amounts of water from a cycled tank. i added my fish and all was well...no deaths. a week later the water turned cloudy. i have done water changes to no avail. i recently have removed a very thick gravel base (about3 inches high) to about 1.5 inches and have thoroughly vacuumed a large quantity of debris and also recovered 10 small fry! the tank is very clean. my levels are good. Ph 6.4, 0.25 ppm ammonia, 0 nitrates, 0 nitrites. (using an api test kit) i've cut down feeds to once a day. i have rinsed out the filter components which had a light brown film, but rinsed out the sponge in the tank water that i was dumping. i keep the tank at 77 degrees. I have the following fish: 4 rummy nose
6 neons
3 zebra danios
2 honey gouramis
3 white clouds
2 livebearers
2 rasbora
6 fantail guppies

it has been 3 -4 weeks of looking at a cloudy tank and its disheartening. all of the above i have gleaned from this forum, so i am hoping for some help! what am i doing wrong? i think i have too many fish, but they were all fine in the old smaller tank.

 

[Prime Ordeal]

You would be overstocked if this were a really mature cycled tank, but it's not, so it' even worse.

You say your water parameters are good but ammonia should always be zero. It's clear that initially you had a very dirty tank and that would have exacerbated the problem.

The water parameters show that the tank is not cycled.

The solution: reduce your stock to no more than 15 fish (of the type yo have at the moment).

Then you are still in a fish-in cycle and you need to be changing water daily by a large amount, probably 50%, twice daily, until the tank cycles.

 

[rosydee]

i will try reducing the stock. each time i change the water should i use the seachem prime and also add cycle? nutrafin cycle or biozyme? what should i expect to see if the tank is cycling? will the bloom dissipate? thank you, btw!

 

[Prime Ordeal]

The objective with fish-in cycling is to always keep the ammonia and nitrite below 0.25ppm. To do that, as I said, you have to make regular water changes daily and yes, you have to add Prime (or an equivalent) each time you add new water. Hopefully that's what you've been doing anyhow as if not it affects both the filter and your fish, unless you're one of the few who has no chlorine or chloramine in their supply water.
Eventually, after some weeks, the ammonia and nitrite will stay at zero without needing water changes and the nitrate will start to rise. You are then cycled.

You can add Nutrafin cycle, biozyme or any one of the other bacteria-in-a-bottle products to help you along and it may be wise to do so given your stocking density.

Alternatively, if you can find a local fish shop or a friend who can donate some mature filter media to put in your filter, then that would provide an almost instant cycle.

The bloom will dissipate once your ammonia is under control and when you have got on top of the cleaning necessary in the tank.