Bloom'in Marvellous!

[mattjohnson]

Afternoon All,

New to the site, although I have been reading from a distance on and off for a while.

I recently set up my new tank, new gravel, filter, heater - de-stressed and neutralised the water, and introduced all the plants and a few little bridges etc from my other,smaller tank.

After a few days I introduced the fish, they are getting on really well and seem to love the space they have now.

Problem is, after being in the tank for a day I have had a massice bacteria bloom, now i understand why it has happened and I have tried waiting for a week and stil no change,

My question, i still have the gravel (uncleaned) from the old tank, could I net some of this and drop by the filter, would this have any benefit to help speed up the correct bacteria growth of is it too late now?

Cheers in advance.

matt

 

[Flagtail]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
If I were you, I'd contiune to do water changes and try to siphon most of the wastes out of the gravel. Do about 50-70% waterchanges.
This should add clean water of course, when you add the fresh water. Make sure you check the P.H, ammonia, and nitrates.

 

[mattjohnson]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
If I were you, I'd contiune to do water changes and try to siphon most of the wastes out of the gravel. Do about 50-70% waterchanges.
This should add clean water of course, when you add the fresh water. Make sure you check the P.H, ammonia, and nitrates.

I read on another thread that this would have no real effect as the bacteria can multiply too quickly, I have invreased airation of the water, also used some accu-clear this evening, this seems to have helped slightly.

I do need to check ph and other lvls sometime soon though, need to scrape some money together first, god those kits are expensive lol.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum MattJohnson.
You have come to the right place here. Gravel may or may not have any benefit for your cycling filter. If you have been using an undergravel filter, the gravel from your old tank is an important source of the beneficial bacteria that you need in the new filter. If you have been using some other form of filtration on the mature tank, the media in your old filter is a far more important source of bacteria to populate the new filter.