Changing Substrate During Bacterial Blooom?

[mhschiefs97]

Well I think I am having a bacterial bloom. My tank finally hit 0 ammonia yesterday even before I did a water change. Yet my nitrates have risen since yesterday. So does this mean I am having a bacterial bloom? And if so would it be smart to change my substrate from gravel to sand now since I have excess bacteria in my tank?

 

[FishWishDish]

Are you doing a fishless cycle or are there fish living in the tank?

If there are fish in the tank, don't change to sand without taking them out of it. There was a thread on here not too long ago in which someone did this and the fish died b/c the sand does not settle to the bottom that quickly and apparently it got in the fish's gills and suffocated them.

Most of your bacteria are living in the filter media, so while the chances are you won't lose too much, I'd still look out for a mini-cycle just in case by testing the water every day for a few days after the change, just to be sure.

 

[rdd1952]

Hello mhschiefs97 and welcome to the forum.

If you have 0 ammonia and nitrite and your nitrate is rising (I'm assuming you have fish in the tank), then your tank is finished cycling for the fish you have so there isn't any excess of bacteria. There will only be enough bacteria in the tank to handle the bio-load of the fish you have. Adding more fish will result in the bacteria having to catch up and a possible mini cycle. A bacterial bloom is usually when the water turns cloudy duriing the cycling process.

Since you are considering sand, I assume that you don't have an under gravel filter. If that is the case, you can safely change your substrate without any problems from a cycling standpoint. There is only a minimal amount of bacteria in the substrate unless you have a UGF. Changing it can be done but you have to make sure you wash the sand well so that you don't get extremely cloudy water. Some people have made the change with the fish still in the tank while others remove every thing and make the change (the way I did it).

Also, I see that your "Group" is "Validating". YOu need to find the email you should have received when you registered and click the link in it to validate your membership. Otherwise, you will only be able to post in a couple forums. If you didn't receive it, check Spam folders (would have come from gmail.com). You can also have it resent here.