Help Please Confused Mini Cycle Or Bacteria Bloom?

[Boo1966]

Hi guys,

Please can you help with some advise,

I have a Fluval Roma 200 which had been fully cycled for 8 days and I was due to do a water change today as I had been away at Royal Ascot for two days! I left my tank in the hands of my partner and sons! I got home yesterday to be informed and see that I had a cloudy tank! My family had already done a 50% water change and added declorinator. It was very late and I had been drinking so I left the tank and did not do a water change all the fish appeared well. Apart from my family confessed they had left the tank lights on all night! Lesson one learned going to by a timer switch for my lights!

I got up today and first thing tested the water as I do each day the readings this morning we a bit of a shock as I have not seen ammonia in the tank since I transferred the fish over from my smaller established tank on 15th May.

The I also transferred established media from this tank and a kindly donated friends tank! It took about three weeks to have it fully cycled and lots of water changes! I have not added new fish and the current fish are: 6 sizzor tail tetras, 6 red eye tetras, 6 neon tetra, 2 ballon mollies, 2 platys, 2 bronze cories, 6 cherry bards and a small plec who I know will need a bigger tank and I will want one by then!

My water test results have been 0 ammonia and nitrite with 0 nitrate or 5 nitrite for 8 days before today.

Today's test showed Ammonia 0.25 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 10 ph 7.8 my ph is always about this and is this straight from the tap!

I only feed once a day and have quite a few plants and two large pieces of boxwood the substrate is very fine smooth black gravel and I have a u4 internal filter I also have an airstone and air pump.

Is this a bacterial bloom? A mini cycle? Or a results of the lights being on for about 18 hours? Am I under filtered, I have been thinking of getting an external filter? Over stocked?

Your advise and how to bring my water ammonia level back to 0 would be great! No fish appear to be showing signs of distress the water is just cloudy and now the ammonia reading.

You advise on my stocking levels would also be great!

Thanks in anticipation of your help

Theresa

I did a 10% water change and washed my filter pads out in the tank water. Is this a mini cycle? A

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

It could be a few things, one, they didn't use enough dechlorinator or when they did change the water they might have washed the filter pads too much, or third option is they disturbed too much when doing the water change.

It seems to be a mini cycle. The cloudy water could be a bacterial bloom, however thats normally associated with higher concentrations of ammonia( I could be wrong).

Do a 50% water change to bring the ammonia levels down, and test daily and be prepared to do water changes daily again.

It is hard for us to get a feel of what the tank is doing after one reading, so if you keep us posted with daily readings this would help us understand what is going on

 

[coldcazzie]

How much did they feed the fish while you were away? If they overfed that could have caused a spike...

 

[Boo1966]

Thank you for these quick replies,

I will do another water change tonight! The fish were not fed these two days I fed on bloodworms before going away and the plec on wafers. So I do not think it's this? Should I feed today be fire the water change?
Theresa

 

[waterdrop]

You are on the right track. Water changes (substrate-clean-water-change) are your friend in all situations like this and you should not be "wimpy" about the percentage of water changed (for instance, 75% often helps a lot more than 50% and remember, ammonia is much more stressful than water changing so don't fall into the mistake of being scared of water changing.)

Biofilters on new tanks are not "fully cycled" until about one year. By about 6 months they are quite mature though, and that last half year is a small refinement. In the weeks after any sort of cycling procedure (fishless or fish-in) the bacterial colonies are still fragile enough to rather easily experience a mini-cycle (whether a bloom is associated or not doesn't really matter.) As your first year goes by, the bacterial colonies will get more and more robust.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Boo1966]

You are on the right track. Water changes (substrate-clean-water-change) are your friend in all situations like this and you should not be "wimpy" about the percentage of water changed (for instance, 75% often helps a lot more than 50% and remember, ammonia is much more stressful than water changing so don't fall into the mistake of being scared of water changing.)

Biofilters on new tanks are not "fully cycled" until about one year. By about 6 months they are quite mature though, and that last half year is a small refinement. In the weeks after any sort of cycling procedure (fishless or fish-in) the bacterial colonies are still fragile enough to rather easily experience a mini-cycle (whether a bloom is associated or not doesn't really matter.) As your first year goes by, the bacterial colonies will get more and more robust.

~~waterdrop~~

Dear Waterdrop,
Thankyou for your reply, yes do gravel vac when water changing, today was the first time I have washed out the filter in the tank water I had taken out, I did not scrub it just rinsed it out as I was concerned about losing too much bacteria was that the right thing to do? And the media I was given by a friend when I set this larger tank up was put into my new filter with the sueezings from my other newly cycled tank. My friends tank had been set up for around 4 years.

Thanks for advice on tank needing to be cycled for a year before being established!

How much water change would you suggest to do tonight and should I feed before or after this water change?

Theresa

 

[The Taffy Apple]

Did you use any Bicarb Of Soda to raise your PH when cycling at all?

Terry.

 

[Boo1966]

Did you use any Bicarb Of Soda to raise your PH when cycling at all?

Terry.

Dear Terry,

No not added anything other than declorinator with every water change

Theresa