What To Do About Bacterial Bloom

[ozgirl_bkk]

Hello,

I have been running a 30 gallon tank for about six months and earlier this week it had a very bad bacterial bloom. There were two causes:
1) I was way too overzealous in cleaning - gravel vac, scrubbed some rocks, and replaced half the filter media, at the same time as doing my regular weekly water change of 30 per cent.
2)The water i added to the tank had higher levels of organic material than usual - due to massive flooding in Thailand (where I live) making the water more contaminated than usual.

To combat the effects of the bacterial bloom, I did several partial water changes and stuck in three airstones but most of my tetras died. I still have 4 corys, 2 otos, 2 german rams, and two halfbeaks.

The water is much less cloudy now, but there is a white later of bacteria over all the gravel, rocks, plants (real and fake), tank decorations etc.

Because the problem was largely caused by my too drastic cleaning, I am a bit nervous about what to do next.

Should I take my rocks, plants etc out and clean them in dechlorinated water? Or just leave the tank alone and hope the horrible white film over everything goes away eventually?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[karin]

I just had one of these too due to one of my filters failing. I did daily water change as I had a nitrite spike (lost my shrimp) I also supplemented the oxygen with an airstone, dropped the water level so my filters would cause more surface disturbance, reduced feeding and put my UV sterilizer back in the tank. In 5-6 days it cleared up and the layer in the tank, which for me was clear, went away. Are you testing your water for ammonia and nitrite? You best do that as well as it is likely your cleaning threw your tank into a mini-cycle. Good Luck.

 

[Skins]

Hello,
Yes over cleaning the gravel may deplete some of the bacteria BUT changing 50% of filter media is proberly the cause of this issue. The filter is the nerve centre when it comes to beneficial bacs. When i clean my filter which is once a month, media is lightly swilled around in old tank water, filter chamber emptied and cleaned out with tank water.
Every week i will carry out 25% water change which will include a light cleaning of the gravel. Hope this helps, no doubt someone on here will give you some more advice.

Sorry did not really answer your question, my advice would be to test your water perameters first then post the results on here.

 

[the biffster]

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/342798-help-white-stuff-suddenly-all-over-tank/page__fromsearch__1

 

[the biffster]

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/342826-help-bacterial-bloom/page__pid__2853784__st__0&#entry2853784