# Bacterial bloom?



## HDIXON (Jun 22, 2013)

55gal established tank, planted.

Yesterday early I thought the water looked a bit cloudy but I was in a rush. Came home and it was definitely cloudy. Ammonia showed as between .5 and 1.0.Did some gravel vacuuming, got about half the water replaced quickly. Tested ammonia about an hour later and it was around .25 or lower. I also replace the indicator fluid in the drop checker. I also cranked up the air stone. Today the ammonia tests zero as far as I can tell and the nitrates are low around 5. The water is still a bit cloudy and the drop checker still shows blue color. The CO2 has been flowing since early morning.

2 questions: since my water ammo and nitrates seem good is this situation straightening itself out? Why would the indicator still show blue?


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## testeve (Sep 17, 2012)

What color is the cloudiness? Is it whitish or greenish?

Did you recently clean the filter or add chemicals that may have killed off some of your filter media bacteria? Did you add a bunch of new fish recently? Are you missing any fish that may be dead in teh tank somewhere? It sounds, from your test results, that your filter bacteria was thrown out of whack. Established tanks usually don't start getting ammonia or nitrite spikes unless something happened to the filter bacteria. Also, with a planted tank, you shouldn't b eseeing that either.

If it is a bacterial bloom (white) caused by the filter bacteria going through an "adjustment", it should clear up in a couple days or so.

If the water is greenish in color, then you have an algae bloom called "green water". The really only effective method I know of for clearing up green water is a UV sterilizer.


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## testeve (Sep 17, 2012)

Just read your post again. Off the subject of your post, but if you have a planted tank with CO2, you shouldn't use an airstone. It is counterproductive. The airstone and turbulence it causes will cause your CO2, that you are trying to inject into the tank for the plants, to "off gas". If you have enough plants in the tank, they will make oxygen by converting the CO2, so you don't need the airstone.


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## HDIXON (Jun 22, 2013)

Yep the water is slightly white cloudy. A bit better today. I usually keep the air stone very low. I read an article on another site about the bacteria involved, 2 types, yada yada and there was a recommendation to turn up the air to aid in the restoration of the one type. All a bit above my head. Thanks for the air/CO2 tip I wasnt aware about that.

About the only thing I did differently over the last several days was that I added some algae fix. Is that stuff bad for filter bacteria?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Algae fix or other additives have been known to be bad for everything!


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## walzon1 (Jun 17, 2013)

Algae fix was most likely the cause, best to use natural methods instead of anything in a bottle. You will always have algae problems when having good lighting and co2 in a planted tank. A good environment for plants is also a good environment for algae, and they will always compete for nutrients. To rid your tank of algae you need more plants.


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## testeve (Sep 17, 2012)

Planted tanks are a balancing act. Lighting, CO2, proper nutrients in proper amounts. Too much or not enough of these three things can cause algae issues. Do some research on the type of plants you have and find out what they need to thrive, keep tweaking the combinations until you find the right one. In general terms, with more lighting you can usually have more CO2 and nutrients and vice versa. Also, when fluorescent bulbs start to get old (usually 9-12 months) they start losing their spectrum and this can sometimes allow algae to start growing. Even though the bulb is still working it isn't providing the correct spectrum for your plants any longer and needs to be replaced. Find out how many hours the manufacturer guarantees the spectrum to last and follow their guidelines.


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