TANK ALL CLEAN!
- Thread starter TheBroc
- Start date
these pics look like bacteria bloom to me, but until a water perams are known, I agree any ones guess.
just a FYI I have a 90g and a 75g in front of windows. they get day light all day, I have no algae bloom issues. i am easy on the feeding and do fin level water changes once a week. I have more issues with the brown algae on my tanks not in the day light. neither bad for the fish, and gives the fry something to graze on. we just not like seeing it in our tanks.
There are different kinds of beneficial bacteria are there not in an aquarium? If so then any excess of the three above will cause a bacteria bloom of the bacteria that eats the one that is in excess. Now I'm not an expert but just take a look at the facts here and who looks to have made the better deduction.
You've seen me around and I don't promote not changing water and my post doesn't suggest otherwise. As a matter of fact I do 2-3 water changes a week so why would I promote the opposite of what I apply to the hobby for myself? So why are you acting like I mentioned plants as being a replacement for water changes? If you read my post all I did was mention that algae while ugly has the benefit of eating nitrates. So how does that equate to me saying people don't need to do water changes if they use plants in their set-up? All it means(which is true) is that algae can be beneficial in helping a filter control nitrates.
I said it's the nitrates which are high while you said it was the ammonia; which according to the parameters posted I was correct. Which means if both of us are correct about it being a bacteria bloom then the bloom is response to the nitrates. Isn't that a logical deduction since the other parameters are within normal limits and there's different bacteria that consumes nitrites, ammonia and nitrates? Wouldn't it then be logical to assume the bacteria blooming is nitrate eating bacteria blooming because there's an excess of nitrates available to be consumed. No offense but it would seem you corrected me unnecessarily and incorrectly on many levels. One being cause I was actually right about the parameter that was off and two because you didn't read my post correctly and managed to take away from it something I did not say nor imply.
The Broc don't do a large water change unless you see the fish are under stress(rapid gill movements, hovering at the surface,etc). Doing so will remove excess waste that's causing the bloom but will also remove the bacteria that's trying to establish itself. Your best bet is to decrease or stop feedings for a couple of days and do small daily water changes, I'd say 25%-35% but no more then 50%. The daily change will help minimize the bacteria your killing but still give you the benefit of the water change which is removing excess waste, hormones etc.
I'd also appreciate you(TheBroc) answering my other questions so I can further help you. As in a similar situation I helped Justarn get through a similar problem in his 300G running FX6's. Some of his problem was the media he was using in his filter, he wasn't using the right media to promote enough nitrate eating bacteria and once he changed it things got better.
I will consead(sp)some of what you are saying. this why i wanted perams checked. there are no nitrate eating bacteria, ammonia and nitrite yes. not nitrate. this why we have to do water changes. plants can take this in but you would have to have a 10 thousand gallon planted tank to do this. meaning a sump pond.
Creating a system that promotes Denitrifying bacteria alone in high quantities isn't easy due to the need for an area with little to no oxygen but it isn't the only way to remove nitrates as I stated earlier algae consumes nitrates, it's one of the premises which algae scrubbers and filters work under. It's also the premise that has started people on the pothos thing that took MFK by storm for awhile. I'll also say again I promote water changes because I know that currently we don't have the means to create a fully contained self sustaining system. Only coral reefs come close with their ability to utilize nearly all things available to them and with their ability to recycle nutrients(Darwins Paradox). There are however many ways to maximize the efficiency of a home aquarium set-up.
