Bacterial Bloom

[Lorekeeper]

So, a few weeks back I was given a very, very bleached LTA. My LFS had ordered it for a customer, wasn't able to take care of it, and eventually sent it my way for free to see if I could try and save it. It went well.

Until I was gone for a few days on vacation and it decided to die. So, I came home to a milky white tank that I literally couldn't see anything in. No rocks, nothing. I did an 80% WC, refilled with temp/SG matched water, and then did another 50% WC. I followed that by adding carbon, turning up the flow in the tank, lowering my temp a bit, and reducing my light cycle just a bit to help combat the algae that had sprung up.

I managed not to lose anything else. No inverts, no corals, and no fish. Corals were obviously unhappy, but nothing life-threatening.

The next morning, the tank was once again a cloudy white. Bacterial bloom! General advice is to aerate and wait it out, so that's what I've been doing. I added 10% WCs daily to my maintenance schedule as well. That was Tuesday.

Fast forward to today, and the bloom is only a bit better. Still very cloudy. Is there anything else at all I could be doing for the tank? I know patience is key, and that this is most definitely my fault by introducing the anemone in the first place, but I want the best chances of this clearing up quickly.

Parameters are as follows:
Ammo/Nitrite: 0 PPM
Nitrate: 2-3 PPM
Phosphate: 0.16
SG: 1.025
Temp: 76 (I usually run the tank at about 80, but lowered it to increase oxygenation)
Alk: 9.9

Any advice at all is greatly appreciated, as I've posted on every other forum I'm a member of and haven't gotten too much that I didn't already know. Other than from @Stella1979 . She's pretty awesome.

 

[Ranjib]

Is it always cloudy? or only cloudy for certain period (like few hours). Are you sure this is not snails spawning or something else? UV filters are effective for bacteria. But I am not very sure this is a bacterial bloom

 

[Lorekeeper]

Yeah, it's always cloudy.

The only snails in the tank are ceriths, and I'm not sure they do this, since I constantly see eggs in my tank.

 

[brandon429]

What prevents this tank from getting a 100% water change vs partial, and a total clean of the sandbed? No bacteria bloom can beat that deep clean

Is the tank too large to simply be fully cleaned vs partial cleaned? If this is +50 gallons yep that deep clean is a big job, uv would be my next guess with carbon as mentioned but that's third place to simple deep cleaning

 

[Lorekeeper]

Well, there are fish in here. I had imagined that they were very, very stressed with the death of the anemone and not being fed for a bit, so I opted to not go through the stress of netting them.

The tank is just 10 gallons (yes, way too small for an LTA, but it was just a few inches across), so it's easily 100% changed.

 

[brandon429]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/t...ead-aka-one-against-many.230281/#post-2681445

All 12 pages are a direct study in fixing your exact condition. It may not be a short read, but your tank cannot be invaded after using that science. Not by algae, not by diatoms or dinos, bac blooms, or cyano, nothing.

In a nano reef, the cure for every known invasion is rip cleaning, though there are myriad easier and simpler methods that might work. -because- filtration bacteria do not die with rip cleaning, rinsing of sandbeds, and exposure to air, you are free to have that tank fixed within the week. Fish are held elsewhere while we clean, and reacclimated. Proofs above range 1-200 gallons and the smaller the tank the easier, not harder, to keep uninvaded. Large tankers have it much harder than we do with nano reefs.


It doesn't mean rip cleaning is the only way, it's just a demonstrated method that will work if you get tired of waiting.

 

[Lorekeeper]

Thanks for the link - I'll give it a read!

Forgot to mention that this tank is already a barebottom tank.

 

[brandon429]

Good that's so much faster/easier. If it was mine in my opinion I'd just house fish aside a sec, take apart rocks and rinse externally in saltwater really well to wash off offender, then wipe the empty tank down with peroxide paper towel and set it all back up once the rocks are free of detritus per the final pages there about making sure all areas of detritus are accounted for

 

[brandon429]

If it comes back after that I'll be amazed can you post a current tank pic

 

[Lorekeeper]

So, let me get the steps straight:

1. House fish in bucket, along with coral and inverts
2. Break down rocks, and blast with saltwater until no more crap runs off of them (I'd probably scrub with a toothbrush as well).
3. Wipe tank down with a paper towel soaked in peroxide.
4. Replace with all new saltwater.

Do I have it right? Sorry if I'm being a bit extreme, but better be safe than sorry.

Here's a pic from the night after I got back:

 

[brandon429]

Yes the bottom needs to be glass clear clean when done, that's a good summary. Id still read all the others first time cleans before running/1st tank surgery is awesome. The collected works show posters who changed up the approach vs straight cleaning all collected for compare and contrast but yes that's the basic order

Reacclimate fish as if first time home, that was all new water for them too

Once complete and ran a few days for safety verification, we can link to the thread

if you fill it back up and something still clouds we might not have rinsed well enough, get all dead material out


you can still redo water changes until it's done right, runs clear, and then put the fish in. Depending on loading, the rocks might have internal stores of detritus make sure they're cleared out.

 

[Lorekeeper]

Thanks a lot, bud. I've been searching for weeks for a good answer, and have just always been told to avoid a hands-on approach with most tanks. I understand that's probably the way to go for some stuff, but then again... seems to work well for you.

Here we go! I'll document, post pics, and update in a day or two to see if there's any return of cloudiness.

 

[ryshark]

So, let me get the steps straight:

1. House fish in bucket, along with coral and inverts
2. Break down rocks, and blast with saltwater until no more crap runs off of them (I'd probably scrub with a toothbrush as well).
3. Wipe tank down with a paper towel soaked in peroxide.
4. Replace with all new saltwater.

Do I have it right? Sorry if I'm being a bit extreme, but better be safe than sorry.

Here's a pic from the night after I got back:

Wow that's seems like a lot. I had a white out bacterial bloom and I was able to get rid of it fairly quick by dosing 2-different Dr. Tims bacterias which out competed the bad bacteria. If you're interested in this let me know. I'll find the email with instructions I got from Dr. Tims. It's a bit different than what the label says.

 

[Lorekeeper]

Wow that's seems like a lot. I had a white out bacterial bloom and I was able to get rid of it fairly quick by dosing 2-different Dr. Tims bacterias which out competed the bad bacteria. If you're interested in this let me know. I'll find the email with instructions I got from Dr. Tims. It's a bit different than what the label says.

Thanks for the suggestion, and if this doesn't work, I'll most definitely try the bacteria solutions. But, this tank is only 10 gallons, so it's just a 2-3 hour job at most.

 

[Lorekeeper]

Okay. So, I ended up not taking any worthwhile pics, but I did get everything done without any casualties. The tank is as clear as it's been since I left, and I think the remaining cloudiness is simply the "new tank" cloud.

Here's a terrible, terrible pic of the tank:

I'll update this in a few days to see if the cloudiness returns.

 

[brandon429]

Perfect yes we w link then, it's truly sharp that's well done work and doc

Now you are free to spot feed that candy coral without polluting the tank, fish can eat well, and for sure it's no loss if a light true cloud comes back, we aren't selling one offs though you can see we hit about 85% with them

We're selling a clean slate base reef system, accessible with no cloud to work from

If another quick change is required, if the bloom was a mean bac, you don't have to part clean nor remove fish, merely match salinity and temp


Your tank is accessible. And you just did skip cycle cleaning which means you have the light saber ability to command what your reef does from here on out, much easier as bare bottom I might add.

You took out the rotting mass, it's a surgical technique exactly like wound care debriding/evacuation in a clinical setting except we do it in reefs.

Above is reef surgery and it can be ran limitless to arrest any condition in reefing and any algae that happen on the rocks, independent of your nitrate and phosphate measures, they don't matter much if you'll just feed well and keep it cloudless. That's already nice rare purple rock, now it can literally breathe, yesterday it was blanketed

I'll link right now, we'll take accountability for any outcome can't wait to see in five days w be a neat update.

 

[Lorekeeper]

Perfect yes we w link then, it's truly sharp that's well done work and doc

Now you are free to spot feed that candy coral without polluting the tank, fish can eat well, and for sure it's no loss if a light true cloud comes back, we aren't selling one offs though you can see we hit about 85% with them

We're selling a clean slate base reef system, accessible with no cloud to work from

If another quick change is required, if the bloom was a mean bac, you don't have to part clean nor remove fish, merely match salinity and temp


Your tank is accessible. And you just did skip cycle cleaning which means you have the light saber ability to command what your reef does from here on out, much easier as bare bottom I might add.

You took out the rotting mass, it's a surgical technique exactly like wound care debriding/evacuation in a clinical setting except we do it in reefs.

Above is reef surgery and it can be ran limitless to arrest any condition in reefing and any algae that happen on the rocks, independent of your nitrate and phosphate measures, they don't matter much if you'll just feed well and keep it cloudless. That's already nice rare purple rock, now it can literally breathe, yesterday it was blanketed

I'll link right now, we'll take accountability for any outcome can't wait to see in five days w be a neat update.

Thanks for all the help!

The corals have actually all opened up farther than they have since the anemone died already, and the fish have already taken a few pellets each. Very happy I went through with it!

 

[Lorekeeper]

Pics, as of this morning!

 

[brandon429]

Hey that's exceptional light quality too that really pops. System responded well that's really good, candy coral and zoanthids really stand out!

 

[Lorekeeper]

Day 3, and no hint of cloudiness. No new growth of algae, either. In fact, the only algae on the tank floor is dead algae that's fallen off of the rocks.