Unstoppable bacterial bloom caused by Prazi

jx.reef

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Long story short, I had to perform several 3x doses of prazi on my tank for 2 weeks to overcome prazi-resistant flukes. I finally got rid of the flukes but all of this prazi has triggered an unstoppable bacterial bloom in my tank. I've tried running the Green Killing Machine UV for a week and it hasn't helped at all. I'm also running a bag of rox and have my skimmer going. The issue I have now is my phosphate and nitrates keep dropping to 0 due to the bacteria. I dose neonitro and neophos to get levels back to 5ppm and 0.05ppm (testing with Hanna), which fuels further bacterial blooms.

I'm not sure how to break out of this loop unless I let my nutrients flatline at 0 so this bacterial bloom can burn out. However, I fear my SPS and LPS will likely drop dead if I allow that to happen. Should I take the risk and let nutrients drop?

Any suggestions on how to break out of this cycle would be appreciated!
 

Alex Cataldo

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How old is the tank? New tanks normally go through bacterial blooms. For me what worked was letting the tank mature and keeping everything stable. Another option would be to try blacking out the tank for a few days while dosing something like Microbactre 7.
 
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jx.reef

jx.reef

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This tank is only 4 months old so relatively young. However, I've had normal bacterial blooms in the past but never one like this before. Those always went away naturally or my UV would knock it back after a few days. This one is getting worse day by day and I know it was triggered by the excessive prazi doses. I'll try wet skimming to see if I can pull out some more bacteria too.
 
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jx.reef

jx.reef

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In case anyone is searches up this thread, I went out and bought a new UV sterilizer last night. The bacteria bloom has already shown marked improvement. PH per Apex has returned back to 7.7 from the 7.3 lows. I can now see the other side of the tank again! Somehow my 4 month old UV unit must have already broken...
 

fachatga

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I’ve had microbacter clean help. Good big dose for 2-3 weeks helped clear one up for me. Came back but that was my fault completely. Just something to look into. I love that product
 
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