awwww what the heck?

[russ-iv]

ok so this morning i woke up to my sponge filter dislodged from the baffle and clogging the return pump. cloudy white water evident of a bacterial bloom, however i figured "whatever" and put the sponge back.

thats when i noticed my pump is sucking harder than usual. i mean A LOT more. i put some acrylic stoppers in there to stop the sponge from getting sucked back up but this is very noticeable.

all fish accounted for, but maybe a snail?

anyway. i put in a fresh new load of carbon and went to work.

come back and this bacterial bloom is worse than when i first started the tank. "what is going on?".
ive relocated corals that i can to my spare, ran some tests and nothing is giving me any clues. except the pump.

parameters
0 ammonia
4 nitrate
.01 phosphate
1480 mag
7.4 alk
445 calcium
1.025 salinity

of course we all love pictures... ive moved 90% of the corals but this is what ive got.

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i plan on inspectig my return pump and doing a bit of a water change, however i am unfamiliar with maintenancing this pump.

it is a dolphin diamond amp master 7250. (basically a glorified pool pump)

.....more to come

 

[ghbrewer]

So the pump is pulling and pushing a lot more water than usual?


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[russ-iv]

ghbrewer;1053722 wrote: So the pump is pulling and pushing a lot more water than usual?


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yes. a ton more.

update:

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clear.

something weird is up. while i got this guy out. is there anything i should do maintenance wise?

here is the back.

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[jbdreefs]

Something doesn't make sense.

Does the pump run to a manifold? Maybe one of those lines could be clogged? Just trying to think of reasons why it would push more water.

Maybe something is lodged in the return line, therefore increasing the flow to your auxiliaries. While unlikely, maybe this could cause a redirection of flow that ultimately decreases head pressure and therefore increases the total flow. Yeah I am stretching. Just trying to throw out ideas.

Good luck!

 

[russ-iv]

JBDreefs;1053729 wrote: Something doesn't make sense.

Does the pump run to a manifold? Maybe one of those lines could be clogged? Just trying to think of reasons why it would push more water.

Maybe something is lodged in the return line, therefore increasing the flow to your auxiliaries. While unlikely, maybe this could cause a redirection of flow that ultimately decreases head pressure and therefore increases the total flow. Yeah I am stretching. Just trying to throw out ideas.

Good luck!

ideas are good! im looking for them. so far all lines are clear. manifold clear. ill check the top return Ts.
im with you. something is really really weird!

i mean a bacterial bloom of this proportion is for new tanks. even then... it barely got this cloudy. like someone dumped a bottle of the juice (vodka) in my system or something died i didnt introduce.

 

[russ-iv]

ok update.
i figured it out. im having some sort of white slime outbreak. the reason my sponge got sucked in was because it clogged all the pores in a hurry. i may have misdiagnosed the extra "pulling" of the sponge because of this.

need to read up more on this as i havent encountered this kind before.

looks like this on my lower rocks

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[bulkrate]

Maybe set your skimmer to run a little more wet than usual & bust out the siphon tube suck out the bulk of that bloom?

It's odd... most of those parameters are in pretty good shape provided they're stable. Did you have anything set to run a controller-based doser that may have gone haywire?

 

[russ-iv]

BulkRate;1053802 wrote: Maybe set your skimmer to run a little more wet than usual & bust out the siphon tube suck out the bulk of that bloom?

It's odd... most of those parameters are in pretty good shape provided they're stable. Did you have anything set to run a controller-based doser that may have gone haywire?

yeah i checked those. parameters are rock solid as my doser is dialed in pretty tight. no skimmer. if i wanted to kill it in a hurry im sure bringing my uv back online would get rid of it. however, my nutrient or whatever is out of whack would still remain and i would be masking a problem.

supposedly this infects tanks as an airborne bacteria that is accelerated under alcoholic mist deodorizers or cleaning products.
the only thing i can think of is when i used my vicks vaporizer a week ago with vaposteam solution. but that is a sizeable stretch.

i did a water change and got most of the "goop" out but it seems ill have to stay on top of it.

ime this is a heavy carbon dose of some sort.

another thing to note is i have had 0 nitrate for a week. i waited until the corals started to pale before turning my doser back on for nitrates again. maybe during that week certain carbons accumulated with the lack of nitrate to break it down.

just thinking out loud

 

[russ-iv]

update:
lost a blue tenuis to the bloom. everything else is fine and back in the DT. water changes and carbon fixed it up pretty quick.

what a freak bloom though. no amount of carbon would have subsided it in the first 24-48 hours. it was intense.
thankfully frag tank and spare could accomodate what i had.

 

[ff337]

Why don't you run a skimmer. Just wonderin.

 

[russ-iv]

FF337;1053856 wrote: Why don't you run a skimmer. Just wonderin.

sponges, tunicates, fan worms, 0 nitrates and phosphate, semi-cryptic fuge.
i may get one for blooms though. ime no amount of carbon or skimming will get rid of a bloom, but it will grab the film it leaves behind.

also. there are a ton of misnomers about the hobby and the skimmer being absolutely needed was one i wanted to test. i guess just something different to test the pros and cons of.

"is it really needed?"

my last 220 was by the book. skimmer, pellets, gfo, etc. was also a hassle changing media. this round im going KISS. (keep it simple stupid)

dont get me wrong. there are times i thought during a bloom (man if i just had a skimmer) but they pass and as the tank ages will be a thing of the past (short of user error).

i am surprised i got a white bloom this late in the game though. but then again my tank hasnt hit the year mark yet.