Bacteria Bloom

[Adam M]

Hey I wanted to see if any one had any tips regarding a bacteria bloom. I'm pretty sure I've got a massive one going. Here's a little history

Tank is 125 gallons and about 4 to 5 years old but I wanted to change my sand bed and re-scape. Two to three weeks ago I pulled out all fish, coral and live rock. I completely drained the tank, got rid of the old sand and cleaned the inside of the aquarium. I put in brand new pink fiji sand unwashed but I only placed about a half to one third of my live rock back into the tank because they were covered in red mushrooms and I wanted to get those out of my tank. I assumed my bioload would be okay because I didn't clean the sump to keep the benefical bacteria in there. (I'm pretty sure this is were I screwed up) Everything was going good coral growing and all until about 3 days ago I started to notice a white film starting on the glass and then the tank water was becoming milky white. I've tested my water multiple days and ammonia is at 0 always and nitrates were 25 yesterday today around 10. I started running a 40 watt UV sterilizer 2 days ago and did a massive 75 percent water change yesterday. Tank was starting to clear up this morning and now by this evening it's milky white again. UV sterilizer has been running this whole time. I'm not really sure what else to do at this point. I've lost a kole tang and blue tang that I've had for probably 5 years at this point. The only other fish in the tank at this point are a copper band butterfly I've had for about 3 years and two clownfish that I started the tank with. I'm thinking of pulling the fish out at this point and putting them into a separate tank with fresh water and just give them to a good home. Any advice? Thanks.

 

[sharis100]

Reefbaum had similar issue:

Diagnosing & Eliminating Cloudy Aquarium Water - ReefBum

A bacterial bloom is a common cause of cloudy water in a reef tank. A UV sterilizer is a good way to solve the problem and clear up the cloudiness.

reefbum.com

 

[Adam M]

Thanks, yeah I think I read this article earlier. I've got my UV cranking. I will probably get the remaining fish out and put them into a holding tank with fresh water.

 

[sharis100]

Thanks, yeah I think I read this article earlier. I've got my UV cranking. I will probably get the remaining fish out and put them into a holding tank with fresh water.

Water changes are actually counterintuitive in most cases if bacterial bloom. Leave the water and make sure UV is adequate to handle volume. That worked for us.

 

[Adam M]

Cool, yeah it's unreal how fast this bacteria reproduces. I guess I should just pull the fish out and place them in fresh water?

 

[sharis100]

Cool, yeah it's unreal how fast this bacteria reproduces. I guess I should just pull the fish out and place them in fresh water?

QT tank them if they are having breathing difficulties is my recommendation and treat the water. We had the bloom with no fish in the system which made it easier to manage.

 

[Adam M]

Okay that's what I will do. Did you treat your water or just let it ride out? I'm usually against adding additives to water because I feel like time and water changes usually do the trick. In this case the water changes are definitely not working.

 

[sharis100]

Okay that's what I will do. Did you treat your water or just let it ride out? I'm usually against adding additives to water because I feel like time and water changes usually do the trick. In this case the water changes are definitely not working.

UV and filter floss

 

[Adam M]

Thanks so much!

 

[Cook]

How many pounds of live rock were in your tank in total before the cleaning? I took my 105 gallon tank completely apart and cleaned it not too long ago so I can provide some feedback. Many will recommend against doing this kind of cleaning because it is risky as you have experienced. In my case, continuing to stare at a tank I wanted to change every day was the motivator. We all know that there is beneficial bacteria in both the rock and the sand. Most of the bacteria is in the live rock. Since the old sand was completely replaced, it's possible that keeping the live rock in the tank to ensure that the tank was stable would have been a better choice depending on your answer about how much live rock in total to begin with.

Another common recommendation for those that clean the tank the way that you did is to leave the lights off for the first day and lower the intensity of the lights by 30-40% for a few days afterwards. In my case, my water was cloudy for the first 3 days with each day being progressively better until it was clear with just filter socks, no UV. If the tank is not clearing within the next 24-48 hours or your parameters spike again, you may benefit from adding some bottled bacteria to try to out compete the bad. Patience may also work just as well. I was told that when tanks are cleaned in this way, if not done cleanly to minimize any detritus that was built up within the system, a tank can crash within hours not days, so that is another reason I think that the live rock removal might have been what allowed the bacterial imbalance to occur. I did remove some of my live rock also, maybe 20 pounds, but I had 120 pounds in my tank to begin with.

 

[lmm1967]

Search for carbon sources as well. I’ve triggered blooms by leaving a bottle of alcohol open overnight near my tanks. I didn’t believe for sure that was it until I repeated it - yep, I’ve done that twice.


Be sure your skimmer is running and get your water surfaces agitating as much as possible.

keep the O2 levels as high as possible and your fish should be ok. If fish are dieing either your O2 levels are too low or you have something else going on.

I’m actually surprised you aren’t seeing ammonia. Your nitrates jumping and then dropping seems like you kicked off a cycle - which may have produced ammonia - that may have burned the gills of your fish.

has your cleanup crew survived?

 

[Adam M]

Thanks for the replies. I'm not sure how many pounds of rock I started with but I would say I took out about 50 percent or more of my rock because it was covered in red mushrooms and replaced it with dry rock. I think this is definitely were I made my mistake. Since I only had a blue tang, kole tang, copperband butterfly and two clownfish I thought I would be okay with less live rock.... I was wrong. If I had it to do over I wouldn't have removed the live rock or would have done it in much slower increments. I've got a lot of surface agitation going, skimmer and UV going 24/7. It is starting to clear but with how rapid bacteria can grow I know I'm not out of the woods yet. My existing fish did eat today (I spot fed them a few mysis to avoid waste in the tank) and they seem less stressed today. I only had a small cleanup crew but most of them are dead...

 

[lmm1967]

my personal opinion is that it is not the bacteria bloom that caused the losses of fish and clean up crew - I believe you had ammonia from a cycle.

I've had both of my 180's so cloudy you couldn't see the back of the tank (visibility less than 24") and no animals were impacted at all.

I'd keep doing what you are doing - get an order of cleanup crew headed your way and let some time pass (keep O2 up and UV running of course).

 

[Adam M]

Got ya, yeah it very well could be the issue. I did test ammonia along the way thinking that might be the problem with no detection of it in my salifert test but you never know. Thanks for the help!

 

[Adam M]

Just an update for anyone with a similar issue. Everything seems to be back to normal and good. I've had no more fish losses or coral losses beyond the first losses. It took about 5 days of running a UV sterilizer to get the water clear. Water changes didn't help. I increased flow and surface agitation in my tank and this seemed to help the fish. Thanks again everyone!