bacteria bloom?

After a 10% water change my tank has become cloudy with white particales.Is this harmful to my fish?

i'm wondering what i should do next or is there a treatment for this?

my tank has been set up 2 months now and this was first water change that i used a water treatment with it.Never used one before its auqasafe by tetra.

i'm thinking of doing a 10% water change today and then every other day till this gone is this the right thing to do?

All advice is welcome.

Check you used the right dosage of aquasafe.
If it is a bacteria bloom you will need to test the water. In particular Ammonia. Do daily water changes and reduce feeding. It is also vital to increase oxygen in the water. The bacteria will consume a lot of oxygen leaving none for the fish.

A Bacteria bloom is basically loads of bacteria in the water. Not directly harmful to the fish but the cause of it is. Usually brought on by dead fish in the tank, over feeding or gravel cleaned and filter vigorously cleaned. To clean reducing the bacteria in the filter. The free swimming bacteria are feeding of the possible Ammonia and Nitrite in the water.

i did clean gravel but not filter as it says not to as per insructions till after 20 weeks then only to clean half the filters so i haven't touched the filter.
No dead fish either and i'm only feeding them once a day enough that they consume in 2 mins(flakes)
I did check dosage of aquasafe and i followed exactly.
It seems that my water has a blueish tinge to it also fish seeem to be fine.

thanks will change water later on not going to use aqua safe in case

houseofmil wrote:

thanks will change water later on not going to use aqua safe in case

I am not sure if aquasafe treats chlorine and chloramine.
If it only treats chlorine it will have Sodium Thiosulfate as the main ingredient.
If it treats chlorine and chloramine it will have Sodium Thiosulfate and a ammonia remover or a way of locking the ammonia.

chloramine is basically just chlorine bonded with ammonia. If you just remove the chlorine you are left with the ammonia. So it is like adding ammonia to the tank with the water changes.
It is possible this is what happened your tank. It's a long shot but possible.

I would still use the dechlorinator.
I should mention Sodium Thiosulfate works instantly at removing chlorine. No need to leave it sitting. I would add the required amount to a bucket then add the water. No need for buckets lying around the place.

I hope this makes sense.

i had a similar situation recently...i got the water back to normal by simply doing a 50% water change..i wouldnt worry about trating the water with aquasafe..i havn't used it for the last 6 months. fish are fine.

Nozebleed wrote:

i wouldnt worry about trating the water with aquasafe..i havn't used it for the last 6 months. fish are fine.

No offence nozebleed but IMO that is bad advice.
Chlorine and chloramine can kill not only your fish but the beneficial bacteria in the filter.

Chlorine is unstable in water so it is easily removed. Just letting the water sit for a couple of days will solve the problem. Or if you agitate or aerate the water the chlorine will dissipate quickly.
If you were topping up a pond you could spray the water across the surface creating enough agitation to get rid of the chlorine.
Chloramine is a lot more stable from a water treatment point of view.
I dont think any amount of agitation or aeration will remove it from the water. You need chemicals to break the bond between the ammonia and chlorine. Ammonia + chlorine = chloramine.
The best way is to use sodium thiosulfate to remove the chlorine (dechlorinator). That just leaves the Ammonia, so you need a chemical (sorry i dont know the name of this) that converts the remaining Ammonia to the less harmful Ammonium.

In other words a dechlorinator that treats chlorine, chloramine and ammonia is best to use.
It is relatively cheap and can save your fish a lot of health problems.

platty252 wrote:

Nozebleed wrote:

i wouldnt worry about trating the water with aquasafe..i havn't used it for the last 6 months. fish are fine.

No offence nozebleed but IMO that is bad advice.
Chlorine and chloramine can kill not only your fish but the beneficial bacteria in the filter.
.

Im sorry you feel that way...but IMO using products like aquasafe etc are not a must..i wouldn't waste the money..these products are massively overpriced and are not entirely nescessary IMO. I've not used any products with my current tank...and fish are healthy. i have kept fish for a number of years and never had problems. I have friends who feel the same way. It might be interesting to do a poll of all members.

It is a fact that the water board use chlorine and occasionally chloramines to treat the water for human consumption.

Chlorine/chloramines damage the kidneys, gill tissue and can enter the red blood cells causing a blood disorder
Leading to a bad case of deadness.

I dont think dechlorinators are expensive once you shop around.
A 500ml bottle of aqua safe would cost about €10. 5ml treats 10L. If you had 100L aquarium and changed 10% a week it would last 50 weeks.
That's nearly a year for €10.
You could also get Nutrafin aqua plus for about €30 for 2Litres. This would treat 14000 Litres.

A poll is a good idea but it's best you start a new tread rather than using this one.

i fully support Platy if you are on mains water you must use these products.

Ps i have a well and i still use it for some of its other benefits

Have to agree with Platy and Mickey here, no contest.

I have been using a product called 'Prime' since October and it works very well.

It removes chlorine/chloramine and ammonia plus detoxifies nitrite & nitrate & also provides slime coat!

It's ratio is 5ml for 200ml of water which is excellent for a similar price of its many competitors. A small downfall is its smell of sulpher when opened.

Awaiting the big cheque now from the manufacturers!!!!

It is irresponsible to tell someone that is new to the hobby not to dechlorinate the water. Chlorine is essentially a bleach.

have any of you guys had fish die because you didn't add dechlorinator?? i haven't..i simply dont believe in using it...ot say i've given bad advice is ridiculous..and as you guys have already stated chlorine (if any)will quickly dissipate in the tank..It's not true to say your fish will die because you dont use aquasafe etc..it simply not true. and the likely reason this guy has a bacteria bloom is because he's using products such as stress zyme etc..

When I started out many years ago I killed numerous fish from not dechlorinating. I was constantly killing the filter, it would rebuild the bacteria and then I would kill it again. In particular corydoras species are very sensitive to chlorine and loads died directly because of this, the rest were probably ammonia poisoning.

Not dechlorinating the water can work in very large tanks, something that a newbie is 99.9% unlikely to have. So I stand by my comment that your advice is irresponsible.

thanks guys for your imput did a water change today 25% used aquasafe so far so good water looks better tested about hour ago all levels still ok so i must be doing something right

didnt mean to start an arguement.

Nozebleed wrote:

have any of you guys had fish die because you didn't add dechlorinator?? i haven't..i simply dont believe in using it...ot say i've given bad advice is ridiculous..and as you guys have already stated chlorine (if any)will quickly dissipate in the tank..It's not true to say your fish will die because you dont use aquasafe etc..it simply not true. and the likely reason this guy has a bacteria bloom is because he's using products such as stress zyme etc..

No i have lost no fish from chlorine/chloramine because i always use a dechlorinator. Even though most of the water i use is RO i still dechlorinator.
I have lost fish from other toxins in mains water. I suspect metals.

I dont think it is ridiculous to say it is bad advice. The fact is they are bad for your fish. I would be interested in reading anything that proves otherwise.

Chlorine will quickly dissipate from the water but chloramine wont and yes the water is treated.
By the mid 1990's only 4% of the water in this country was not treated with chlorine. That 4% was well water.
All water treatment plants here monitor a minimum of 3 things constantly. Ammonia, chlorine and turbidity.
There is only one reason to monitor Ammonia and chlorine. Because they are used in the water.

It has been proven that these can be lethal to fish and other aquatic animals. You dont have to take my word for it is well documented. You should look it up. Or pick up any basic fish care book. It is mentioned in most of them.

If it is a bacteria bloom i dont think it was from stress zyme etc. He/she never mentioned using anything other than the stated dose of aqua safe.
My guess would be large fish with a lot of waste in a newish tank. The bacteria in the filter weren't colonised enough to cope so there was a bloom in the water trying to take up the nutrients. But without knowing all the details of fish, tank, water chemistry it is just a guess.

Ok let me try this from another angle.
The water in this country is not great. It's not the worst but it could be a lot better.
When water enters the treatment plant it is supposed to be separate. Sewage and rain or runoff water. Unfortunately our treatment plants are not up to Parr and on a regular basis the two of these get mixed.
The problem with it mixing is E. coli is in the sewage we produce so the level of this needs to be controlled for our drinking water.
By EU standards 0 colony forming units of E. coli should be present per 100ml of water. So E. coli is tested for all the time. It is actually used as an indicator. If E. coli is detected (it usually is) then more harmful micro-organisms may be present. an example of this would be cryptosporidium.
This is were chlorine and Ammonia are used to disinfect the water for us. The minimum contact time for chlorine is 30 min. at 5ppm
So if the water was not disinfected we would all be quite sick.
I think we are lucky to be able to add a few drops of a dechlorinator to solve the problem for our fish.

Houseofmil how are the fish now?

It is not an argument just a discussion. If we all agreed on everything then there would be little to talk about.

What were the water test results?
Did you test before or after the water change?
I would keep up the water changes untill the water clears.

Fish are good. After last water change things are good water is back to normal water is clear and tests are all ok. How long should I leave it until I introduce new fish is a month ok?

Hi,interesting debate!
i'd wait at least a week and probably two is better before adding new fish.
"prime" was mentioned and i do recommend the use of this product,just one correction it is not 5ml to 200ml,it is 5ml to 200 litres which makes it very economical and yes it just smells bad:laugh: (only from the bottle,thankfully not in the tank)
Dimitri

Can you buy this prime in any pet store ie petmamia as I won't be going into limerick till weekend

I dont know if petmania stock prime. You could give them a ring to find out.
I would use the safe start untill it was gone.
Hopefully all goes well with the tank now.

Out of curiosity...
re: Auqasafe Prime...etc.

when did these products appear on the fishlkeeping scene? how any years have they been used?
and how did people do their water changes before the products existed?

That would be before my time.
I imagine these products only came about when there was a need for them.
I remember one forum member mentioning before about buying the neat form of Sodium thiosulfate to treat the water. Maybe these off the shelf products weren't available back then.

To all ye guys that helped me over last few days hats off to ye.
You have given me the confidence to continue with a wonderful and interesting hobbie.
My tank is ok now again tanks to all of your advice.

I would advise anybody who has a problem or a question to ask to find solas in thesse people as they quite cleary know what there about.

TAKE A BOW LADS.

Regards Martin

I'm glad you are back on track Martin.
Hopefully all you have to do now is sit back and enjoy your new tank.

nothing better than watching the fish swiming around even my pleco decided to come out of his rock to say hi tonight.
On a bad not one of my tetras has vanished overnight????? checked every where no sign i'm afraid.
so now i have 1 pleco 4 tetras and 3 rosy barbs.
going to monitor everything till weekend and hopoefuly can think about introducing new stock soon.

THANKS AGAIN

An update.

Have been doing a 20%water change using aqua safe once a week for last couple of weeks all levels are correct checked it myself 2 different kits and brought samples to 2 diiferent stores to make sure all is well. a bit of an overkilll i know but not taking any more chances.

Introduced 5 rummy nose tetras on sat(day after a water change) 1 didn't make he was dead within a couple of hours after introducing them must of been stress of the change???
tested again everyday since and all levels have stayed the same.

tested again today and all is well but noticed that my pleco had died ont sure what happened to him??

thanks again for the advice just said i would give an update if anybody was interested.

Martin

houseofmil wrote:

i did clean gravel but not filter as it says not to as per insructions till after 20 weeks then only to clean half the filters so i haven't touched the filter.
No dead fish either and i'm only feeding them once a day enough that they consume in 2 mins(flakes)
I did check dosage of aquasafe and i followed exactly.
It seems that my water has a blueish tinge to it also fish seeem to be fine.

thanks will change water later on not going to use aqua safe in case

Hmmm, 20 weeks?? Thats seems like a bit of a long time to not perform some level of filter maintanence. Personally I wouldnt leave it that long but if things are going well...
Glad to hear tank is ticking over for ya .


Jay

Jay instructions are not clear enough

I didn't leave it that long have washed out media and filter in the aquarium water after doing research online found someboby with a similar setup to mine on an other forum and followed his advice and it all seems to work ok now.
Have to replace filter wool this weekend white one.