# bacterial bloom



## 23nab (7 Oct 2014)

I have had my new tank set up for 4 days now and it's currently undergoing quite a heavy bacterial bloom which I expected during cycling.

I didn't expect it to be quite so noticeable. The water is quite cloudy but the Redmoor wood is covered in a white slime that rubs of when touched.

I am doing 40% water changes everyday and was planning on doing so for the first week then every 3 days after for a week then just once a week. Is this a good way to go about it? 

Plants wise they are doing okay, seeing a lot of crypt melt and a few of the Echinoduras rose and hygro pinnatedifila leaves are dying off.

My set up is a rena aqualife cube ~100 litres
Substrate is tropica capped with unipac fiji fine gravel.
Lighting is 2 x 15 watt t5 tubes and an interpet double led light strip, giving me approx 1.6wpg
co2 is through a fluval 88 system and a drop checker which is green.
Dosing tropica specialized fertiliser, which I am adding a small amount everytime I do a water change, the right thing to do or?

Is there anything I should be doing to quicken the process or help reduce the slime/cloudy water or will it disappear on its own?

thanks


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## Edvet (7 Oct 2014)

Bigger waterchanges? Do 90% each day for a week, remove dead leaves and  white slime as much as possible.


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## Tim Harrison (7 Oct 2014)

What Ed said, and get a clean up crew in there as soon as the tank is habitable to critters, Amanos will help with the white slime. Aim for a lime green drop checker at lights on and all the way through to the end of the photo period.


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## 23nab (8 Oct 2014)

have upped the water changes and the co2 levels whilst removing as many dead leaves and slime as possible! 

clean up crew wise was thinking along the lines of 4/5 ottos.. would amanos be a better option?

my tank is currently set to 27 degrees, will upping/lowering this make a difference?


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## ceg4048 (8 Oct 2014)

The OP is advised to NOT get fish or other fauna because they will not solve the fundamental problems of this tank. Fish and fauna do add more problems. If there is this much difficulty getting the tank started then there is some fundamental flaw in technique that will not be served by putting fish in the tank.

The tank is only 4 days old. A very foolish maneuver to add fish.

Lower the temperature of the tank to 22 deg.C There are lots of benefits to this such as increase in CO2 availability and suppression of algae. A bacterial bloom is a good thing. Allow it to run it's course and have patience.

Cheers,


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## Tim Harrison (8 Oct 2014)

23nab said:


> clean up crew wise was thinking along the lines of 4/5 ottos.. would amanos be a better option?



Many of us use both along with other shrimps such as cherry's, they graze in different ways so it all helps to stave of the algae menace. Obviously, like I've already mentioned, wait till the tank becomes habitable.
The recommended stocking levels for amano shrimp is around 1 for every 5 -15 L of water. As for ottos Seriously Fish recommends they be kept in groups of at least 6, but in a tank your size they would need their diet supplementing with additional vegetable matter. 
Personally, since my tanks have always been around 70 L I've kept them in smaller groups of around 3 and they seem fine and for the most part self-sustaining. They've never really been interested in any food I given them.


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## 23nab (10 Oct 2014)

water is near crystal and removing slime everyday is helping too! cheers for the tips fellas


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