# Strange cycle behaviour



## Brad Griffiths (9 Apr 2019)

Hi,

I am in the middle of setting up a nano planted aquarium. I’ve used 30% fresh dechlorinated water, 70% cycled aquarium water from one of my tanks. The setup is currently hardscape only as I am waiting for the cycling period to finish before I finalise the setup.

It has been filled up for three days now. Filter is on its way in the post, so for now there is just an air stone to circulate the water.

It started a bacteria bloom (wasn’t expecting one as I was using 70% cycled water), but decided id sit it out until it has finished cycling.

I come home from work today to find there’s a strange algae appearing on the glass and the water to be very yellow (the wood is releasing tannins but very very minimal so i’m putting the colouring down to the algae bloom), yesterday the water was slightly murky but colour wise was clear.

Is there anything I can do to help speed up the process, and what may have caused the bloom to happen as I am using a lot of cycled aquarium water. The filter will be here in a few days which will help.

I’ve attached some photos, thanks for any help.


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## Konsa (9 Apr 2019)

Hi
Most of the bacteria in matured tank is settled on the various surfaces arround the tank(Substrate,filter,hardscape,plants....)Very little is free floating.Adding water from a matured tank will have very little benefit at starting new one.Better add handfull of substrate ,few stones,plants or filter medium and fill with clean fresh water.Old tank water is in many cases  poluted(not only fish waste but algae spores etc etc) if anything 
Regards Konsa


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## Brad Griffiths (9 Apr 2019)

Thankyou for your information!


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## Dadofthree (9 Apr 2019)

Looks like suspended sand leave the air off for a while see if it settles


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## Brad Griffiths (9 Apr 2019)

Unfortunately it isn’t. I am using white sand and it was trickle filled, the tank was crystal clear until this bloom happened.


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## Keith GH (10 Apr 2019)

Brad


Brad Griffiths said:


> Filter is on its way in the post, so for now there is just an air stone to circulate the water.



I think this could be you cause.

Keith


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## dw1305 (10 Apr 2019)

Hi all, 





Brad Griffiths said:


> but decided id sit it out until it has finished cycling.


Are you adding ammonia?

cheers Darrel


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## Brad Griffiths (10 Apr 2019)

Keith GH said:


> Brad
> 
> 
> I think this could be you cause.
> ...




Annoyingly me too, poxy postal service delayed the delivery for some reason so everything was pushed behind schedule.


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## Brad Griffiths (10 Apr 2019)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all, Are you adding ammonia?
> 
> cheers Darrel



No chemicals added other than dechlorinator and water from one of my aquariums that has been running for about 4 years.


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## Brad Griffiths (10 Apr 2019)

Really appreciate all the feedback. This morning the algae has multiplied. Still murky, seems to be an orange “dust” (??) that’s settled on everything in the tank, including on the white sand.


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## dw1305 (10 Apr 2019)

Hi all,





Brad Griffiths said:


> No chemicals added other than dechlorinator and water from one of my aquariums that has been running for about 4 years.


Good, you can just plant the aquarium up and then transfer some filter material from your other tank. As the others have said there aren't many micro-organisms actually in the water, they are mainly in bio-films attached to surfaces. 

Often people are worried about losing nitrification if they don't continually supply ammonia, but this isn't a valid concern.

Some <"floating plants"> and quick growing stems are really useful during establishment

As soon as the plants are growing they will add stability.

cheers Darrel


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## GHNelson (10 Apr 2019)

Hi 
I would switch the lighting off till you get some cycling plants!
hoggie


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## Brad Griffiths (10 Apr 2019)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,Good, you can just plant the aquarium up and then transfer some filter material from your other tank. As the others have said there aren't many micro-organisms actually in the water, they are mainly in bio-films attached to surfaces.
> 
> Often people are worried about losing nitrification if they don't continually supply ammonia, but this isn't a valid concern.
> 
> ...




Oh brilliant! I’ll take some java fern out of one of my current tanks to get the bacteria to build up until my plants are delivered. Do you suggest I do daily water changes or leave it?

Brad


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## Brad Griffiths (10 Apr 2019)

hogan53 said:


> Hi
> I would switch the lighting off till you get some cycling plants!
> hoggie




Yeah I decided to leave the lights off this morning, i’ll be taking some established plants out of one of my aquascapes to get some more bacteria growing!

Thanks

Brad


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## zozo (10 Apr 2019)

Bacterial blooms can be rather common in not yet fully established aqaurium. It even can occur in aqauriums already running for months.. Last i experienced it myself with after 6 months of running. Whit adding some dewormer from Sera that is deluted with Ethanol. After adding this carbon source within no time it triggered a bacterial bloom coloring the water milky.. Not long there after i noticed a burgundy red velvet substance growing on the wood.
It looked like an algae, but i guess it was only a biofilm reacting, accumulating and coloring, this biofilm is always present usualy thin enough not to be seen with our naked eye.

Water changes in general do not help much, soon after the water colors milky again.. This because as long there is a food source available the bacteria can multiply by the millions in hours time. Once the food source is depleted they die as fast as the can multiply than the numbers fall back to normal. Best is to have patience and wait for the party to end on its own devices.


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## Brad Griffiths (10 Apr 2019)

zozo said:


> Bacterial blooms can be rather common in not yet fully established aqaurium. It even can occur in aqauriums already running for months.. Last i experienced it myself with after 6 months of running. Whit adding some dewormer from Sera that is deluted with Ethanol. After adding this carbon source within no time it triggered a bacterial bloom coloring the water milky.. Not long there after i noticed a burgundy red velvet substance growing on the wood.
> It looked like an algae, but i guess it was only a biofilm reacting, accumulating and coloring, this biofilm is always present usualy thin enough not to be seen with our naked eye.
> 
> Water changes in general do not help much, soon after the water colors milky again.. This because as long there is a food source available the bacteria can multiply by the millions in hours time. Once the food source is depleted they die as fast as the can multiply than the numbers fall back to normal. Best is to have patience and wait for the party to end on its own devices.





That’s very strange, I don’t usually have blooms as I use pre established media and things but I’ve never had an algae or bacteria bloom like this! Thankyou for the help, I’ll have to sit this one out and hope it dies off; may add some ramshorn or pond snails for the time being to help eat the bio film off the wood!

Thanks

Brad


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## zozo (10 Apr 2019)

Brad Griffiths said:


> That’s very strange, I don’t usually have blooms



Me neither, the one i wrote about was one of the few i ever witnessed, this one was 4 years ago.. And it was in a tank that i thought was pretty stable running. Aquariums are just small entities with a ton of different paramters in play.. Each one is different on its own.. Who can tell or predict, nobody else than the aqaurium itself and it doesn't speak in words. It often speaks in riddles without conclusive answers..


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## Brad Griffiths (10 Apr 2019)

zozo said:


> Me neither, the one i wrote about was one of the few i ever witnessed, this one was 4 years ago.. And it was in a tank that i thought was pretty stable running. Aquariums are just small entities with a ton of different paramters in play.. Each one is different on its own.. Who can tell or predict, nobody else than the aqaurium itself and it doesn't speak in words. It often speaks in riddles without conclusive answers..




Brilliant way to look at it! Almost makes me feel sorry for my aquarium now though!


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## GHNelson (10 Apr 2019)

Hi Brad
You could always squeeze the filter sponge/wool from the established tank into the new set-up!
It may be a tad unsightly, but this will get the good bacteria up and running quicker on the hardscape surfaces and on the glass!
hoggie


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## Brad Griffiths (10 Apr 2019)

hogan53 said:


> Hi Brad
> You could always squeeze the filter sponge/wool from the established tank into the new set-up!
> It may be a tad unsightly, but this will get the good bacteria up and running quicker on the hardscape surfaces and on the glass!
> hoggie




Brilliant idea. I’m not too fussed about the aesthetics at the moment as everything is a tad... orange! I’ll post an updated photo when I finish work but I’m definitely going to drop some filter media in the tank!

Thanks

Brad


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## Brad Griffiths (10 Apr 2019)

So just a little update...

Code red! Algae has taken over absolutely everything, seems to be algae “bubbles” forming over the rocks too. Hollow centre, algae shell. Almost similar to pearling algae but on a larger scale.

Would it be best to rip this all out and start again?

I have posted some photos.

Brad


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## GHNelson (10 Apr 2019)

I would Brad 
Just start again...incorporate the advise you have received over the last few days!
Good Luck
hoggie


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## Brad Griffiths (10 Apr 2019)

hogan53 said:


> I would Brad
> Just start again...incorporate the advise you have received over the last few days!
> Good Luck
> hoggie





Good idea! Luckily it’s only a little experiment nano tank. I’ll strip it out, wait until the filters arrived, use the bacteria from the filter media and plants to give it a kick start.

I appreciate everyone’s help though, hopefully it makes itself to the planted stage this time


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## Dadofthree (11 Apr 2019)

Hi just a thought for future ref for people this all happened so fast what temperature did you run at ive only ever seen this in marine and freshwater when the temperatures where very high


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## zozo (11 Apr 2019)

Looks like diatomes to me.. Strippng it down and starting over doesn't give any guarantees it not happening again in the next one. Diatomes is something you can only wait out, same story it has a food supply as long as its in there it can grow massively in hours time. And it goes away as suddenly as it came when the food source is depleted. The food source can come from the used substrate, hardscape or maybe the wood i dunno.

It is very common for new aqauriums to go through a periode of diatome infestation, it can look awfull and disheartening, cleaning all out and hours later it's back to square one. It can take weeks and in worst case scenario it can take months, but it will end at some point.

In one of my fully planted aqauriums setup 2015 i suffered a filamentous diatome infestation that took over 6 months to dissapear. It grew on everthing including the plants.. But it finaly did go away. I had days i feld like giving up, fortunately i didn't. The tank is still running today.


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