Bacteria Bloom Not Going Away

Fairly new to the hobby. Been keeping fish now for about 3 months.

Decided to upgrade to a 50 gallon 2 months ago. I've managed to get it completely cycled. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 20 nitrates. However about a week ago the water started to get cloudy, and nothing I do seems to be solving it.

I run 2 HOB filters. A penguin 350 equipped with C360 canister filter sponges cut to fit and lined with quilt batting from Walmart. And an Aquaclear 70 with a sponge, carbon and ceramic biomedia.

I do 15 gallon water changes twice a week because I read spreading out the water changes was more work, but better for the tank.

Curious what causes these bacteria blooms, and if there's anything at all I can do to speed them along? I've been watching all kinds of videos on how to get clear water, that's where I got the idea for the quilt batting, but it doesn't really seem to help.

 

A week shouldn't concern you that much. I had one for a couple weeks. Hang in there

 

If your tank is cycled, you shouldn’t have “bacterial blooms”. I’m thinking you’re just having cloudy water troubles. What’s the current stock?

 

You need to wait it out. Bacterial bloom is a good thing, it means you are colonizing el mucho. Just relax, cloudy water 90% of the time isn't bad and goes away. Soon it will be crystal clear.

 

Curious what causes these bacteria blooms, and if there's anything at all I can do to speed them along

From what I understand, these blooms aren't beneficial bacteria, but other genera of heterotrophic bacteria that are present in trace amounts in air and water. They seem to be quite opportunistic, and will rapidly reproduce (hence the cloudy bloom) when the water parameters are appropriate and sufficient nutrients are present.

I haven't done too much reading into any scholarly literature about it, but they seem just like diatoms, they tend to appear once in a while (most often in newly cycling tanks, sometimes in established tanks), then they seemingly just return to the darkness whence they came by their own volition after a few weeks.

 

From what I understand, these blooms aren't beneficial bacteria, but other genera of heterotrophic bacteria that are present in trace amounts in air and water. They seem to be quite opportunistic, and will rapidly reproduce (hence the cloudy bloom) when the water parameters are appropriate and sufficient nutrients are present.

I haven't done too much reading into any scholarly literature about it, but they seem just like diatoms, they tend to appear once in a while (most often in newly cycling tanks, sometimes in established tanks), then they seemingly just return to the darkness whence they came by their own volition after a few weeks.

so that's not entirely accurate. They are beneficial but not in so much as the typical VOB and AOB bacterial blooms that we know and love. There are colonies of heterotrophic bacc but the cloudiness is not necessarily always that strain. It really is a function of age and what the water chemistry is. Heat and waste (even food) are a factor in the duration and intensity of the bloom

 

If your tank is cycled, you shouldn’t have “bacterial blooms”. I’m thinking you’re just having cloudy water troubles. What’s the current stock?

I'm slightly overstocked according to the calculator I've been using, but I don't think it's that bad.

 

You have a heavy stock, but it’s not awful. I’d try loading up with polyfiber and using a bag of Seachem Purigen.

 

so that's not entirely accurate. They are beneficial but not in so much as the typical VOB and AOB bacterial blooms that we know and love. There are colonies of heterotrophic bacc but the cloudiness is not necessarily always that strain. It really is a function of age and what the water chemistry is. Heat and waste (even food) are a factor in the duration and intensity of the bloom

Oops, I should've been more clear: I mostly use the term "beneficial bacteria" to refer to the nitrifying genera (e.g. Nitrosomonas, Nitrosospira, Nitrobacter, Nitrospira, etc.). While denitrifying heterotrophic facultative anaerobes like Pseudomonas can be beneficial, I usually don't refer to them under the same umbrella term because 'beneficial bacteria' is nearly always used in the context of the nitrification process.

I'm still on the fence about whether these bacteria blooms are beneficial. There are some beneficial heterotrophic bacteria (e.g. the denitrifiers Pseudomonas, Alcigenes, Vibro) but most of them seem to just be aerobic ammonifiers. There's some research about hypoxic conditions due to eutrophification and heterotrophic bacteria activity, but there's not enough literature either way (for me) to say definitively.

 

Oops, I should've been more clear: I mostly use the term "beneficial bacteria" to refer to the nitrifying genera (e.g. Nitrosomonas, Nitrosospira, Nitrobacter, Nitrospira, etc.). While denitrifying heterotrophic facultative anaerobes like Pseudomonas can be beneficial, I usually don't refer to them under the same umbrella term because 'beneficial bacteria' is nearly always used in the context of the nitrification process.

I'm still on the fence about whether these bacteria blooms are beneficial. There are some beneficial heterotrophic bacteria (e.g. the denitrifiers Pseudomonas, Alcigenes, Vibro) but most of them seem to just be aerobic ammonifiers. There's some research about hypoxic conditions due to eutrophification and heterotrophic bacteria activity, but there's not enough literature either way (for me) to say definitively.

You're refering to the pockets if anerobic bacteria that become entrapped under dense sand substrate or tight packed dirt. Theres some benefit to the non ammonifiers but on the whole there is a large amount of them that are nuisance bacteria.