Don't You Love These New Tank Bubbles?

Hey all,

I just set up my latest tank (4th or 5th depending on whether you count the 2G paludarium with only one shrimp). For now it's a Betta tank until I can re-home the little guy and then it'll be my blue davidiI breeding tank.

Don't you love to see all these tiny air bubbles on a freshly set up tank?

 

Oh, no I don't......................

 

Oh, no I don't......................

Ah ah like I'm gonna believe you mister 3828-messages-on-fishlore.

 

Ah ah like I'm gonna believe you mister 3828-messages-on-fishlore.

Ah ah; it's Mr.3,829-mesages-on-fishlore; for your correction. And I don't like bubbles and that's not a lie 100%

 

Drives me crazy. I actually take an algae scrubber and wipe them off the sides. lol

 

I now have a bacteria bloom I think. The water is very white / cloudy / milky. I don't remember ever having this. I used treated water and the filter is filled with biological media from another tank. Do I have a problem?

 

You shouldn't have a problem. Can you get a picture of it? I wouldn't expect a bloom less than 24 hours after filling. What are you feeding the bacteria?
Edit: Scratch the feeding question. I can see the red betta now through all the bubbles.

 

 

Oh dear, That doesn't look good. Do you have any kind of filter floss or pad that would grab fine particles out of the water column?

 

Oh dear, That doesn't look good. Do you have any kind of filter floss or pad that would grab fine particles out of the water column?

If I add filter floss I'll have to remove some bio media and there's already not a lot of it. I'm not used to nano tanks!

I have an internal filter. Aquael. 2 stages. Sponge + Bio.

It's tuned all the way down right now. I could increase flow rate or remove bio media and add floss temporarily.

 

Don't remove the biomedia. The filter floss can be thrown in just on top of the rest. It usually shrinks down and can be wedged in.

The bacteria bloom will go away in a couple of days. I would get some sort of bottled bacteria to add to your filter just for a couple of days. To kick it all into gear. But it shouldn't be too long. The bloom doesn't hurt anything, it just looks crappy. Water changes don't help, it can make it worse. You are just going to have to wait it out.

Are you sure it isn't from the sand? If you don't rinse it well enough it will cause the same cloudiness. If it is the sand then daily large water changes will help get rid of it.

 

Don't remove the biomedia. The filter floss can be thrown in just on top of the rest. It usually shrinks down and can be wedged in.

The bacteria bloom will go away in a couple of days. I would get some sort of bottled bacteria to add to your filter just for a couple of days. To kick it all into gear. But it shouldn't be too long. The bloom doesn't hurt anything, it just looks crappy. Water changes don't help, it can make it worse. You are just going to have to wait it out.

Are you sure it isn't from the sand? If you don't rinse it well enough it will cause the same cloudiness. If it is the sand then daily large water changes will help get rid of it.

Thanks.
I did rinse the sand but maybe not well enough. I'm used to using technical soil (planted tanks).
I thought it looked like a bacteria bloom so I wasn't worried but KimberlyG got me worried!
Should I really use bottled bacteria? I always have some handy just in case, but here I used bio media from another tank that has been running for more than a year so I think it should be ok.

 

I didn't mean to get you worried. It just shouldn't be that cloudy. Unless you have a really strong filter flow, it isn't the sand. That would have shown up immediately when you filled it. I was thinking it may have been the media you transfered. If it's ceramic that you have been using a while, they do degrade over time. The filter floss or pad will trap the particles.

 

I didn't mean to get you worried. It just shouldn't be that cloudy. Unless you have a really strong filter flow, it isn't the sand. That would have shown up immediately when you filled it. I was thinking it may have been the media you transfered. If it's ceramic that you have been using a while, they do degrade over time. The filter floss or pad will trap the particles.

It's a mix of eheim biological media and seachem matrix. But my other tanks don't look like these and I rinse the media regularly. I don't think it's the media degrading.

And since the cloudiness only appeared after a while, I'm going to rule out the unclean sand too.

So that leaves me with the bacterial bloom and a reassured mind

 

Sorry to worry you. That is one heck of a bloom in less than 24 hours. It caught me off guard.