• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Cloudy water. Too early for a bacterial bloom?

Ajm200

Member
Joined
19 Feb 2010
Messages
531
Location
London
Apologies for the dumb question but I’m confused.

I set up a little tank yesterday morning. Thinking of trying it as a breeding environment to experiment with ember tetras and Pygmy cories. (Yes, I‘ve been watching Mark’s Aquatics)

Everything in the tank has come from a mature tank or has been used in a tank previously and allowed to dry out. The tank has been used as a bucket to store the spare gravel for the past few weeks and the gravel and tank were been rinsed in old aquarium water before reuse. The compost had been used in a tank before in filter bags and had been left to dry out. The plants were all trimmed or uprooted from my other tanks and replanted immediately.

I did squeeze a filter sponge over it all when I filled the tank. When the mulm had settled in the evening the tank was clear. At that point it had no heater, light or livestock other than the snails that hitchhiked in on plants.

This morning it was cloudy again so I did a very careful water change using a saucer to ensure the gravel wasn’t disturbed and it cleared. Temperature is now 22c. Last night is was cooler

When I added the light and the botanicals this afternoon the tank water was cloudy again but there’s no water move to stir up sediment.

It seems too soon for a bacterial bloom with just a few snails in there. I usually used new substrate and some form of mechanical filtration. The last filterless tank had new substrate, fresh compost and old plants. It didn’t go cloudy.

I’ve had bacterial blooms in tanks and algae blooms before but not this early. Any ideas?
 

Attachments

  • 977F1A45-0428-4BEE-8F5E-183B508AEDF5.jpeg
    977F1A45-0428-4BEE-8F5E-183B508AEDF5.jpeg
    2.5 MB · Views: 243
Back
Top