# Too much bacteria



## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

Hey

I have been having problems with my 29 gal tank these days. And in the last week or so, the bacteria population of the tank increased to problematic degrees. (I have had boifilm issues before, but it was easily delt with decreasing excess food, weekly water changes and increase in O2 level and current in the tank. This time, it is uncontrollablely problematic).

I can't post any pics of the thing right now, but every surface (leaf, glass, rocks) are covered with a 2mm thick layer of bacterial boifilm. In most places, the mushroom dot is clearly visitble with the naked eye.

The problem actually caused my Eheim 2215 to decrease in flow rate (never had a similar problem in the 1.5 years I have had this thing). When I opened it up, there is a thick layer of slim/bacteria at the bottom of the filter. After the clean, it only took another 2 days for the flow rate to visibly decrease again. I know having a bac imbalance is normal in a 4 week cycled tank, but this is rediculous.

The ammonia and nitrite are both at 0, nitrate is under 10ppm and pH of 7.6. temp is at 76F

The tank is filtered with the 2215 and a Eheim aquaball (mainly just for current and aeration).

The stock: 1 L260 2", 2 L340 1", 8 cories <1", 1 betta male 1", 2 betta female 1" and about 20ish red cherry shrimp. (There is no change in stock these days other than the addition of the L260 about 4 days ago)

Filter media in Eheim: ceramic cylinders, 3 blue sponges, the Eheim boimedia and 2 white course filter pads. (Could the decrease in flowrate be due to the fact that I stocked the media inproperly? as in too many blue sponges and course pads?)

I tried to keep an eye out on not overfeeding, but having mainly plecos and cories, its hard to control how long to leave the food in there.

Any suggestions? (sorry for the essay)

Thanks VERY MUCH in advance


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## ksimdjembe (Nov 11, 2006)

bacteria in large amounts is a good thing. and when in the right amount, they tend to give the readings you have....
the description does not sound like bacteria to me. bacteria are normally not visible to the naked eye in the aquarium.
maybe slight bioload increase has lead to a brown algae, dust algae outbreak? I would need to see pics really though.


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

Algae, to be honest, that actually slipped my mind. 

And now that I look at it, it does look like a brown algae problem. I took some pics, and ill post them once I find my card reader.


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

Here are some pics, and the more I look at it, the more it looks like brown algae.....wonderfulll....


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

It doesn't appear to be brown algae to me. It looks more like Staghorn or Fuzz algae to me.


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## ksimdjembe (Nov 11, 2006)

what kind of sand is that? I have heard that some sands can trigger an algae bloom. something about high silicate levels or something. but then again, maybe not - I dont use sand so I dont know.


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

Im pretty sure its silica sand, thats why brown algae seemed logical to me. But its the sand in the pig bins in Menagerie.


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## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

High level of sillicate is supposed to trigger diatom (brown algae) bloom. The picture doesn't show any diatoms.

I used pool sand (sillicate) in one of the tanks and never had any algae bloom.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

that stuff is so bizzare hitch I have never seen it so I cant be of much help D:

i've seen the white cobwebby stuff that will grow on new pieces of drift wood but from what i am told that will go away with age. not totally sure thou.

You could try to send some pics to wTac when you get a chance and see what he says.


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## overleaf (Feb 1, 2009)

Hey Hitch,

I had the same stuff in a couple of my tanks when I first set them up. It never occurred to me until now... all of the tanks that had it contained silica based pool filter sand. The rest of my tanks are bare bottom/gravel and have never had it.

That said, your case is much worse than mine was (even in one of my 75G with 100lbs of pool filter sand). I'm not really sure what it is but outside of cleaning the glass with a sponge I didn't do anything else to remove it. It disappeared in about a month of normal water changes.

I don't think you have to worry about the fish's health, I have over 40 fish in those tanks and have never experienced a fish loss.

Sorry I couldn't offer more 'technical details' but cleaning the glass and water changes removed it from my tanks.

EDIT: I found a photo of my glass when this stuff was present:


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## Calmer (Mar 9, 2008)

Here is a website about algae with pictures and advice:
http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm
As Darkblade48 was saying about fuzz algae, look at your pictures #3 and #4 and then compare with the above website under Hair, Thread, Fuzz, etc. This is probably not what you are asking about but the treatment is there.
Are you feeding a lot of frozen foods like bloodworms?
Are you using excel in the tank?


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

Hey guys, thanks for all of the help and suggestions. I am really confused as to what it is now. Fingers crossed for something that will go away by itself and wont hurt the fishies.

Ciddian, thanks for the tip, ill give wTac a shout. 

Overleaf, mine stuff looked just like that when they started out. With the small dots, thats why I thought it was small colonies of bacteria.

Calmer, thanks for the site. This stull doesnt really look like anything on that page. :/ As for feeding and such, I feed the fish 2 cubes or bloodworm and brineshrimp every week. (one cube of each on one day, one cube on another.)

I am thinking of a hardcore cleaning today, so hopefully it would help.


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## Calmer (Mar 9, 2008)

yw anytime Hitch 
I thought maybe the problem has to do with protein build up from excessive feeding of frozen foods but it doesn't seem to be the case. I am stumped on this, so good luck and please let us know if you do find the source of this problem.


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

I am possibly picking up some pieces of slate tomorrow, so I feel like the tank will need a nice scrub down when I re-scape it.


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## overleaf (Feb 1, 2009)

Calmer said:


> yw anytime Hitch
> I thought maybe the problem has to do with protein build up from excessive feeding of frozen foods but it doesn't seem to be the case. I am stumped on this, so good luck and please let us know if you do find the source of this problem.


Interesting angle...

I was feeding freeze dried Krill and bloodworms in my tanks. I have since switched to NLS Cichlid in one and Omega Veggie in the other.

All inconclusive, but good speculation!


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## juanitow (Jun 21, 2008)

if it's bacterial in nature, excel should help.

Bacteria aren't too hot about gluteraldehyde.


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

I think its a type of algae for sure now. Since the calicos are taking care of it.


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## juanitow (Jun 21, 2008)

Some plecos will eat the slime off slow fish like discus, but it's great news that your calicos are getting rid of them!


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

hopefully it would stay that way.


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