Dry Rock and long-term bacterial bloom

[jon.smolders]

Originally Posted by Masonjames

I really am not sure if you would be experiencing a bacterial bloom for a constant 10 months. The bacteria responsible for such water born blooms cannot synthesize there own food and are completely dependant on complex organics. I highly doubt with your two fish you are imputing enough organics to promote a bloom never mind sustain one without a needed nutrient quickly becoming limiting.

That's why I was suspecting the dry rock as being the issue. I did not do an acid bath before putting them in the tank, so all the organics in the rock could be feeding the bacteria...

[jon.smolders]

Originally Posted by Myka

What do you add to the tank? Supplements? Fish food? Corals Food? Additives?

Have you been using one bucket of salt this whole time?

Yes, for most of the time I only used one bucket of salt. I finished it off when I did the 100% water change in December. I don't add anything to the tank, other than playing with the alk/calcium in the last two weeks. Fish are new too... added them just before Christmas so feeding is not the issue because I have had this problem for months prior.

I just did a 20g water change yesterday afternoon and I am running some mechanical filtration too so we'll see how it looks when I get home...

[Jaws]

Going through the same thing with my new 400G tank. Cloudy white and all the fish are suffering with pretty bad signs of what appears to be either ich or stress. Shouldn't be ich considering they were all in quarantine and treated with chloroquine phosphate for 3 months prior. Thanks for the tip about the UV. Hopefully that starts bringing them around. I also have about 50 pounds of live rock in a dark tank that I was hoping would help counter balance all the previous dry rock. All my dry rock was acid bathed before though so not sure why it's making the water cloudy after cycling for over two months.

[TimT]

Originally Posted by jon.smolders

I did not do an acid bath before putting them in the tank, so all the organics in the rock could be feeding the bacteria...

The rock is pressure washed with saltwater on the dock after it is harvested. This gets rid of the majority of the external organics. There would most likely be some worms, crustaceans and bivalves within the rock that would need to cure out.

Originally Posted by Jaws

fish are suffering with pretty bad signs of what appears to be either ich or stress

I would suspect stress from low dissolved oxygen and a low redox.


Are either of you doing any home renos with gyproc/drywall at all?

[albert_dao]

Just borrow or find a used UV. It really is the best solution here.

[Jaws]

Originally Posted by TimT

Are either of you doing any home renos with gyproc/drywall at all?

Not me. I'd be surprised if there wasn't enough oxygen though. My tank has a coast to coast overflow plus 3 Maxspect Gyres, 2 MP40 Vortechs and 4 Tunze 6105s so there's plenty of surface agitation too. Or does that not matter in this case?

[gobytron]

Originally Posted by TimT

The rock is pressure washed with saltwater on the dock after it is harvested. This gets rid of the majority of the external organics. There would most likely be some worms, crustaceans and bivalves within the rock that would need to cure out.




I would suspect stress from low dissolved oxygen and a low redox.


Are either of you doing any home renos with gyproc/drywall at all?

I would definitely be exploring other explanations other than bacterial bloom.

[Jaws]

Originally Posted by albert_dao

Just borrow or find a used UV. It really is the best solution here.

I have a large UV too so hopefully I can get that up and running asap.

[jon.smolders]

Originally Posted by TimT

The rock is pressure washed with saltwater on the dock after it is harvested. This gets rid of the majority of the external organics. There would most likely be some worms, crustaceans and bivalves within the rock that would need to cure out.

Are either of you doing any home renos with gyproc/drywall at all?

I have in the last month found a small leaf and a small twig as I was blowing off the rock with a turkey baster... so I imagine there must be some organics still decomposing deep inside. I get a fair amount of detritus settling in one area of the tank.

I did finish the drywall and paint in the basement (where my tank is located)this summer, but I made sure to seal off the room my tank was in when I sanded it. I also painted the concrete floors to keep the dust down. All that was done before my 100% water change, so I would think that if that was the cause then the water change should have taken care of it...

Originally Posted by Wheelman76

I started with 100% dry Pukani rock and had the same problem as you. The bacterial bloom would just not go away no matter what I did. Some days it was a little better and some days a little worse but I just couldn't get the water clear. A friend recommended to try running a UV for a few days ( thanks Albert) I borrowed a UV sterilizer from a buddy ( thanks Rich) and within 24 hours the water was crystal clear. I ran the UV for a few more days and then took it off and the tank has been clear ever since.

Maybe this is the simplest option? Would it matter what size I used? I was leaning toward a 9W Green Killing Machine because I can get one shipped for about $75... and I don't want to fork out hundreds for something I will only use once and a while.

Seems like a better idea then hydrogen peroxide dosing... which is intriguing BUT doesn't seem like its work the risk. Pretty sure my wife wouldn't be too happy if I told her I wanted to order another $200 worth of coral frags because I just killed all mine

[Jaws]

Sorry to hijack your thread by the way Jon. I was just very happy to see this thread since I seem to be going through an identical issue at the moment.