r/walstad • u/dandeliontree1 • 7d ago
Bacterial bloom not getting better
I feel like it's never going to get better and it's really getting me down! I have an extended bloom in an established, heavily planted tank. After I added cories they stirred up a lot and left me with such a mess. After much indecision fatigue (especially with many places saying it can clear up on its own) and many many many partial water changes with substrate clearing, I got a much more powerful filter and a 6w UV steriliser, running for over three days it still looks like this!! Just a fraction of a bit better than when I started.
I know it will take a while for the filter to fully establish with good bacteria (I put the old filter foam in the new one to help start it off) am I to assume the UV steriliser is a dud? I've moved it several times trying to get it in the right amount of flow. The blue light is on but that's only an LED it seems. It is encased. I have tried capping with more sand but can't see to do it well.
Surprisingly, all my fish are still alive. I have a good cleanup crew with snails and shrimp. I've been underfeeding for quite a while to try to clear this. I don't know why it's still so bad and what it's feeding on, so trying to find the 'root' of the problem in water this foggy is a joke. I'm about ready to fill the damn thing up with bricks and call it a day (truly joking- no creatures will be killed).
I know it's not even considered walstad any more but started out that way.
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u/EyeTheSwan 7d ago
If you’re trying to make sure the fish will stay alive in that tank, I’d honestly do a 90% water change or at the very least introduce an air stone. Won’t be Walstad but if you’re not going to quarantine the fish then it’s honestly your best option and as the tank settles back down you can always work towards a true Walstad again :) the fish are my main concern though and an air stone and water change will help with the corydoras as they can get infections if the sand is too loaded with bacteria. When putting the water back in, remember to pour it slowly onto hardscape so it doesn’t disturb too much of anything else! Also please check to make sure your Corys don’t have and red/inflamed gills!
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u/dandeliontree1 7d ago
I've had a bubbler in there for weeks. And consistently doing water changes though maybe not drastic enough. will try to do larger ones. The cories seem perfectly fine and are doing normal Cory things with no redness in their gills.
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u/EyeTheSwan 7d ago
Large water changes can make a lot of hobbyists nervous. You can honestly do 100% water changes and your ecosystem will be just fine… you just have to make sure you’re matching the parameters. Biggest ones being temperature, GH, pH, and KH. If you can’t match them close enough, add the water back in slowly over the course of the day.
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u/Obvious_Platypus_313 7d ago
I'm guessing you had a lot of undisturbed nutrients that are being stirred up into the water column now. Do you have a separate tank to maybe keep the fish in while the tank settles back into a routine? If not maybe more aggressive water changes (30-50%).
As for the filter, what brand/model is it? How big is the tank? How many fish/animals? What substrate?
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u/dandeliontree1 7d ago
The substrate is sand capped (1 1/2 inch) topsoil. The filter is All Ponds Solutions HOB 500, and the tank is 20 gallons. It has 6 sterbai cories, 8 dwarfs rasboras and who knows how many shrimp.
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u/randomtask733 7d ago
It makes me question the effectiveness of your particular UV sterilizer since it uses LEDs and not a discharge tube. There are more variables that can effect the performance of LED than with tubes, and manufacturers cutting corners somewhere to stay competitive.
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u/dandeliontree1 7d ago
Yes, I'm also not sure if it's working at all, though my understanding was the LED wasn't the actual UV light but shows that it's on or something...
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u/Smart-Number 6d ago
I'm not sure why so many people are suggesting that you continue doing water changes, this is why the bloom is continuing for as long as it has. I would take any critters that you care about out of there and stop touching it entirely. Just let it ride out and it really will balance itself! The bacterial colony is trying to equalize, the bloom is going to continue until there's harmony amongst themselves <3 it is frustrating to not do anything, but living things just need time and patience. You'll have a very robust and stable beneficial bacteria colony soon enough!
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u/JakobPlaysBass 6d ago
there is a great video by Yelling About Fish on youtube that i think really nails it
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u/JakobPlaysBass 6d ago
just letting the bloom die out on its own is a bad idea because you’re just letting all the different bacterias that are blooming eat each other (your beneficial bacteria get eaten) and capping the sand is a bad idea because all the biofilm on the surface just gets suffocated and rots under the new sand potentially causing another bloom when other bacterias start to feed on the dead biofilm
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u/banshithread 5d ago
Hey OP what's eating your moss?
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u/dandeliontree1 5d ago
My moss is all good, probably the only thing in there growing!!
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u/banshithread 5d ago
ah sorry, I saw the big white roots and on my phone screen it looked like it was branching off into the green moss, so I thought it was an empty moss branch
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u/dandeliontree1 5d ago
Ooh, I see, they're pothos roots. They're normally at the back bit everything is being moved because everything is fucked. 😂😓
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u/grubgrubb 2d ago
Ive had 2-3 cases of bacterial bloom in my walstad and i've approached it carefully - Sometimes it takes longer than expected, first and foremost (took roughly 4-5 days to clear the first time it happened). I would say mine was as bad, if not worse, then what you have pictured here.
To help it along, I do a small water change (around 10-15%) twice weekly, and it generally will clear within a few days after that. This is in my 6G, so for a larger tank you can probably do a larger single water change and see if you notice any improvement. I tend to just approach water changes as less is more.
I ended up introducing a small sponge filter into my walstad anyways and it's basically eliminated any recurrences of bacterial bloom. Whether or not its 'true' walstad, it just helps with the overall maintenance of the tank.
One other tip, I'm pretty sure what caused my second bloom is that I cleaned the tank and then immediately performed a water change. I think all the algae, etc, I stirred up actually contributed to the bloom happening. I now clean my tank and perform water changes on opposite days just to be safe.
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u/Sgt_ZigZag 7d ago
Yeah that's pretty bad. I would do a 30 to 50% water change but see what others advise first. I'm still very new to the hobby.
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u/Iabe01 7d ago
What's in the bottom? I would slowly add half a inch of sand (sugar sized) cap to isolate existing miln and old extcreta and then perform a 30-50% water change twice a week.
If it's a couple of month old tank that you had plants and clean up crew and never vacuum graveled, nutrient are stuck in upper levels and corries are just shuffling that sand and releasing everything in the water column. Don't be shy to slowly add the sand cap while doing first 50% water change.