Bacterial Bloom in New Tank

[slief]

Just thought i'd post an update for anyone else currently dealing with this, or those who might find this thread in the future.

I was making great progress with Waste Away until I made the mistake of adding a fish without QT. It died in 48 hours, symptoms suggested flukes so I dipped its body in DI water. With confirmation of flukes, I dosed the tank with PraziPro. Ughhhhhh... lol. Apparently the solution used to keep the praziquantel dissolved is a huge bacterial food source, found this out after I dosed. Over the next week or two, I lost all progress and the stringy bacteria reached levels 5 to 10x worse than before. There was so much bacteria in the water column, my sump socks would clog, turn honey color and overflow 45 minutes after putting them on. This next part will really gross you guys out.

Yes, that's a 1 gallon pitcher of skimmate. That's 3 days worth of skimming on the "dry"est setting my skimmer could be set for. I turned to a gallon pitcher because my skimmer cup would overflow while I was asleep and drip everything back into the sump. I removed the rubber plug and pushed a rubber hose over the drain and allowed the cup to drain into the pitcher behind the tank stand. Keep in mind I have 55 gallons worth of tank volume, with only 1 fish so this is almost 100% bacteria being skimmed out.

Anyway, i've kept up on my weekly 10% WCs and have been dosing Waste Away every 2 days per Dr. Tim's instructions. About 95% of the stringy bacteria in my DT has disappeared. The only spot it was still thriving was my refugium, where my macro was yellowing and dying from lack of nutrients. I just tossed all macro and siphoned the refugium so we'll see. If Waste Away continues to improve this problem then I will post an update in a few weeks.

Save yourself the headache and get a decent UV filter. You will never have a bacterial bloom like that again. A good UV is 100% effective against bacterial blooms and will solve the issue overnight and prevent them in the future. It will also improve your water clarity, improve your ORP and help with water born parasites. I've never had a bacterial bloom on a tank with UV filtration ever and I've been running UV filters for 20 years now. Stop wasting your time and money on chemical or additive treatments and get a decent UV filter like an AquaUV Classic 8 watt or 15 watt unit.

 

[StrangeDejavu]

Save yourself the headache and get a decent UV filter. You will never have a bacterial bloom like that again. A good UV is 100% effective against bacterial blooms and will solve the issue overnight and prevent them in the future. It will also improve your water clarity, improve your ORP and help with water born parasites. I've never had a bacterial bloom on a tank with UV filtration ever and I've been running UV filters for 20 years now. Stop wasting your time and money on chemical or additive treatments and get a decent UV filter like an AquaUV Classic 8 watt or 15 watt unit.

I almost pulled the trigger on one but decided not to. Someone in a different thread was dealing with this same "mysterious reef slime" that Dr. Tim wrote about in Coral magazine. He ran UV and it cleared up, but as soon as he turned off the UV it came right back. While that may have masked the problem in my situation, I was more concerned with the root cause and why the slime was there, etc.