Bacteria And Algae Bloom - Any Ideas?

I've got a cycled tank (had it about 6 months now, finished cycling last November), 15 gallons, currently 6 guppies, 2 African dwarf frogs, and a few little snails. Also has a handful of live plants in addition to plastic plants and fake coral. It's sitting near a kitchen window and a month or so ago I noticed patches of algae forming on the walls. Got a scraper and cleaned them off whenever they showed up. About two weeks ago I realized that several of the live plants in the back of the tank (near the window) were covered in sheets of algae. Not sure how I didn't notice sooner because it looked terrible. Went in, trimmed out the worst bits, and cleaned what I could. I ordered some API algaefix but after some time searching different forums found nothing but horror stories about dead fish and snails so I ended up not using it.

When I cleaned the tank I did a water change and when I was done noticed the water appeared a bit cloudy...white, like someone had poured milk in the tank. We were leaving on vacation the next day, so I really didn't have time to worry too much about it...figured it would settle out. I did close the kitchen curtain to try to curtail the algae regrowth a bit.

Had a pet sitter watching my cat while we were gone and told her just to feed the fish a pinch of flakes each morning and otherwise not mess with the tank. I came home to disaster. The algae had not only regrown (no surprise) but the water was much cloudier (still white) and I found a (long) dead fish and a dead snail. The tank looked filthy. I tested the water (API master test kit) and found elevated ammonia and the nitrates were quite high. Cleaned out the dead friends and did an emergency water change and changed the carbon in the filter.

After that the water tested better but continued to look bad. Several live plants were totally coated in algae and the white cloudiness remained. I was still scared to use the algaefix but didn't know how else to get the algae off the live plants. I ended up pulling them out of the tank and putting them in a 5 gallon bucket of water, then treating the bucket with the algaefix. Figured if I lost plants, I lost plants, but at least the fish would be protected from that.

I siphoned the gravel and did a water change to try to eliminate any sources of food for the excess bacteria and got an embarrassing amount of stuff up. Repeated the next day. Water was still testing fine at this point.

I've been testing the water daily and have siphoned several more times to try to really get the substrate clean. I'm changing the carbon in the filter every couple of days and I added another submersible filter because I read some reviews that the filter that came with my tank is a bit underpowered.

The plants are looking much better in the bucket and I actually added the first one back to the tank today. The water is still cloudy though! I'm out of ideas. Do I just need to be patient and keep the tank clean and it will fade, or should it be gone by now? Anything anyone can suggest to eliminate this bacteria that I haven't tried? I prefer not to use chemicals to treat it...would rather find the imbalance. I've reduced feedings because I think we were definitely overfeeding, and I think doing that massive algae cleanout before we went on vacation overwhelmed the filter and set me up for the rest of the problems.

Appreciate any input. I feel like the algae will be an ongoing thing, but would really like to get the white cloudiness out of the tank.

Currently:
ph 7.8
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate minimal...just a slight tint to the test bottle
phosphate also minimal...hard to say if it's 0 the color blocks are so similar

Sounds like what I have, cyanobacteria (also called blue/green algae). There is some advice from Byron near the end of this thread. http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/440854-api-readings/

 
 

Click to expand...

Your nitrogen and phosphate readings indicate the plants or algae (probably the algae) are absorbing all the nitrogen and phosphorous and probably potassium in the tank.  The high ammonia you aw after vacation may have been triggered by the curtain  blocking the light.  
 
How much plant growth did your have before all of this happened?. How often did you have trim the plants from filling the tank? Also what were your phosphates like before this happened? Your plants may have depleted the water of one or more vital trace nutrient causing there growth to slow or stop.  That nutrient imbalance may have then allowed the Algae to grow unchecked.
 
My experience is that when plants do well Algae tends to struggle.  

My plants grow like crazy...to the point where I was having to remove portions from time to time because the tank became so dense with them. I don't know about phosphates before...just got the test this week since it's not a part of the kit I have. The fact is that part of the house gets tremendous amounts of light and the area where I live is sunny a LOT. There is a fair amount of ambient light in the room even with the curtain closed (there are several other windows in the room)...that one window was shining straight into the tank so I thought that was the cause of the algae. Are there trace nutrients I should be replacing with a planted tank? I guess I need to research further...I assume their must be aquarium fertilizers out there somewhere?

Read the thread recommended by pp and agree it fits the description of cyanobacteria. Sheets of slimy dark green. Would it also cause the white cloudiness in the water?

You just might need a tear down! I think your nitrates may be high in spite of your test results. It's possible there was some over feeding while you were away and your gravel substrate has become a nitrate factory. If it were me, I'd tear it down and switch to a sand substrate...however, you might move the fish, plants and decor into appropriate buckets temporarily and get in there with both feet and give that gravel a thorough cleaning along with a 50% water/crud removal. Put things back together and with sufficient filtration, along with some light restriction, things should clear up.
One more note: Even some experienced folks let their filters go too long before cleaning. A filter merely traps organics so the water 'looks' clear. However, the filter becomes a septic tank where the organic material breaks down into nitrogenous compounds producing ammonia>nitrites>nitrates. The more you keep filters clean, the better your overall water quality. Having 'said' that, you always need to be careful not to upset the beneficial biology in your filter so take care when cleaning the filter to preserve the bio-media's integrity.
Good luck and keep posting.

Saf1 said:

My plants grow like crazy...to the point where I was having to remove portions from time to time because the tank became so dense with them. I don't know about phosphates before...just got the test this week since it's not a part of the kit I have. The fact is that part of the house gets tremendous amounts of light and the area where I live is sunny a LOT. There is a fair amount of ambient light in the room even with the curtain closed (there are several other windows in the room)...that one window was shining straight into the tank so I thought that was the cause of the algae. Are there trace nutrients I should be replacing with a planted tank? I guess I need to research further...I assume their must be aquarium fertilizers out there somewhere?

Read the thread recommended by pp and agree it fits the description of cyanobacteria. Sheets of slimy dark green. Would it also cause the white cloudiness in the water?

Click to expand...

 
The cyanobacteria and the cloudy water are related in the sense that both are caused by organics in the presence of light.  But you can have one without the other.  There are many factors within an aquarium that are biological in nature and thus every aquarium is unique.
 
First on the light, you will have to do something to reduce the ambient room light.  I will mention something from my experience to show how important this can be.  My fish tanks are in a dedicated fish room, but it faces south and west so the ambient light during the day is naturally brighter.  After a few years I managed to get the balance between tank lighting and nutrients balanced, and brush algae (which had been a recurring problem) was no longer troublesome.  But I noticed that for two years running, it always came back in the summer.  Finally I realized it was the longer daylight and stronger daylight of summer compared to winter that was doing this; that year I had blinds on the windows and heavy darkening drapes that I kept closed all summer (being a dedicated fish room this was easy to deal with).  End of problem.  And for the past three summers I have had no increase in algae.  The lesson here is that light entering an aquarium must be controlled, and it doesn't take much to unbalance things.
 
Make sure the aquarium is not in direct sunlight; this can cause other problems beside algae.  Then, if darkening the room is not feasible, you can use normal black construction paper to cover the outside of the back and side panels of the aquarium; in other words, only the front glass is open.  Beyond this, if you do decide to tear the tank down, consider moving it to another location/room that is not as bright.
 
Second thing is the organics and nutrients.  The higher the organics, the easier it will be for cyanobacteria, algae, bacterial and diatom blooms.  Organics occur from fish being in the tank, so the less fish the lower the organics (stocking issues, include fish numbers and sizes).  Feeding obviously creates organics when it passes through the fish, so feeding less (meaning, not more than needed without starving) helps.  Substantial water changes, including vacuuming the substrate, help to keep organics down.  Live plants will use organics and nutrients.  Moderate use of plant additives (I have had algae suddenly increase solely from a second weekly dose of fertilizer).  And keeping the filter clean.  All of these things contribute to good maintenance and work to prevent problems; the goal is to find the balance and adhere to it.  But once the organics have increased, and if light is bright, these factors will not do much on their own.
 
Never resort to any chemical that claims to deal with algae or cyanobacteria.  These all carry detrimental consequences for the fish, plants or the biological system, or all three.  The troublesome cyano/algae/blooms are completely natural, and the only way to deal with them is with nature.
 
AbbeysDad offered good suggestions, though I would tweak them a tad.  Sometimes you can rectify things by rigorous maintenance without the need to fully tear down the tank.  And sometimes even doing this will not stop it.  If you decide to move the aquarium's position, then obviously a tear down will be part of it.  But provided you can lessen the ambient light entering the tank, and with the other suggestions, you may be able to restore the balance.  AbbeysDad is bang on about the filter; I had cyano appear once solely due to a dirty canister filter.  Sometimes it doesn't take much.  And you might be surprised at how much organics accumulate in any aquarium, even those lightly stocked.  Those of us with fairly well-planted tanks that do not use CO2 diffusion can still have adequate CO2 for the plants (your plants "growing like crazy" supports this), and this is primarily due to the breakdown of organics that produces the majority of CO2, far more than fish respiration.  You simply need to control the organics/nutrients, and keep the light less.
 
As for plant additives, this depends upon what is naturally occurring.  Fish food and water changes replenish all the nutrients plants generally need.  But these nutrients can be limited, depending upon the fish load and feedings, and the number of type of plants.  Faster growing plants need more nutrients (and light in balance) that slower growing plants.  Before suggesting fertilizers, I would want to know your water GH, fish load, plant load (a photo would help this) and what if any fertilizers you are now adding.  One has to be careful, as increasing fertilizers can lead to algae, organic/diatom/bacterial blooms, and cyanobacteria--I know, I've gone through all of these over the last several years.
 
Byron.

 
 
Are there trace nutrients I should be replacing with a planted tank? I guess I need to research further...I assume their must be aquarium fertilizers out there somewhere?

Click to expand...

there are two catagorys of gertilizers.  Macro and Micro:
 
Micro nutrients are Calcium, Magnesium, sulfer, Boron, Iron, manganese, molybdenium, zinc, Copper, Nickel.  These minerals typically are only available in limited quantities in water.  Thus  the name Micro.  I use RO water in my tank and without copper my plant growth was very slow (I once used a fertilizer without copper).  Molybdenium is listed a being critical for processing nitrogen.  It is generally impossible to determine which micro elements are defficient in the water without a lot of expensive test equipment.  
 
Macro nutrients are ones plants need a lot of, Carbon (CO2), nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous.  Phosphorous levels over 500ppm can cause a algae bloom that can be very difficult to control as long as the Phosphorous levels stay high.  Ideally you want Phosphorous to stay at or just bellow 50ppm.   Also high phosphorous and potassium levels can slow or stop plant growth.  
 
Generally micro fertilizers are necessary when dealing with very soft water (low GH).  Since micro fertilizers are present in low levels in water it doesn't take much growth to deplete them in smaller tanks.  However if your water has sufficient levels of micro fertilizers, a simple water change would restore them.   I generally weed about once every 2 to 3 weeks. Sounds like you are similar.  so a fertilizer is probably not needed.  
 
Fish food typically has all the macros you need plus many of the micro fertilizers.  However the amounts in the food and waist of the fish may not equal what the plants need.  That can lead to problems but I don't think you need  a macro fertilizer based on the rapid growth of your plants.   organics might be the best explanation for your issue.  
 
If you want to consider trying a fertilizer Seachem sells a number of different fertilizers.as well as water conditioners, and other aquarium products. You can find most on Amazon.com.   I have been adding Seachem Flourish complete to RO water which is very soft water.  It has a small amount of macro fertilizers mixed with a rather complete micro fertilizer mix.  they also sell a trace fertilizer which contains most of micro fertilizers.

I don't know what my water's GH is...this is another test kit I need to get (was at the pet store today for cat food and forgot!). I'll order one. Current fish load is 6 small guppies...not fancy at all, little silver ones that were rescues from my daughter's science class back in October...and 2 African dwarf frogs. We have a few little snails in there as well. Right now I just have two smallish live plants in there because I took out the rest that were coated in algae. I have the rest in a 5 gallon bucket, trying to get the algae load off them before I put them back in the tank. I'll try to upload pictures of the tank and the plants I have in the bucket.

The filter that came with my tank is an Aqueon Quietflow 10, but it's a 15 gallon tank and I read some reviews complaining that the filter is underpowered for the tank. I've tried to be diligent about changing out the charcoal inserts, but maybe still hadn't been doing it often enough (I had a couple really really mucky ones). I also bought an Aqueon Quietflow internal filter for a 15 gallon tank last week, thinking I could double up on filters until I figured all this out (is there such a thing as too much filtration?) but found that the intake was too powerful and found one of my poor little frogs stuck to it one morning. Fortunately he is ok, but now I've got that filter turned off until I can find a way to protect the frogs since they're not especially strong swimmers. It also causes a LOT of turbulence in the water and I was worried it would be too much. So I'm back to using the filter that came with the tank, which may not be sufficient. I don't know...any thoughts on how to use the more powerful filter without hurting the frogs? Do they make some sort of screen for those?

Otherwise I'm hoping some diligent maintenance will get things under control...if not I'll break it down. I like the idea of using the black construction paper to minimize light...moving the tank isn't much of an option. I've kind of got it in the one place it will work. Thanks for the suggestions all. I'm always blown away by the knowledge on this forum.

Going to try to add photos...not sure if I'm doing it right. See if this works...

I don't know what my water's GH is...this is another test kit I need to get (was at the pet store today for cat food and forgot!). I'll order one.
 

Click to expand...

 
No need to waste money buying a kit you may only use the once.  If you are on municipal (city) water, look for their website; data on the water is usually posted online, and that will tell us.  Or if it is not there, call them tomorrow and ask for the GH and KH/Alkalinity.
 
The GH is not going to change much in the aquarium, unless you target it somehow.  Example, using calcareous rock or substrate (made of limestone, marble, coral, shell, aragonite, dolomite)  will slowly dissolve calcium (and magnesium for some of these) into the water, increasing the GH and pH.  But otherwise it should remain fairly stable.
 

is there such a thing as too much filtration?
 

Click to expand...

 
Yes, though it is technically incorrect to call it this.  A filter can only do so much, and provided it is adequate for the volume and biological load, there is no point in attempting to increase the filtration by larger or more filters.  Nothing beneficial will be achieved, so in this sense, it is impossible to "over" filter, but attempting this may be detrimental.  If water is flowing too fast through the filter, the bacteria have a harder time to do their job, and may not be effective.  Then there is the related matter of water current in the tank, which can impact fish and plants depending upon the species and the flow rate.  If the filter is so strong it is literally buffeting the fish/frogs, or plants are swaying, it is too much (unless of course the fish species need this, as some do).  And one can have a healthy balanced aquarium without any filter at all.
 
You didn't answer the question of plant additives...are you adding any now?
 
The photos may help us.  We are assuming cyanobacteria, but it may be a true algae, and that is something else.
 
Byron.

Try this again...
Hm...don't think the algae is showing much in the photos. Will try again in a bit. No plant additives.

I'll see what I can find about the water...