# PH and effect on bacteria bloom?



## MrSanders (Mar 5, 2006)

I didnt know where to post this.... and since I always think my tank is coming down with green water I thought I would put it up here... For the past few months my tank has been going very cloudy.... and then sort of clearing up on its own, and suddenly getting cloudy again. I have also been playing with CO2 levels, and had to get the tank refilled so CO2, and there for PH has really sort of been all over until recently. 

I have pretty soft water here, KH of 2 degrees.... degassed my tank water is around a PH of 6.3 with CO2 during the photo period the PH i have been shooting for is around 5.2-5.3 thoughts its been any where from 5.1-5.4 lately...

Now to my question, It appears very much like greenwater, however I have convinced my self it must be a bacteria bloom since it sort of just comes and goes away in a few days time.... and the water never really takes on a bright green, or green color.... nor does it get thick and green..... It just sort of gets thick and hazy, I take water out and it has more of a light dirt-ish green brown tint to it, rather than a very green color.

Just seems more like a bacteria thing to me.... espically since when I take cup of water from that tank and put it into my 5 gallon planted which has lots of nutrients..... i get no green water bloom in that tank, no haze or anything....

Anyway that being said at a certin point does the PH of the water and its acidy affect the bacteria in the substrate and filter? to a point where it may kill enough off to expierence a bacteria bloom? thanks guys


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## werner (Jul 6, 2006)

Are you dosing iron and PO4 at the same time? They will react and cause clouding.


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## MrSanders (Mar 5, 2006)

I do dose my macros and traces at the same time every day... but this is not the issue, I have seen this with flourish iron when i used to use it.... I also dose the same way in low tech tanks.... I get no reaction....

Also its not a constant thing.... for a week or more the tank may be perfectly clear.... then it goes back to the bloom looking condition.... as mentioned in the earlier post CO2 levels have been sketchy for a while now.... wondering if it has to do with PH change, when the PH drops to the lower end of 5's


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## kbeebro (Jan 16, 2007)

*New member*

Hi Im new on this forum, My name is Kathie. I Live in Meridian Idaho, JUst outside Boise, IM a nurse. most of allI enjoy my wet friends. Witch brings me to guestion I have a 75gal freshwater aq It has been set up 4 years. Has done so good. Always clear as a bell. The last couple weeks is has been cloudy. All my chemestry is right on thack. IM thinking that I may have a Bacteria Bloom. Although I really do not know what causes this. nor do I know what to do. So if their is anyone that can help me that would be awsume.I all so have 2 saltwater Aq. Please help me

Thank you

Kathie


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## redstrat (Apr 3, 2006)

maybe you should try buffering you PH a little by raising the KH with a little baking soda at the waterchange. Try to keep your PH after the CO2 is injected above 6.0, not that I have any reason for picking 6.0 its easy to remember and not a terribly low PH for an aquarium, if you have a 6.3ph before CO2 then your probably looking at a 5.3ph with CO2 thats pretty low in my book. I'd shoot for a KH of 4 just for the sake of making this an experiment to see if it helps your cloudiness. It really wouldnt suprise me if low PH values like that have some effect on Bacterial colonies. I'd try it for a week or two, keeping everythign else consistant and see if it helps. it surely can't hurt.


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## bigtroutz (Nov 17, 2006)

You don't say what kind of filtration you are using, how often you do water changes, how heavily the tank is stocked with fish, or how much you feed the fish. All of these factors can lead to discolored water due to high bacterial and/or organics concentrations.

I would be concerned about the pH being in the 5.0 to 5.5 range and below since this is known to cause problems with toxicity to fish, especially due to metal ion damage to gill surfaces. You should consider increasing the KH enough with something like NaCO3 so that the pH does not drop below 5.8 so rapidly with addition of CO2.

Second, ensure that you have enough filtration for the fish load, perform enough water changes, and do not overfeed. When I get discolored water in my lightly planted, heavily stocked tanks, I simply do another water change or add a spare inexpensive HOB filter for a while. This always does the trick for me.

Let us know how it turns out.


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## MrSanders (Mar 5, 2006)

This post is old.... The tank has since been torn down and totally redone.

But as far as the things you bring up, it was filtered via a large eheim... I felt there was plenty of filtration on the tank, it did well in the past with far less. Also water changes were done once a week, though sometimes twice in the range of around 50%. It was not a discoloration of water as in tannins. It was more of a green water or bacteria bloom.... though neither was ever confirmed because it never really got thick and green, just hazy. Fish are fed sparingly. 

I never did get to the bottom of it... it just kept re occuring over and over agian no matter what I did. I fianally decided that it may be caused by a very deep older substrate with a high amount of organic matter.... though I dont know for sure. 


Anyway like I said the thing has since been totally redone... been up and running again for a few weeks, and though there are a lot of tannins from the AS and new drift wood..... the water if crystle clear..... fingers crossed, I hope it stays that way


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## redstrat (Apr 3, 2006)

sorry, i didn't notice the dates and I don't recall seeing the thread before, oh well, glad to hear its not bothering you anymore.  good luck with the new setup.


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## MrSanders (Mar 5, 2006)

Yea I hope for it to stay away for the long haul.

somthing i found intersting..... after adding the AS it appears that my KH has actually risen.... its around 4 or so now..... sort of odd? oh well in any event the PH has been more stable and doesnt drop as low, only to about 5.9-6.0 at the end of the photo period.




Kathie, you posted earlier and I didn't even see it! probably why this thread sort of got started up again all of the sudden.

Generally speaking if you have GW your going to know it with in a few days, in my case I never really showed it's self, hence the reason I wasnt really sure what I was dealing with.... But again if you do indeed have green water with a few days to a week... it GENERALLY is going to be bright, thick green water..... you'll know  If it is a simply black out of 3 or 4 days will handle it.... there are other methods do a seach on green water.

If its a bacteria bloom, you just pretty much wait it out.... in a few days to few weeks it will work its way out. 

Hope that helps, and I hope you dont end up with issues like mine! I had this going on for MONTHS, black outs got rid of it for the time being.... huge weekly water changes just made it less intense.... and it always came back... I sort of feel like it was GW of a sort.... some type that just really isnt green? and it kept coming back from the deep substrate...... I cant say for sure but if I had to guess that was the cause..... at any rate good luck with it, and if you have any other questions feel free to ask or start your own post about the issues  


~Matt


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