# Bacteria Bloom everytime I open my canister filter?



## Franzi (Dec 7, 2009)

how often are you opening your filter?

maybe some seachem stability will help build up a good colony of bacteria.


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## Gatekeeper (Feb 20, 2007)

Wow. You sure its a bacteria bloom and not an ammonia spike? What size tank, what filter and what's your bioload?

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## jkcrewsn (Nov 23, 2010)

Interesting idea with the ammonia spike. That was something I hadn't considered. The tank is a 46g bowfront with an eheim 2126 pro II filter. As for a bio load, I have 10 tiger barbs, 4 Sterbai Cory's, 2 Oto's, a red tail shark, a long fin BN pleco and a clown pleco. I don't think that is too much, but could be wrong. The tank has been up and running for eight months or so. I dose EI and do the 50% weekly water changes religiously. The tank is also heavily planted. I clean the filter every 5-6 weeks, but change the purigen every three or so.
I tested for ammonia just now and although it is two days after the bloom happened it shows a tad of ammonia...color is between the yellow at 0 and the green tint of 0.25 ppm. So there is still some showing, which leads me to believe your correct. The next time I open it up, I will definitely test for ammonia to see if that is the culprit. Thanks!


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## Gatekeeper (Feb 20, 2007)

Hmm. What is your substrate, how long has it been setup and is it heavily planted?

Any pictures?


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## jkcrewsn (Nov 23, 2010)

It is regular aquarium gravel with tabs every once in awhile. I don't have any recent pictures but will put one up tonight. It is quite heavily planted and been running for about eight months.

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## ktownhero (Mar 21, 2011)

Every three weeks seems way too often to be opening up a canister filter. You might be having trouble with the bacteria colony staying stable by doing that. Typically a canister filter only needs to be opened/rinsed about every 3 months.


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## jkcrewsn (Nov 23, 2010)

I had read that 5-6 weeks was the cleaning time for the canister filter, I would be happy to only do it every 3 months! Here is a picture I took tonight. Still seems a little cloudy, but the UV filter has been going for 4 days so I pulled it out to see how it goes.








[/url] tank on 04/21/11 by jkcrewsn, on Flickr[/IMG]


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## Couesfanatic (Sep 28, 2009)

5 to 6 weeks, wow. Ive gone 12 months without opening mine. lol


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## Gatekeeper (Feb 20, 2007)

Yea, I think not cleaning so often is a start. Still concerning though. Keep us updated on this, I am curious to see if this resolves the issue or if there are more underlying causes that are not so clear cut.


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## Chrisinator (Jun 5, 2008)

When I clean my filter, detritus comes out from the tubes and clouds the tank for a day then clears up.


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

18 months here on 2 Eheim 2215's and they were struggling but still spitting out clear water. I would think that 6 months would be good on an established tank that is well maintained, three months on a tank that has a heavy fish load or lots of plant debris, but I think over cleaning will create more problems than not. I think you may just be seeing dirt in the water, after cleaning there is a boost in power and my filters will kick debris out that was stuck in the hoses, etc. You could try a carbon filter pad for 3 day to polish the water but I doubt it's needed. I would clean less often, make sure you leave 1/3 of the filter media dirty, only rinse parts, etc. with luke warm water, and don't scrub everything spotless just rinse it out lightly and see if this condition improves, good luck.


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

Btw you have a very nice looking tank! and a low fish load so I wouldn't sweet the details on this one.


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## jkcrewsn (Nov 23, 2010)

Thanks for all the help. I am going to take your advice and wait much longer between cleanings. This will be one fix that will be easy to do! 

Thanks for the kind words on my tank too, kinda chaotic looking at the moment.


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## chiefroastbeef (Feb 14, 2011)

hmm, I've never gotten bacteria bloom from my canister. I've opened it and swished the ceramic rings (90 percent for the filter media) in tank water twice a month without any problems, water tested perfect every time.


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## ReefkprZ (Aug 21, 2010)

jkcrewsn said:


> I had read that 5-6 weeks was the cleaning time for the canister filter, I would be happy to only do it every 3 months! Here is a picture I took tonight. Still seems a little cloudy, but the UV filter has been going for 4 days so I pulled it out to see how it goes.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Nice tank! I only crack my canister filter open every 2 months to clean it. BUT I have to note I only run biological media in there no floss or absorbent/adsorbents. I have my S.O.B. filter for floss that gets changed whenever the water starts by passing the floss.


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

It looks very clear to me, I like eheims media, hollow ceramic tubes a course blue filter pad, small rocks that look like coco puffs and a white fine filter pad, very technical reply don't ya think. Wait 3 or six months.


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