I have a new tank that I set up in July and started fish in cycling on August 2nd. I’ve been checking parameters and doing water changes. Ammonia was up one day and nitrites another but other than that been okay. Nitrates seem like they’re around 5ppm lately. I have one betta and silk and silicone plants only.
I did a water change a couple days ago and I thought I saw some bubbling when adding the water. Now the water is slightly cloudy like when bacteria bloom happens early on and when I dumped out a gallon to do water change it’s bubbly. Plus there’s a ring on glass around top of tank where water line was that’s slimy which I’m thinking is soap residue because I’ve not seen that before. I think someone didn’t wash bowls properly and some soap residue went into tank on last water change. 😔😩😭
So I have to change out everything so I can rinse properly, right? Does that mean I have to start over for the cycling adding bacteria and all that? I know bacteria is in gravel and filter and I have to wash gravel but do I start with new filter? I thought bacteria is mostly in filter so you keep it but what if there’s soap residue?
Fml why me and this poor fish. 😩
Here’s edit with photos: https://imgur.com/a/bWHsTBw
Okay hopefully I did that right I’ve never used it.
First pic is cloudiness. Second the film it kind of dried so looks less slimy now. Third is regular tap water when dumping a gallon. No bubbling. Fourth/fifth/sixth are the tank water one gallon bubbling when dumping. First batch before posting might have bubbled even more. 😒
Posted by nahivibes
2 Comments
Hold up a sec. It would be nice to see. How many bubbles? Can you suds? If you wipe that film with a paper towel, is it coloured? Can you smell soap?
Bacteria in the tank produce proteins as a byproduct and these can collect and form a film on the surface. It can also sometimes cause some foamy bubbles. If you’re having a bloom, this would make sense.
This may be nothing to worry about. Pics would help.
From your description, it does just sound like a small bacterial bloom and some resulting biofilm bubbles. There’s a good chance it’ll go away on its own within a week!