Protozoan blooms

[Apistomaster]

It meant to post this along with a pevious post involving what was apparently a pathogenic protozoan problem but this is different. It seems to be more realted to out of balance tanl conditions rather than any particulary disease. Occassionally in some of my pairs tanks where I rely on airlift large sponge filters and frequent water changes a prozoan bloom occurs with a large paramecium ciliate species overruning a tank that does not infect the discus but does irritate them a great deal. Massive water changes dilute the bloom but it bounces back rapidly. The organisms are large enought to be removed by a DE filter and that seems to break the cycle . These "bugs" are visible as floating dust motes with the naked I. Has anyone else had a similar thing happen in there tanks and what did you do that seemed to help. The bloom does irritate the discus but does not attack them. If this sounds like something you have dealt with would you care to share with me what worked for you to get rid of it?

[ShinShin]

I have never heard of this myself. I don't know why or how large frequent water changes cause this "bloom". Have you identified these organisms microscopically to a pic in a book? If they are protozoas, formalin/malachite green is usually very effective.

Mat

[kdazzel]

The other day i say something in my tank. It caught my eye because it caught the light, looked like dust at first but it was defintaley alive, it was like a squiqqle, tiny though. i netted it out with a fine net, saw a couple more and netted them, have'nt seen any since. Is that the same thing you had?

[Graham]

How do you know that they are Paramecium...these guys are microscopic...as Mat asked have you ID them with a microscope...they also need high bacteria counts or a lot of organics to bloom.

It's not unusual to have a bacterial bloom with new water but it usually crashes out in a day or so.

:confused: G