Possible Bacterial Bloom after a water change?

AquariArt

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May 2, 2008
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I am looking for advice from those who are experienced.
I did a lot of planting this morning in my tank and in the process stirred up quite a bit of fluorite gravel. However, it has been 7 hours since I finished and the tank is still fairly cloudy. The tank water had a lot of fine suspended debris clouding the water since my last water change three days ago, which I think could be a bacteria bloom. I used an AP Tap Water filter and dosed with both Flourish Excel and Flourish, and a small amount of flourish iron, during my last water change and also used Stress Coat as a water conditioner rather than the Prime I had been using. One day I left the lights on longer than I usually do (13 hours instead of 11). Could any combination of those caused the clouding of the water, or bacterial bloom?
Also I have been using an old Second Nature Whisper HOB Power Filter for my 37 gallon tank. The filter is very quiet, however the newer replacement cartridges either don't fit very well or don't filter well. I am thinking I need to invest in something better to handle the fish load. I am considering a Eheim 2215 canister filter. Perhaps the cloudiness I am experiencing is independent of the efficiency of the filtering. Any thoughts about any of the above?
 
I use 2 filters on tanks over ~29g & only clean 1 filter each week. If I change 50% water I sometimes see a whitish bacteria bloom for a few hours, no big deal. Adding ferts can cause a bloom too but it's sometime algae rather than bacteria I think. Temporary blooms are not a big deal but gradual changes are better if you can. Ie: 2 smaller water changes rather than 1 big 1, ferts twice a week instead of once. The cloudiness is often more bothersome to us than our fish.
 
My first thought was that maybe it came from the tap water filter.
It's really hard to say what the source of the suspended particles are or where they might have came from.
My suggestion would be to add filter floss to the filter or just a cartridge frame and filter floss. It would be much more effective for clearing out the cloudiness.

A more cost effective filter replacement for you might be an AC 50.
 
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