Bacterial bloom on fresh cycle tank and no nitrification

[kecked]

So my tank crashed a while back and I broke it all down. Sine the tank was 8 years old and my rock covered in hair algae I decided to first soak the rock in bleach the break down the organics and then in citric acid to melt the top surface off. Worked well and the rock is nice and white except some dead white string from the dead algae. Figured it would dissolve in time. So I soaked the rock in rodi for week and put I the tank and put fresh saltwater in as one would. I then added a large does of microbacteria to the tank and it exploded in the nastiest bacterial bloom ever seen. Bacterial slime on everything and socks plug in hours. Skimmer goes nuts. I figure let it go….month later still nothing. I add some ammonia to see if I can get it to cycle. It does but no nitrate shows up nor nitrite. Bloom still there. I add a 55w uv to it and it helps some but still plugging socks still poor cycle. So I’ve added a dose of rims to start a new cycle. Helped a lot but still hazy. Early in on this part. Any advise? I turned the lights on hoping to see anything grow at all. Sure are nice rocks but NOTHING grow. Was thinking to drain all the water and try again but with Tim’s only this time. Tank is 65gal. Eco tech lights. 35ppt. Zero phosphate and 10 alk. 1350 mag rest zero.

 

[Quietman]

I wouldn't add anything else. Not a big fan of bacteria additives but they can help speed up a startup by a week or two. Ongoing additions I'm not convinced do much based on using them and then stopping. Anyway, with all the re-use and treatments, I think just doing a few large water changes should clear everything up over the next couple weeks. Sounds more like your rock is still curing to me. I also suspect your tank is cycled and is just dealing with excess nutrients. You could start over, but if rock isn't cured fully then you'll just be back here again.

Time and water changes are always a good bet.

 

[kecked]

Sounds like a plan. Luckily it’s a small tank.

 

[taricha]

run a filter or skimmer to remove the ongoing cloudy bloom. Once the amount of bloom-driving organics drops way down, then nitrifiers (I like Biospira and Fritz for fast activity) will easily do their job.
during a cloudy bloom, the O2 and other conditions at the surfaces may be pretty tough for nitrifying biofilms.

 

[kecked]

Ok the bloom is gone and water is clear. Just make sure I did a 90% water change to get anything from the rock cooking out of the water. The skimmer is removing a real light colored skim but in quantity. Not like a fast skim the skim is thicker just it’s light colored. I think it’s bacteria killed by the uv light. So everything is looking good but….any idea why a filter sock packs up in less than 24 hours? The tank is still all dead. I’ve not added anything. I figured to wait another month for anything else to decay that needs to. Then o2 doesn’t matter. Should I begin to feed the tank with ammonia and see if the cycle takes off? There is lots of batereria in there that is for sure. Also I seen zero as in no algae on the glass despite turning the lights on. Granted the water is sterile and I add only bacteria so maybe I need a seed rock to get the coraline and regular algae going? Thoughts?