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ive decided to strip my 20g tank currently housing 6 cories 1 tetra and 1 bn. The tank has been plagues by 'leech' type critters whch at first were great as they ate the algae and i figured would die off when the algae was all gone but just seem to multiply overnite and now cover the tank even with weekly cleanings.. Also have a case of weird worm like things in the water (not planaria) they are silvery in the water and about 3mm long (if you know what these are please help!) i also seem to have attracted a number of winged bugs which sit of the underside of glass where condensation occurs (not sure if this is worm related) so as you can see i have had no luck of late and my bn currently has a case of fungus which im treating with malachite green.

Now what i need to know is how to go about doing this so i kill off everything except fish and bacteria and what im gng to need to do to get this done successfully and with minimum fuss.

The tank is currently running an eheim classic and an UG. Im planning on removing the undergravel filter,

What is the least amount of gravel needed also as im thinking of thinning it out,

Any advise would be much appreciated!

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Truth doesn't always win friends but it influences them

I recently had to take down my 10 gallon due to bad algae, MTS crazy infestation, and the red, tubifex like worms in the gravel which really annoyed me. They may have contributed to the death of some of my cories if they had been eating them, so I wanted them gone. However, in my case, I just upgraded to a 20 gallon. But still, what I did after I moved my fishies, I just took out the water with the gravel vac, then took out the gravel, then removed and washed out the inside. You could then wash the tank with some bleach + water, and then make sure you rinse it our really good. As for the gravel, because there were worms and snails in it, it would take a long time before they would die out. I just put the gravel in a bucket and let it dry out, however long that will take. What is alot faster is if it's sunny outside, just spread the gravel flat and evenly on a sheet of something and let it get dried by the sun. Living in Vancouver, it's almost always raining or wet outside, so that's not an option that's always open. Plus I don't need the gravel so I haven't...

If you put the gravel in a bucket, the bottom will always remain most, and whatever is living will be at the bottom and possibly living.

thanks for your reply!

as ive had all these critters in my water i was planning on maybe buying some new gravel and replacing it all completey to make sure its all gone! i realise that will mean killing off some of the bacteria.. i want to start this tank off in a sort of new way... so new water and gravel etc...

so if i start off by washing the tank out really well with a bleach/water mix (do you know how much bleach to water? ) and then refill and add gravel then add cleaned out filter and start that going along with some Cycle to start the bacteria off.. how long do you think before i could add those fish back?

also have plants ... what should i do with these in the meantime?

all this is giving me a bit of a headache!

i have a spare tank at home (about 10g) if i seed this with gravel how else can i get the bacteria started?

sorry if this seems really long! ive never done this before and im worried about the bacteria colonies and completey killing off the critters!

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Truth doesn't always win friends but it influences them

If you had tons of weird, living things like in my tank, to start with new gravel is a good idea. As for the bleach/water mix, I don't know. The more bleach you add, the more careful you have to be to wash it out. If you add too little, there will be little to no affect. As long as the algae or whatever is clung on to the tank is removed, you should be good. Just add more if you feel that you need to. And when you do add the solution in, just let it sit in your tank to make sure everything living in it is dead.

...start that going along with some Cycle to start the bacteria off.. how long do you think before i could add those fish back?

I'm not quite sure what you mean. In order to start the bacteria off and keep them alive, you need a source of ammonia. In other words, you would probably want fish inside to produce waste, ideally the ones you have now. There is another method though. If you don't want to add any fish in, and have them kept in an already filtered tank (if not you mine as well stick them into your 'refurbished' tank), then you can do a fishless cycle. What you generally do is take household ammonia and put a certain amount of it in your tank each day for about a month (or until you get 0 ammonia and nitrates, thus a finished cycle). This is the same as having fish waste converting to ammonia and then all the way to nitrates. The exact amount you will need to look up (google search "fishless cycle" or something).

Plants you might wanna put in a water/bleach solution to kill anything foreign on them. Again, don't know the amounts of bleach to water, but that can also be searched within this site or google.

i have a spare tank at home (about 10g) if i seed this with gravel how else can i get the bacteria started?

You can also use your filter media which has bacteria on it. Be sure to have it running in tank water or non cholrinated water so that the bacteria does not die. I would go against using your old gravel and possibly filter media, as whatever may be in it would be transferred. It wouldn't make too much of a difference anyhow if you do water changes whenever needed to prevent ammonia spikes.

Good luck! When I switched from my 10 gallon to 20 gallon, I didn't use any previous bacteria from my old tank and it went fine, and I had 6 panda cories and 2 ottos, later added some endlers.

ok the light bulb in my head switched on last nite and i realised i could use some of the water and gravel from my 55g in the temp tank which would have some bacteria (right?????) and with the filter im plannig on buying tomorrow and some adding some Cycle.. should the tank be ok to add my tetra straight away to keep the bacteria gng?


would bleach kill the plants?

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Truth doesn't always win friends but it influences them

Depends what the plants are and how long you have them in it.


Have you tried a copper treatment? Most inverts will curl up and die at a mere whiff of the stuff, might be worth a shot.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

i have malachite green in there which i believe is copper based and it doesnt seem to affect them at all!

its asian ambulia ... will that be ok in bleach? it seems to be a very delicate plant...

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Truth doesn't always win friends but it influences them

Ambulia will go to bits. I lost elodea and hornwort in weak blach for 5 mins.

A slightly less risky way would be alum, you can get it at a stockfeed store. I use it for my plants to wipe out any snails/eggs before they go in the tank. It will still disintergrate some plants, but it is gentler than bleach IME, and at least gives you a chance of saving them. I'd say just buy more, but you are more than likely going to have to snail-treat anyway.

BTW, what is your gravel-vac schedule like, and how much do you feed per day of what type of food?

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Thanks for all your advice...

oh i forgot i have another plant in there too... i think its swordtail? its attached to a bit of driftwood..

i dont have a stockfeed store nearby that i no about so i might try a very weak bleach solution and see how that goes ... will any snail-rid type meds work to kill these weird critters?

i gravel-vac once a week removing what i can from under the UGF. i take about 25% of the water each time.. there usually isnt much food waste as there arent many fish in the tank at present so i usually feed them twice a day with either algae wafers/brine shrimp pellets or fish food pellets... just a couple at a time...

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Truth doesn't always win friends but it influences them

ok i have the plants in a bucket with a mixture of snail rid (copper sulfate) and bleach and water... it seemed to have killed whatever critters these were...

i have moved the ambulia in a bucket of plain water after rinsing it under the tap...

was wondering if after soaking driftwood in the above mixture will it be ok when i return it to the tank? or does it soak up the chemicals ?

have washed tank out with the above mixture as well and rinsed well and have it placed back.. tomorrow i will start it all up again...

can i wash the gravel in the above mixture also? or would it be safer to buy new gravel?

p.s after removing the UGF i was suprised what was in that gunk under there!

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Truth doesn't always win friends but it influences them

Ahhh, the UGF! that'll be the bit that is making it harder. So many things can happily live under there and you can't really efectively get at them, PLUS the arganic matter deactivates many of the dye-based meds, so the copper levels would probably be quite tolerable under there. They are such a bugger to work with. Great, but not easy. I had the worst cases of recurring velvet when i was running one as the meds just couldn't deal with the way they were filtered through all the mulm under the plates.

If you can get another filter, and maybe reverse powerheads, that'd make your life oodles easier



For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

For the driftwood: boil it. Trust me, it'll kill em dead. You could also bake it, but baking wet wood could be a bit weird as i'm sure it'll be stinking hot on the inside for hours.

For the pebbles: bake them on trays in te oven, or boil them, or soak in bleach and then rinse and leave to dry (the drying also gets rid of much of the bleach)

Be careful with the ambulia, the next few days are when you will tell if it still loves you or not be prepared for heavy-duty vacuuming.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

so far the ambulia loves me but ill guess a bit more time will tell!

i was also running an eheim cannister on there which im gng to completey redo with new material inside and i might grab some of the filter wool from my 55g to kick start the bacteria and maybe also add some of that tank water...

the driftwood actually has a sword plant on it so i dont think i should boil or bake it... any other ideas? dry it out in the sun maybe?

ok im off to rinse the pebbles in the solution and dry them in the sun... i might bake them after this just to make double sure! how long should i bake them for? ive never cooked pebbles

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Truth doesn't always win friends but it influences them

I've baked 10lbs of pebbles for an hour at 400 degrees. It may be overkill, but, I think overkill may be what you're looking for.

Betty Crocker would be so proud...

lol

ok gng to bake it at 180 degrees celcius which is about 400f

thanks! my parents are gng to think im crazy!

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Truth doesn't always win friends but it influences them

ok its been a while since i posted on this,... but got the tank back together and invested in 2 pearl danios and 2 zebra danios to help the cycling process... i also put my cories back in as they weren't doing very well in the temp tank...

my parameters were all over the place for the first 2 weeks so decided to let it sit for a while and left it alone and saturday i woke up to cory eggs! yay! guess my tank has cycled!

my only problem is the leeches/weird bugs are still there!!
how can this be??? i bleached everything!

any suggestions as to how i can get rid of them without harming the tank ? when i stripped i used a mix of copper sulfate and bleach and this seemed to work!

thanks!

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Truth doesn't always win friends but it influences them