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Okay, it appears that the Neon Tetra disease in another post is what killed my tank. I had foolishly bought three fish from a store I never should have gone into, and the trouble began. (When I went back into the store a month later, *all* their tanks were torn down, so I am assuming I am not the only one who suffered from buying from them.)

I know better now. I am only sorry that my fish had to be sacrificed so I could learn a lesson.

I know I have to tear the tank down and disinfect it, but I have a few questions.

1. I am inclined to just throw everything away and start fresh, but the filter seems to be decent (Emperor 280) and I think they sell replacements for the Bio-wheels. Is this a good idea or a bad one? I was thinking of taking everything out of the tank, filling it with 20-to-one water and bleach, and letting the filter run for a day or two. Will this get the disease out of the filter?

2. If the above is a bad idea, what is the best way to disinfect the filter?

Thanks.

Gravel is soaked for an hour in a 50-50 bleach mix along with all contents of the tank...

The tank is wiped down with same and well rinsed.

The filter is cleaned and rinsed with chlorinated water and allowed to dry for 24 hours. The filtering media is thrown away and replaced with new.

The tank will be ready to refill the next day. Make sure a bacteria starter is dosed liked the New Improved Cycle to allow fish to be introduced immediately.

Some NIC should be poured into the filter media immediately before running.

--garyroland.



[span class="edited"][Edited by garyroland 2004-08-23 10:54][/span]

Thanks, Gary.

I was planning to toss out the substrate--it's red flourite and I just plain don't like it. (I think I would like black better, bit I was sort of leaning toward sand--any recommendations?)

I'm going to call the regular fish store to see if they have the new Cycle. They don't have Bio-Spira, but I was able to get some sent through the mail when I first set up the tank. It worked well, but if the NIC is available locally, that would be best. (Don't mean to sound cheap, but....)

I feel a lot more hopeful after reading your post. I have a tendency to make a job about five times more complicated and busy than necessary. I was thinking it would be a good two weeks before I could actually get started again.

Some hobbyists prefer sand for live plants but I would advise against it. Many plants do well in gravel.

Sand also presents a cleaning problem creating a sand storm in the tank and perhaps fouling the filter motors.

You should display your country flag to help us know what products may be available in your country.

--garyroland.

Flying my flag, now.

I had a problem with the red flourite's causing "sand storms," too--but I think I got one bad bag. After the first couple of months, it wasn't a problem unless one of the fish got in an excavation mood.

From what I have found in the local fish stores, they lean heavily toward livebearers and brightly-colored plastic junk. The best fish store we found was in Altanta, but it's a five-hour drive and we don't go there often. (The fish stores here are fine as far as everything but selection goes. They stock what they can sell.) They have good filters and such, but the only substrate that wasn't "colorful" was the flourite. (Nothing against color, you understand, but I think the fish are pretty decorative themselves and would rather see them than bright blue rocks.)

I also had the intention of having plants, but the same fish that dug in the tank also uprooted plants as her second hobby. Personally, I find the silk plants sort of loathsome, but they would have solved some problems had I not been so persnickety.

Maybe I should stop trying to grow the plants and just go with the regular aquarium gravel?

Welcome to the site !

I can't believe you're discussing tossing out flourite !
I'd (almost) give my left arm for a pile of flourite.
So would alot of members in here.. WAH WAH !!!!

Real plants can be some work and expense but
well worth it and the fish think so too

Click on my www to see some pics





The Amazon Nut...

You may wish to pop into the "Planted Aquaria" Forum and present some questions...

I'm sure there are some "plantheads" available to help you out in making decisions.

--garyroland.