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It's begun...I went to clean my 20 gallon this afternoon, as usual it was full of blue-green algae and it was taking me forever to pull it all out. Eventually I just got jack of it. I stormed down to my storeroom at the back of the house, set up an empty 10 gallon and put the 20 gallon's residents - 2 rummy-noses and a blue ram - into it, along with the filter. I pulled out all the rocks, driftwood, plants and gravel, and emptied out all the water. The plants and driftwood that they are attached onto went into a 10 litre bucket with a teaspoon of bleach, a garbage bag over the top of it to black out all the light. The rocks, remainding driftwood and gravel are all being boiled. The empty tank also has black garbage bags around it. My other half was a little surprised to come home and find a garbage-bag-wrapped fish tank in the bedroom and a pile of rocks on the stove instead of his dinner!

So what now? My plan is to leave the plants in the bleach solution overnight, then empty out the water, refill with clean water and soak, rinse, repeat several times. I'm paranoid about bleach soaking into the driftwood then leaching into the tank later, but I also want to be sure that all the cyanobacteria will be gone. What should I do with the tank itself? There are still bits of BGA on the glass and on the gravel that I couldn't scoop out. Should I wash it with bleach as well? Is the solution I have made up strong enough, or too strong? What about the filter? Should I rinse it out with a bleach solution as well and get new filter media (it's an Aquaclear 200)? The bacteria isn't a huge problem with my current ultra-minimal stock.



The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

Bleach the lot. if you are going to all this hassle, do it once, do it right.

filter will need to be bleached and fish will need to be purged a bit.

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

How much bleach to use Calla? I've got powdered stuff.

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

powdered stuff? ahh, i have no idea! I'm a white king gal.

you wont need to soak o'nite, that will be too much.

I use about 1/2 cup/10L of plain white king... and bake gravel/rocks etc.

turf filter media.


(my head isnt working well, i'm talking very jumbled, i'll come back later )

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

It still seems to be alive on the anubias and driftwood - what to do now? More bleach? I'm just terrified of killing the anubias, it's an expensive piece with 5 lovely plants attached to wood.

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

*bumping now*

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

Only soak for an hour at most. Anything longer will destroy everything!

FYI

I was also under attack from that evil stuff. I'm pretty sure I've got it somewhat under control, I was about to start using meds on it, never did.

Heres' what I did

Green kitchen scrubby pad for removing it from the driftwood, papertowl and a gentle rub to remove it from the leaves of java fern, swished other plants to remove it from the leaves...then continual dosing of KNO3 and slightly reduced lights (down to 1.8wpg).

^_^

Dont use scrubby pads even gently on anubias leaves, they dont appreciate it (i killed mine trying to remove algae)

What happened to the success of erythromycin??

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