It used to be nice....

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Discuss all topics related to freshwater and planted tanks.


Tmercier834747
 
Posts: 887
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:33 pm

It used to be nice....

by Tmercier834747

Bump: http://www.ratemyfishtank.com/phpbb/viewtopic/2540

This is what has become of my 16gal in the past 2 weeks since blackout.

Press "reply" at the top of this message to view pictures. (Thanks dizz)
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dizzcat
 
Posts: 648
Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:30 am

by dizzcat

When I first started my 10 gallon I had this problem. That stuff will grow so fast it traps air bubbles! Everything would be covered within a couple days. It finally went away after a LOT of water changes. I would take everything out each time and scrub it down. I used to have Brichardi in that tank. Now I have a fairly bare tank with fry. I still get a tiny bit of it. You can see the sand turn a greenish within a few days, but its probably because I feed more in that tank for the "kids".


jweb
 
Posts: 318
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2009 6:45 am

by jweb

Yeah my tank looked like this. You have to just keep cleaning it off. Eventually it will go away. You must keep cleaning. Don't give up =)


a1k8t31524
 
Posts: 939
Joined: Sat May 26, 2007 5:10 am

by a1k8t31524

wow....that is what happend after tha blackout? dude that sucks, i am sorry


Tmercier834747
 
Posts: 887
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:33 pm

by Tmercier834747

it was completely gone for several days after the 5 day blackout (I had like thick blankets over the tank I only removed for feeding)...then it just slowly came back to this..I'm so sick of this crap. I'm done pulling it out ...the smell is like as potent as a skunk, it just sticks to you... I guess I'll try another blackout and instead of keeping nitrates high afterwords I'll do heavy w/c's instead as dizz suggested. I don't know what else to do. I'd consider R/O water but thats not a habit I want to develop since money is getting kind've tight (yes, even for water).

It appeared very soon after changing my filter to an aquaclear 70 which I seeded for about 24hrs with my old bio-wheel, don't thin that was enough, but anyway...the filter was so powerful at full-bore I picked up a sponge pre-filter for it...I'm wondering if when I'm doing filter maintenance the fact that half the crap stuck to the sponge goes back into the water is really harming things...I don't want my fish to get sucked into my intake though. lol


dizzcat
 
Posts: 648
Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:30 am

by dizzcat

I recommend taking everything out each water change, because there is probably stuff stuck in places that you are not seeing by just cleaning it. You can get a brush and really scrub stuff when you do. I never messed with the filter. I got it under control within a couple months doing that. I would recommend a bleach bath for your plants too. What I do is fill a bucket with about 1x's bleach to 10x's water. I soak big leaved/rooted plants like Amazons for 2 minutes. I soak small ones and stem plants for about 1 minute. This will also kill the brown algae that gets on them. Then rinse them off under the sink and drop them in a bucket of water with 3x's the declor. I have never killed a plant this way and it always makes it possible for me to just rinse algae off instead of trying to scrub the leaves. I soak the plants in the declor water as I do the rest of the cleaning.


Tmercier834747
 
Posts: 887
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:33 pm

by Tmercier834747

Bleach just really isn't a route I want to take, to me it leaves too much room for error, and as you say isn't a final solution. If I were to skip treating my driftwood with all the moss on it it would just act as a harbor for the stuff to come back from as it already does. If worse comes to worse, I'll remove all plantings, stir up the sand and do a full week blackout followed by a large water change, and several smaller ones. The blackout worked suprirsingly well, there was no trace of the stuff after lifting the curtain so to speak. Something in the water is just acting as a great source of food for this stuff to thrive in I guess. I've started a new w/c regimen today so hopefully keeping nitrates and dissolved organics at a minimal even if it means killing my plants (which aren't growing anyway) will solve my problem. I also removed the pre-filter and wrapped a loose screen around the filter intake so hopefully my finned friends won't get sucked to it.


Tmercier834747
 
Posts: 887
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:33 pm

by Tmercier834747

As best I can tell I lost another puffer to the filter intake while I was away in Maine over the weekend-- can't find him anywhere....Despite my 5/25% water changes last week the BGA continues to grow. Have yet to try another blackout.

Anyone else have any problems with aquaclear intakes? I realize the flow is powerful for a 16gal but you'd figure even in a 70gal a fish is going to get near the intake at some point...

It used to be nice....

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