Welp, I'll be tearing down my 40B today.

[jeremyTR]

This sucks but I still have shrimp freaking out, swimming in circles, and into objects without stopping so it looks like they're trying to swim through it. They look mental, really. This is most likely due to me ferting with osmocote and rescaping. Anyway I have a few questions

First off, ill be filling my spare 40b but ill need to use the HOB from my current tank.. is this going to poison the new tank?

How do you go about sanitizing plants and cleaning sand? For everything else ill be tossing in bleach water.

I'm also open to any tips and advice you may have on this at all!

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[cprash]

did you ever figure out if the (possible?) algaecide on the new plant from the nursery had an effect on the shrimp deaths?

I'd just start with new substrate to be honest with you, provided the sand you have isn't too pricey.

[jeremyTR]

I don't think that's it, I only bought plants from a couple people here and from my lfs plus the ones I bought in the tubes from petco. Nobody mentioned anything like that.

Throwing the sand away isn't an option plus it cost twenty bucks a bag from petco.

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[jkan0228]

Take out the osmocote pelts sucking with air tubing or tweezers ASAP. Do water changes as well. Maybe 10-15% daily?

[jeremyTR]

I put far too many Osmocote pellets in my substrate first of all like a dumbass. I think tearing it down would be better.

Ill start as soon as I get of work.

If I used even half of the amount of Osmocote that I used I think I would have still used too much. I think next time I putting one pellet by each big cluster of plants. So maybe like four- six pellets max. That shouldn't cause any problems like this right? Especially if I'm not rescaping all the time anymore because ill be setting it up exactly the same way I have it now.

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[jeremyTR]

I've also been doing 50 percent water changes every other day.

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[cprash]

Yeah, throwing out that sand definitely isn't an option. Might I suggest some purigen to pull the waste and heavy metals out and a sponge like water spite or pennywort to mop up the remaining ferts?

[jeremyTR]

I'm using Purigen but i was told it doesn't suck up much?

I don't have those plants either

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[mordalphus]

You don't need osmocote at all, your plants are mostly water column feeders (if thats the tank in your signature)

I'd never use osmocote in a shrimp tank, I used osmocote capsules in my high tech tank and got terrible water quality issues.

Problem with reusing your substrate is, you'll have to rinse it for quite a while to get all the osmocote out. Your filter should be fine

[cprash]

Since one bag is rated up to 100 gallons, it should be sufficient. The color of the beads will give you an idea of if that also needs to be bleached and regenerated.

Also, unlike charcoal, it won't leach anything back into the tank.

Regarding plants, I suppose water changes will get all those excess ferts out.

[Kunsthure]

I'm not familiar with osmocote so I don't know what effect it would have on filter media.

I definitely agree with using Purigen. Why not try it before tearing down the tank? Take out as much of the osmocote as you can then run Purigen, and hell, run some carbon too. Keep up with the big WC and see how everything goes. I just tore down a 13g and it was a huge undertaking (ALL day) so I can't imagine tearing down a 40B.

As for the sand, I'd say boil it. You'll obviously have to do it in smaller batches, but I think that's the best way to clean it.

Potassium permanganate is the best way to clean plants. Jungle's Clear Water is PP and should be available at Petco/Smart. Or pond supply stores have it. I'm sure you don't need the reminder () but always dip plants before putting them in your tank. Some people use a 1:19 bleach to water dip but not all plants can handle the bleach.

My best advice is wait til the weekend. It took my ALL day to tear down my 13g. The only thing I kept was one piece of DW and the HOBs. So from dealing with changing substrates to attempting to sterilize the tank, to getting things up and running again was a huge PITA.

If you've got sponge prefilters, don't forget to either throw them out or boil them too.

-Lisa

[jeremyTR]

I'm using Purigen been using it for a couple weeks now. I love the stuff. But someone told me in another topic that it doesn't absorb much other than nitrites or something.

I totally figured this is an all day thing but i at least want to get my shrimp out of that water. Will the shrimp be fine in a tank without a substrate? I have some extra wood and stuff I can place in there but no substrate.

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[jeremyTR]

Also I just have the standard marineland HOB. Should i rinse the filters in there? I don't think I should. I don't want the tank I'm going to set up to cycle

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[jeremyTR]

I do have a giant pot i could boil my sand in if that's what I need to do.

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[jkan0228]

Send $7 to my PayPal and I'll send you a good handful or two of salvinia to suck up those nutrients. LMK!