Gaia: High-Tech 20L Journal- Post vacation pics 8/16/09

[garuf]

Out of curiosity how did you go about doing the bleach dip? When ever I've tried before I've melted both plant and algae...

[Francis Xavier]

I know what you mean about supportive posts bringing motivation! After spending hours planting leaflets it's refreshing to see someone appreciate your work. And I'm totally with you on that algae mess. My roommate actually was worried he didn't have enough (he filled his 30g with nothing but large snails, ghost shrimp, and two albino cory's, he wants to add oto's and is afraid there isn't sufficient algae for em), so i told him if he was that worried I'd transfer some algae from my tank free of charge.

Hope to see some updates! Maybe I'll see some inspiration for my own setup.

[@marko@]

Originally Posted by garuf

Out of curiosity how did you go about doing the bleach dip? When ever I've tried before I've melted both plant and algae...

ive done it before on a bunch of plants. most did melt. anubias never melted for me. the ferns did sometimes, but the bare rhizome shot out leaves pretty quickly afterward.
i never tried lileaopsis, and i hope it will survive.
im gonna start in a few hours.

Originally Posted by Francis Xavier

I know what you mean about supportive posts bringing motivation! After spending hours planting leaflets it's refreshing to see someone appreciate your work. And I'm totally with you on that algae mess. My roommate actually was worried he didn't have enough (he filled his 30g with nothing but large snails, ghost shrimp, and two albino cory's, he wants to add oto's and is afraid there isn't sufficient algae for em), so i told him if he was that worried I'd transfer some algae from my tank free of charge.

Hope to see some updates! Maybe I'll see some inspiration for my own setup.

he can have my algae, lol.
updates in a few hours.

[@marko@]

ok well, i got a new camera for my bday, and ill use it for the updates.

im gonna start digging into the tank, ill take a brake and post once all the plants are out of the tank and either bleached or thrown out.

[Karackle]

good luck! Can't wait to see the new setup!

And I'd agree, the best plan would probably be to pull the plants first, then let the filter do it's thing for a little while so you can see who's still in there.

As for keeping the filter full of beneficial bacteria, if you plan to sterilize it to make sure it doesn't have any nematodes etc in it then you'll lose all your bacteria. If you plant to clean it well but not sterilize it, do it in tank water if you can, otherwise in fresh dechlorinated water. Then you'll have to keep the filter running on a bucket or something that has fish in it as an ammonia source. Or hook it back up on the tank as soon as you get the tank moved and then either put the guppies back in even if you don't get to planting, or add a little bit of food even if there are no fish/shrimp because the breaking down of the food will release some ammonia. The bacteria need an ammonia source to survive.

If you only have 2 surviving guppies and possibly some shrimp though, i'd personally go ahead and sterilize the filter and then shoot for a silent cycle in the tank, a pair of pygmy guppies and a couple shrimp aren't going to add a whole lot to the bioload, or if you have somewhere else to house them, you could do a fishless cycle. I find that as long as you stock slowly and have a beneficial bacteria seed source, silent cycles are pretty easy to achieve as long as you plant heavily. You may still need to do water changes if ammonia / nitrItes creep up at all, but when I did my 30 I found they eeked up to .25 over the course of a few days, and then I would do a water change, but the stems took care of the rest

[@marko@]

plants have all been pulled, ferns and lileaopsis were bleached. hopefully they dont melt (since i like the lileaopsis, and some of those ferns are huge and it would be a shame).
there is nothing alive, so i will clean the filter very well, as im not worrying about fish or shrimp. they all died already.
anyway here are a bunch of pics of the process and captions:


the tank


fern


fern


lileaopsis (this was all from one little pot a few monthes ago!)


lileaopsis


soaking in dechlore water after bleach


dead bleached algae


trash from tank


tank now

[Karackle]

Sorry to hear the last few fish didn't make it! But in that case, I'd definitely just five the filter and the rest of the tank a good sterilization to get rid of nasties including algae spores. And then just re-cycle it. If you have a lot of fast growing stems, silent cycling is an option. Good luck! can't wait to see the new scape!

[@marko@]

i will sterilize the tank, but tubing and filter will just be washed. sterilizing all that stuff is too much for me.
the tank is draining right now, and then i have to go dig all that gravel out of there.

[Karackle]

a quick bleach dip is all it should take to sterilize, mild bleach solution, rinse until you can't smell bleach anymore, and then dechlor if you choose, in the fish room at work we use the rinse til you can't smell the bleach anymore rule and call it good. Filters are an excellent haven for nasties to build up and mature, you might just end up with nematodes again, i'd suggest sterilizing.

[@marko@]

ugh.
now you made me nervous.

fine ill sterilize the media. my dads opting for new bioballs, but unless there is something obviously wrong, im just doing a few minute bleech dip.

though there are no nematodes. the medication was most likely portioned wrong. it killed all the fish, melted the crytps (yes it even kills plants), and even kill a million or so snails.

[Karackle]

yipes, maybe you nuked it enough already. But since you're breaking the tank down because of this problem, you wanna make sure it's erradicated before setting it back up so you don;t find yourself in the same position as soon as you get fish back in there. Might take a little extra time but will probably save you a lot of time, $$ and aggravation in the long run to do it as well as you can the first time around you know?

I'm not trying to be a pain, just speaking from experience.

Good luck!

[roybot73]

I say start it fresh dude... If things were that infected, you owe it to yourself to do it right the second time around...

[@marko@]

its not why im breaking it down. i was going to move and rescape anyway in a month or so. figured now would be a better time. plus all the dead crypt roots and nematodes and snails etc. made the tank smell awful.

anyway, i have emptied the tank, removed the gravel, moved the stand + tank, cleaned the glass, bleached, cleaned the filter, cleaned the prefilter and surface skimmer, and boiled the wood. when i post this i will go to clean the tubing.
here are pics of the proccess:











btw, i added purigen to the filter in prep for the AS. and i found my amano shrimp, he got stuck under the prefilter (idk how he got in), and starved or something.

[CL]

I hope this next tank works out better I heard aqua soil, so I think you'll like the results

[@marko@]

i definately hope so.

omg, i am so done.
i am just about sick of scrubing glass, and tubing and such.
but tomorrow, i just need to fill and plant. pics with captions:

magic dirt:


magic dirt in the tank with wood and equipment:


let there be light:


a few inches of water to let the AS settle overnight:


the whitish cloudiness is normal right?