[DefStatic]

So long story short I had to let my tank go three weeks without a water change and even then after that two weeks with only a 10% water change. I had to take a two week trip then couldn't get to the tank for a week after and had to move.

Anyways...

So now I got a pretty bad algae problem. My driftwood is covered in dark green or black. My swords are half black. I got all the green algae off my glass. But what do I do about the driftwood and plants? Blackout? Cut them down? Any additive incan get?

Thanks I'm advance!

 

[DefStatic]

Yep, I'd start off manually removing as much as you can (including cleaning your filters and hacking back the most affected portions of plants), dose some Excel for a few days, cut back your photoperiod, and see how it goes.

Guess it is time to pick up some Excel.

I have gotten things under control. It is no longer spreading. New growth shows looks clean. I removed a few of my sword limbs, but not too many at once. My various bacopa I plan to let grow and then replant. I took out my large stone and cleaned it. Filter tube was cleaned the best I good. Air stones the same.

What about my driftwood? It is covered. Can I take them out and put the min a 5 gal bucket and maybe do the H2O2 or Excel treatment? Then rinse and rinse and rinse?

Thanks for all the support. I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to recover from this but so far I have been able to at least get things back in control.

 

[DefStatic]

That should work.

Shouldn't require all that much rinsing, either, espeically if you go with hydrogen peroxide. H2O2 just breaks down into water (H2O) and oxygen (O2) when mixed with water.

Thanks, I will give that a try this weekend.

As for the rest of the tank, it is a 30gal, and I would say realistically after plants, substrate, rocks, driftwood, etc, it is maybe 25 gallons of water. Does anyone see any problems with performing 15% to 20% water changes 3 times a week until for a month? Or should I be good just doing 20% water changes weekly as I was before?

I just do not want to have to cut too many plants or too many at once. I am going to trim a few more leaves off my swords and cut down other plants until all the new growth is clean.