[spore]

Looks good!
I like to (spray)paint my tanks too.. I usually do it before I set them up though, so it's a little easier

I can never seem to get black contact paper to lay down without seeing adhesive or bubbles.. never looks quite as silky smooth as the ol' rattle can.

 

[Seattle_Aquarist]

So I decided I needed a change with my tank. The flora is coming in well, but it just didn't look good to me. I made the stupid decision to paint a background on it, stupid just because of what a major pain in the pre filter it was. It turned out great imo, well worth the effort, now I just need to decide if I should nuke the BGA bloom I'm having with some erythromycin or just see if it corrects itself. Here's a gallery with it from start to finish: https://imgur.com/gallery/ruLp8

Hi themetalchurch,

Nice looking tank. Before doing the antibiotic thing for your BGA try dosing 1 teaspoon of Hydrogen Peroxide 3% Solution (@ your pharmacy or grocery store) per 3 gallons of water volume in your tank. Best results are achieved if lights have been on maximum for at least 20 minutes so plants (and BGA) are at maximum photosynthesis. Hydrogen Peroxide is a very a strong oxidizing and anti-bacterial agent that breaks down into water after about 20 minutes after dosing. After dosing you may see a lot of oxygen bubbles being generated which in the several times I have done this injured a fish, or plant. You may dose once every 24 hours, several doses may be required.

 

[themetalchurch]

How would the o2 bubble injure a fish or plant? I'm holding off on the medicine for now, going to try to keep doing weekly manual removal and a strict dosing regimen first. Thanks for the info, much rather try that than the antibiotic, I'd be so bummed to hit a mini cycle now that it's becoming better established.

 

[MtAnimals]

Blue green stain remover works well too,and it's way cheaper then erythro.I've had BGA on 2 or 3 tanks,and it came back after Erythro,the most effective thing for me is keeping dead leaves picked out.

 

[themetalchurch]

Blue green stain remover works well too,and it's way cheaper then erythro.I've had BGA on 2 or 3 tanks,and it came back after Erythro,the most effective thing for me is keeping dead leaves picked out.

I picked up a package of Maracyn, it was $9 at my lfs. Not using it quite yet as I also got a couple more peppered corys to complete the shoal, gonna give my filter a week or two to build up the extra beneficial bacteria.

I might be imagining things, but my fish seem to be having a bit of a better time in there with the black background. Anyone else ever experience this?

 

[MtAnimals]

What size is the tank? We only have one small LFS 40 mi away that doesn't stock much,and when I used E on my 45 it used up most of the bigger package I got from amazon.You use one packet per 10 gallons 5 days in a row.

that background looks good! and none of the problems of peeling off or partial sticking from a paper background.

 

[themetalchurch]

What size is the tank? We only have one small LFS 40 mi away that doesn't stock much,and when I used E on my 45 it used up most of the bigger package I got from amazon.You use one packet per 10 gallons 5 days in a row.

that background looks good! and none of the problems of peeling off or partial sticking from a paper background.

It's a 20H, the package comes with 8 packets, so four days of full strength treatment. Worst case scenario I'll grab another box, but I feel like a four day dose will be fine.

Thank you! I'm very happy with how it turned out