Cleaning my tank

[Fird]

I need help. I have had an algae problem for some time now. I cut down on feeding trying to fix it, but it doesn't seem like its working. Also, one of my fish cannot be found. I only have a 29g. Enough is enough! Tomorrow I'm taking all my rocks out and scrubbing them free of algae. I heard I can scrub with peroxide for the best results but how much truth is behind that? And if I take the rocks out to clean them and put them back in won't the ammonia spike as if it was to cycle all over again?

 

[Dougm]

Stop! Just try removing what you can with a toothbrush, in the tank or bucket of old salt water. Then try a 3 or 4 day black out- no lights at all, tape dark paper or bag on glass to stop sun light. Don't cover the top- just keep lights off. My tank always looks fantastic after I do this. Also, don't feed during this blackout.

 

[Fird]

Are you sure? i dont want my fish to die. I still have a fish to look for so I have to move the rock work

 

[joy13]

You need to find out what is causing the problem first. Some foods are full of nitrates like those little cubes they really need to be thawed and rinsed before using and flake foods also have nitrates. Lights out will help kill the algae but it won't stop it from reoccurring and it won't hurt your fish. Don't scrub your rocks off in your tank all that will do is spread it. Take the rocks out and scrub them in and then rinse them you can use water that you would normally dump out for that adding a little peroxide in the rinse will only help with certain algae. I found it did very little for red turf algae but does a great job on bryosis. What type of algae are you dealing with? Are you using RO water? How old are your bulbs?

Have you considered that the missing fish might be causing the algae? If you have a CUC you might not find the fish.

The only thing that the peroxide hurt was the bristle worms and brittle stars when I used a very high concentration. I didn't use it directly on anything but mushrooms as far as coral goes but it didn't hurt them.

 

[Fird]

I have a hair algea problem, I'm using RO and my tank my lights are maybe 3 months old. I've had the algae problem way before my fish went missing. I'm going to completely clean my tank tomorrow. Moving rocks, sand bed, glass cleaning, water change... Etc. hopefully I find the little sucker.

 

[joy13]

Try not to disturb the sand bed to much it can cause a lot of problems like high nitrates. I know my 55 the hair algae was a huge problem because of the rocks I got of craigslist had to have been in a tank with high phosphates and nitrates with a lot of water changes and getting macro algae it really helps how much manual cleaning I had to do. Low magnesium can also cause problems with algae.

 

[ruha456]

Do you have a cleaning crew in there?

 

[Fird]

I have a peppermint shrimp, 3 hermits and 6 turbo snails. I'm not really worried about nitrates because my test kit has never indicated any in my tank. I'm just going to move it as to get all the diatoms on it.

 

[Patrick93]

What test kit do you use cause API isn't that accurate with some things