Bleaching decor and algae

[Fishyfanatic]

I am having a BIG problem in my 10 gal tank. It is becoming over run with dark green algae. It looks like little dots all over the tank. I have a "sand" castle and a rocky thingy. The castle is the color of sand, but is made of something else (not ceramic). Anyways. They were both covered with the algae. I tried to use vinegar, but that worked a little bit. So, I soaked them in bleach water and the algae was cleared off in a matter of seconds.

Now I am in the process of getting them ready to go back into the tank. I soaked them in regular tap water over night, then this morning I boiled them for 30 minutes. Now I have them soaking in dechlorinated water. What do I do now? Do I need to boil them for another 30 minutes and then soak them overnight in dechlorinated water? They don't smell like bleach, but I want to be cautious.

Also, what can I do to get rid of the algae? It keeps coming back. None of my other tanks have algae, but this one is out of control. I had snails in the tank and that didn't help. Right now there is a clown pleco in the tank, but it's temporary. I plan on moving him to the 150 gal. Please, HELP.

 

[shannen]

Sounds like spot algae. I've had it in a few of my non planted tanks, and I'm not sure what actually causes it. These tanks had very low nitrate, but yet it still was a problem. Outside of what you are doing with the bleach I've yet to be able to control it, and nothing that I know of will eat it.

I'm pretty sure you've done what is needed to make sure everything is bleach free. I would say go ahead and put it back in the tank.

 

[krap101]

i think vinegar takes care of bleach. maybe some dechlorinator might work.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Well I just got done tearing down the tank. It wasn't my intention to do it, but I am just so fed up with this tank. It's nothing but headaches. Originally I was just checking the filter and it was loaded with green nasty slimy stuff. The inside had a coating of white/clear gunk lining the filter. So I completly flushed the filter. Cleaned it out in it's entirety. (Cardinal Rule #1 Broken) Then, I looked at the gravel and it was starting to form hair algae again. So, I drained all the water in the tank, dumped out all of the gravel, and cleaned the tank with hot water, scraping all of the algae spots off of the glas. (Cardinale Rule #2 Broken) Then, dumped the gravel in the trash and replaced it with a mixture of pool filter and black sand. I figure, this will be a heck of a lot easier to deal with than gravel. I don't have ANY of these problems in tanks that have a sand substrate.

SO, Basically I tore down the tank and started from scratch. Hoping that the problem won't re-occur. The tank looks AWESOME right now, not too sure how long it will last though. I haven't added back the rock or the sand castle. I figure that I'll boil it one more time, just to be safe. I don't want to kill the fish because of bleach. But, I did notice that part of the castle cracked. I'm not sure why though. I guess maybe the heat of the water while I was boiling it got too hot for it. It's not ceramic or plastic. I'm not sure what it's made of.

I realize that this tank is going to go through a cycle, but it was just too much to try to deal with. I've been working alot lately and haven't been home to be able to maintain it as much as I used to. So I guess that's where I went wrong. The other tanks seem like they are so much easier to maintain. Why is it that this 10 gal has just been a nightmare?

 

[Guest]

I bleach my ornaments once, but then the bioling process made them soft and kind of deformed. I'm kind of a perfectionist, so I tossed them out.

 

[An t-iasg]

Wow, Fishyfanatic, sorry you had to go to all that trouble I tore down my 5 gallon hex tank because it had bad hair algae and the fish died (not because of the algae, I don't think) but I saw no reason to keep it cycled, so I tore my tank down too. It's waiting for another betta

I got a chuckle out of your Cardinal Rule #1 and 2! True, you'll pretty much destroy your bacterial colonies if you change substrates and totally clean the filter, but you really have no choice if the algae is that bad. Your bigger cichlid tank can easily spare some filter media or a sponge squeeze to get the 10 gallon started again.

Does the 10 gallon have any sunlight hitting it? The tank that I tore down had some indirect sunlight hitting it from a window about 3 feet away. Since it was late afternoon sun, about 3-5 pm, I didn't worry about it...until I happened to see huge billowy strings of green algae across the whole top of the tank, anchored on the tops of the plants! There was fuzz all over the sides of the tank too. I did keep checking on the tank since it was by the window, and all of this algae just appeared overnight, it seemed. Also, maybe just missing one or two water changes may have caught up with you somehow. I know that well-maintained tanks like yours can often skip a water change, but then again, you never know if that was the cause or not.

About your decorations -- when I bleach decorations and silk plants, I soak overnight in a bleach solution, and then soak overnight in clean tap water with a triple (or more!) dose of dechlorinator added. I then dump that water and do it again -- soak for another night in clean water with lots of dechlor added. I can't smell any bleach after that. So I would say if you can't smell any bleach, you're ready to put the stuff back in the tank also. I hope it stays algae-free this time!

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I have to admit, it looks 1000 times better now than it did before. I know that I completly wiped out the bacterial colonies, but I've been struggling with this tank for months now. I do weekly water changes when I do the rest of the tanks, but it seems like this one would require daily water changes to keep up with the gunk that forms. The problem is, I'm only home Friday through Sunday. The rest of the week I am out of town. If I was home, I could do daily or every other day water changes, but it's just not possible. Hopefully when I get a job closer to home, I will be able to maintain it better. It was mainly in the gravel, so I'm thinking that if I have sand, there is no way that anything can sift its way to the bottom and build up.

The tank doesn't get any direct sunlight. None of them do. The sun is behind our apt all day and the only window that sunlights comes in directly is upstairs. The downstairs windows are on the north side of the house and the only south facing window downstairs is on the back door, but we have that covered with a sun blocking curtain. It gets indirect sunlight from the front window, but the blinds are always shut during the day because noone's home. That's why I can't figure out why the algae is so bad. There's a Clown Pleco in there right now, but that's only temporary. He'll hang there for a week or so before we put him into the 150.

On that note, having a small pleco like a Clown Pleco in an African Cichlid tank, do you see any problems? Size wise. Right now there's a common pleco who's about 7 inches and the other one that's about 4 inches. This little Clown is about an inch and a half.

I added the castle and rock back to the tank. I boiled for about 45 minutes to an hour, then soaked in heavily dechlorinated water for about an hour, then put it back in the tank. So far the fish aren't acting weird, so I'm going to assume that there weren't any traces left on the decor. If there was, wouldn't they have died by now?

 

[Guest]

On that note, having a small pleco like a Clown Pleco in an African Cichlid tank, do you see any problems? Size wise. Right now there's a common pleco who's about 7 inches and the other one that's about 4 inches. This little Clown is about an inch and a half.

Size wise no. When I first got my Royal it was 2" and it was in a Cichlid tank and no one messed with it. Just don't count on the Clown to help with the algea.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I'm also kind of worried about the larger Common going after the Clown. He's not for algae, I got him because I've always wanted one and finally the lfs had one. My new problem is trying to find driftwood. The places around here don't carry it. Do you guys think he'll be ok until this weekend till I can get some driftwood? Do they really need it or is algae wafers and zuc sufficient?

 

[ace1uno_00]

well you can get drift wood pretty cheap at Bilalsonline.com and thatfishplace.com
they have some sizes to chose from.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Do you guys think he'll be ok until this weekend till I can get some driftwood? Do they really need it or is algae wafers and zuc sufficient?

 

[ace1uno_00]

what your doin is perfect.
Yeah he'll be fine.

 

[RoK]

He will be fine but the wood will help.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I really didnt want to put driftwood in the tank because of how it effects the pH. We have 7.0 out of the tap and are upping it with crushed coral in the filter. Right now, it's at a steady 7.8. But, adding a piece of small driftwood shouldn't effect the pH that much, right?

 

[ace1uno_00]

depends on the size of wood really. but if you get a small one it wont really effect that much... maybe a . something.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Great, I just didn't want it to pull it down like 1.0 or anything.

 

[RoK]

Driftwood doesn't have that much effect IME. It's brought my 20 gal's pH from about 7.0 to 6.8 but that was after awhile. Another thing, the more gallons of water the less it affects the pH, but you knew that right?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Yeah, I figured that I'd need a TON of driftwood to really affect the pH in a 150 gal tank. I just wanted to check first, better to be cautious.

 

[pitt420dude]

geeze, 150 gallons!! I would be surprised if you had any noticeable shift in ph at all. I was going for a shift by putting a rather large piece in my 55 gal but I think I prepped it too much (filled sink with boiling water and let sit overnight three times). I had no change whatsoever as of yet. It has been about three weeks.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I'm hoping that the crushed coral will completly counteract anything that the driftwood might do. I just don't know where to put it in the tank.