Need help to re-start my 20G tank

[myriam]

I moved about a year ago, and since being in the new house, my tank deteriorated. The family room is just too darn sunny and the algae took over my tank, my platys and corys all died, and now my poor tank has been sitting empty for 4 months, and has a forest of algae.

I want to get things going again, but I need some sage advice.

1) Other than scrubbing down the tank and cleaning up the plants, is there anything else I should know about re-Cycling my tank? I will definitely do a water test to make sure my numbers are all good, before getting new fish.
2) The air pump I have now is unbelievably noisy. Any suggestions for an air pump that is so quiet, I can have it on while also watching TV, without sound disruption?
3) Any advice on the best way to clean up plants that are totally covered with algae? I'd rather do it without major chemicals, if that is possible.
4) To prevent the algae from taking over my tank again, any suggestions for particular fish or anything else that could help the algae bloom?

Thanks a lot. I've been absent here for almost a year, and I'm glad to be back

Myriam

[Fishyfanatic]

1) Empty the tank completly. Then clean everything in hot water, scrubbing the algae off of everything. If you had gravel, I would toss the gravel and buy new. When re-cycling the tank, try doing it fishless with pure ammonia.

2) There are several quiet air pumps, the [acronym:7bc9743c2b="Activated Carbon"]AC[/acronym:7bc9743c2b] is supposed to be one of the quietest.

3) I take it they are fake plants? If so, clean in hot water. Or soak them in bleach water then rinse rinse rinse rinse rinse. Then soak them in hot water mixed with 3x dechlorinator.

4) It all depends on what kind of algae you have. Just keep up with your weekly water changes and keep the tank away from direct sunlight.

[greenmaji]

Rena is quiet and powerful as far as air pumps go..
can you diffuse the natural light.. like with solid curtains (opaque is ok), I might be misunderstanding the situation (you might not have the natural light problem anymore)

[coolchinchilla]

As for the air pump, if you don't want to get a new one, some people have success by using a sponge. Take a kitchen sponge or a carwash sponge and cut an indentation the size of your air pump but not thru and thru. Put in the air pump. Hopefully the sponge will dampen the noise. It's cheap to try it.

coolchinchilla

[Jchillin]

Coolchincilla is right on the money. I picked up a fairly old air-pump at my local Aquarium club a few months back. Darn thing was vibrating and noisy. I placed on top of a piece of felt and haven't heard since.

[myriam]

Thanks, everybody. Man, I've got my work cut out for me

I never thought about a sponge or something like that for the air pump. The thing that is making it so noisy is it's vibrating against the table. I will try that first, before springing for another air pump.