Hi,
I'm new here and hoping someone will lend me a hand.
I've been keeping fish for about 4 years now, so I have most of the basics down, and I don't murder my fishums anymore. However, this summer I've had some health issues and have not been able to care for my tank as usual. Brush algae - aka - red algae - Audouinella - the stuff that looks like black puff balls - has developed. I've never dealt with this before. Yippee, a new adventure.
This is a 29 gal tank, low fish load of a Kissing Gourami, 6 neons, 3 X-Rays, 2 Tetras, 2 Zipper Loaches, and 2 other fish that my SIL gave me. It's a medium/heavily planted tank. I use a BioWheel for filtration and that's my biggest concern. I do not have CO2 injection.
I'll be having surgery in a week or so, it's not scheduled yet. I'd like to be able to take care of this as easily as possible but not lose my BioWheel in the process. A dump and bleach soak sounds easiest to me even though it means I'll have to re-cycle the tank. I could also bleach dip the plants. Any suggestions on the BioWheel? Will the wheel itself hold up to a bleach dip in a 25% bleach solution? I know I'll lose all the good bacteria, but I don't have a choice at this point.
Any other suggestions on how to handle this quickly and easily? I think it's beyond the point of a SAE taking care of it all.
Thanks for reading all of this and any help you can offer.
Heather
I'm new here and hoping someone will lend me a hand.
I've been keeping fish for about 4 years now, so I have most of the basics down, and I don't murder my fishums anymore. However, this summer I've had some health issues and have not been able to care for my tank as usual. Brush algae - aka - red algae - Audouinella - the stuff that looks like black puff balls - has developed. I've never dealt with this before. Yippee, a new adventure.
This is a 29 gal tank, low fish load of a Kissing Gourami, 6 neons, 3 X-Rays, 2 Tetras, 2 Zipper Loaches, and 2 other fish that my SIL gave me. It's a medium/heavily planted tank. I use a BioWheel for filtration and that's my biggest concern. I do not have CO2 injection.
I'll be having surgery in a week or so, it's not scheduled yet. I'd like to be able to take care of this as easily as possible but not lose my BioWheel in the process. A dump and bleach soak sounds easiest to me even though it means I'll have to re-cycle the tank. I could also bleach dip the plants. Any suggestions on the BioWheel? Will the wheel itself hold up to a bleach dip in a 25% bleach solution? I know I'll lose all the good bacteria, but I don't have a choice at this point.
Any other suggestions on how to handle this quickly and easily? I think it's beyond the point of a SAE taking care of it all.
Thanks for reading all of this and any help you can offer.
Heather