Atl300zx
Aquarium Advice Freak
These past couple months ive been battling bad cases of staghorn algae and Black Brush Algae (BBA). The major changes in my tank recently that may have led to this outbreak are the following:
- Removed all Fast growth plants due to the trimming requirements (added a few back recently to see if this would help and it hasnt)
- Light bulbs are ~ 1 yr old (will be replaced during rebuild)
- Still dosing the same EI blindly even tho I removed the fast growers, however, my Nitrates test kit hasn't read above 30 ppm for any of my test.
- Removed several large fish from the tank (7" bala shark; 5" SAE, and 6" Silver Dollar) however the platys are now reproducing beyond control. I probably have 35 fish in the tank now (almost all small platys).
Tank Stats:
- 55 Gallon; 260 watt CF; pressurized c02; Daily EI dosing; Rena XP3 filter
-Nitrates are 10-30 ppm
-Nitrites & Ammonia are 0 ppm
Here is where i need advice. I was planning on removing all of the fish and placing them in a 40 gallon rubbermaid container with the canister filter running on it. Then i would remove all the plants, cutting off badly infected leaves, and dipping remainder of in a 1:20 water to bleach solution. I will also do the same dip for heaters, thermometers, driftwood, intake and outtake for the filter.
What do I do about cleaning the gravel and the filter contents? Do i worry about algae spores and growth there? I do have some BBA growing on the gravel.
Any advice from people who have gone through a tear down and rebuild will be greatly appreciated.
THANKS!!
- Removed all Fast growth plants due to the trimming requirements (added a few back recently to see if this would help and it hasnt)
- Light bulbs are ~ 1 yr old (will be replaced during rebuild)
- Still dosing the same EI blindly even tho I removed the fast growers, however, my Nitrates test kit hasn't read above 30 ppm for any of my test.
- Removed several large fish from the tank (7" bala shark; 5" SAE, and 6" Silver Dollar) however the platys are now reproducing beyond control. I probably have 35 fish in the tank now (almost all small platys).
Tank Stats:
- 55 Gallon; 260 watt CF; pressurized c02; Daily EI dosing; Rena XP3 filter
-Nitrates are 10-30 ppm
-Nitrites & Ammonia are 0 ppm
Here is where i need advice. I was planning on removing all of the fish and placing them in a 40 gallon rubbermaid container with the canister filter running on it. Then i would remove all the plants, cutting off badly infected leaves, and dipping remainder of in a 1:20 water to bleach solution. I will also do the same dip for heaters, thermometers, driftwood, intake and outtake for the filter.
What do I do about cleaning the gravel and the filter contents? Do i worry about algae spores and growth there? I do have some BBA growing on the gravel.
Any advice from people who have gone through a tear down and rebuild will be greatly appreciated.
THANKS!!