how to clean

[lovefishies]

how do i clean my tank because all i have left is the 2 chinese algae eaters in there any help would be appreciated thankx have a nice day

 

[Peyton]

Do you mean the glass or the substrate? or both? For the glass use a algae scraper or a old credit card. For the gravel just get a cheap siphon from the LFS or other retail store. As far as your chinese algae eaters they really don't live up to their name and tend to get aggressive as they get older. What size tank do you have BTW?

 

[lovefishies]

the whole thing i wanted to strip it all down and start over but i have the chinese algae eaters still living i have a 10 gallon

how do i clean the ornaments that are in there? and the bubble wand?

 

[tropicfishman]

scrub them, theres a solution for plastic plants that cleans them, but you have to soak the plantrs for 24 hours in it, its simply called palstic plant cleaner, works well with ornaments to, just rinse nd rinse and rinse till you hate water lol

 

[Cinder]

I was given some great advice by an advanced aquarist on how to clean plastic plants. Use Denture cleaners tablets! I use a 5 qt. bucket and put three tablets in with one or two plastic plants (depending on the size you could put in more) and let it sit in the fizzing for a good half an hour. Then take out the plastic plant and scrub with a toothbrush. The plants come almost completely clean (only really crusted on algae survive this scrub). Rinse very thoroughly with clean water several times scrubbing with your fingers to make sure they are cleaned and put back into the tank. (I bought a box of the cheapest Denture tabs at Walmart - it cost under $3.00 for the box.)

 

[lovefishies]

What should i do with the chinese algae eaters? i dont have another tank

 

[Cinder]

Why do you need to clean the entire tank? If it just looks dirty I wouldn't bother with the complete clean - just do it a little at a time over a few weeks while changing your water.
If you had a disease outbreak (which I think is the case from other threads you have) then I would move the CAE's to a large bucket (like a five gallon) with their own water in it. They would be fine in that for an hour or so while you cleaned up the tank. When you put them back in I don't think I would use the old water as it may also contain contaminants. Use a net and put them back. The potential problem I see here is that you may start a new cycle with your tank by doing such a complete cleaning. Hopefully using the same filter media would keep that from happening.
Someone here with more experience in this type of thing can correct me if my advice is wrong.

 

[joannde]

The issue is that if the entire tank is broken down and cleaned then it will need to recycle - which means the remaining fish will be subjected to ammonia and nitrites again.

You're much better off just scrubbing the ornaments in PLAIN water (or the denture thing - but you'd need to rinse it ALOT ALOT ALOT) and gravel vac as normal