My planted tanks

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I'd follow the Purigen recycle instructions. That stuff is porous as all get out. If the how to can work on that grunge, stands to reason anything that can stand the treatment will be just as clean.
 
Quick question for everyone, once I tear this bad boy down, I'm going to bleach the daylights out of the aquarium to make sure nothing living remains. If I left bleach for about an hour in the aquarium and then rinsed it for awhile and then added dechlorinator a few times, and then let it sit out and dry, do you think the bleach will still be harmful to any fish/snails/ADF going into the aquarium later on?


Rinse after bleach then soak in 2 or 3x dechlorinated water.
Once air dried if you don't smell the bleach you are all set.;)
Good Luck!
 
That was a lot of Wild Kingdom you had going on in there! I had most of those but not all at one time. And they eventually died off. Except for the planaria. Thought of doing the med route but the substrate was so full of shrimp and snail poo that it really needed a purge.
Here's to new beginnings


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I'll give that a go Laeris. Thank you!

Thank you coral! I was planning on doing something similar to that. At least I know I am on the right track.

Fresh2o, how long did it all last for? I decided I need to do something after watching the flatworm eat the baby snail. Had that not happened I was going to try and wait it all out.
 
I had the shrimp tank up for almost 2.5 years. During that time there were two different populations of seed shrimp (ostracods), copepods, hydra, detritus worms, and planaria. In the last year I've only seen the seed shrimp (they're cool) and numerous planaria. The latter were quite annoying; a blast of Excel or hydrogen peroxide would kill them on the spot. It was the ones I did not see that concerned me.
It was time for a change up so the shrimp are in a bare bottom holding tank with DW and plants. The current tank is cleaned out, empty, and waiting for me to do something with it.


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So I am placing an order on Ebay for the pp and some fenbendazole. I was thinking of grabbing a few more plants for the 10g because I guess I love punishment and I also will be putting it back together as soon as I possibly can. I am going to keep the cyperus helferi, crypt wendtii greens, and java moss. I'm going to set the c. helferi up as it was before and then I was thinking of adding either dwarf sag or micro sword lilaeopsis in the front of the c. helferi to give it a gradient. I was also thinking of moving the crypts so that they more cover the right side rather than how they were. I need an idea for a larger plant though, something to go behind the driftwood possibly or maybe not, maybe something behind the crypts?

I'm at a loss for ideas on how to redo this. Any suggestions would help, just remember this tank gets excel and I have no plans in the near future to try CO2. I also dose ferts and use Mebbid's root tabs.
 
Bacopa caroliniana is not very demanding. Bright green stem plant that can, in certain conditions, grow out of the tank. I've had it in a heated, medium lit planted tank and in a pond outside under ice; hardy plant.


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I've ordered the pp and some micro sword so it looks like I'll be breaking down the tank as soon as the pp get here because the micro sword will get here shortly after and I don't want it to die. As soon as I get everything in I'll post some pictures of the breakdown and the setup so you all can chime in and give me pointers or help.

Still haven't decided on the larger plant. I like the bacopa but not sure if I want it in this tank. So the search is still on.
 
My micro sword came! Still waiting on the pp though. Should I just keep it in the package until I get the pp and am able to reset the tank or should I get a glass of dechlorinator water and let it sit in there until I'm ready for it?

I've only used the plants from the box stores so I'm completely new to online plants. I've always been able to leave those plants in their bags/container until I was ready to put them in the tank.
 

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Thank you, Caleb.

I'm hoping the pp gets here tomorrow (delivery date is scheduled for Friday) since this plant was supposed to arrive after the pp. But I'm hoping to be able to get the tank cleaned out and sanitized Friday night at the latest and the plants back in by Sunday.
 
Potassium permanganate arrived today! I really want to start the breakdown right now but can't because I need to study for a test tomorrow so I won't be getting to the breakdown until after 5 tomorrow. I guess that's for the best because I can have to boyfriend carry the tank to the basement after I drain it. So on tomorrow's agenda I will be draining 10g, pulling all the plants and putting them into a bucket with the pp dip, dumping some bleach in the substrate to kill the snails and the creepies, then tossing substrate and dead snails into the garbage, then doing a 50/50 bleaching of the tank with a good scrubbing, and to finish the night I'll be rinsing, dechloring the tank so that it can dry and be set back up in time for the snow to hit Saturday night.

I figure it is probably for the best to just kill the snails because I have noticed a few more of the parasitic flatworms and I don't want to risk using snails infected with those things. If they can rip a baby MTS from it's shell alive then I don't want to see what it will do to a fish and some ADF.

On Saturday I'll probably wash the new substrate and get it and the plants back in to the tank along with the driftwood that will be boiled for a few hours to kill any creepies on it. Hopefully it will be full and cycling again late Saturday.
 
I was able to catch a few pictures of the flatworms. The first one the flatworm is in the moss on the left hand side. It has iridescent marking (a circle on the head, line down the back, and a half circle on the rump). The second picture is the underneath of another one I found in the tank. These things are a little more than 5mm long. I can't wait to nuke these MFers!
 

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Tank has officially been taken apart. The driftwood is boiling with salt added to the water, plants are now in a bucket of clean water after sitting in pp for about 30 minutes, the tank has a bottle of bleach and hot water in it, scrubbed the tank with a bristle brush to knock off all wormy things on glass. I'll let the tank sit for about 45 minutes to an hour with the bleach then I'll drain, fill with water, drain fill with water and dechlorinator let that sit for about 30 minutes, rinse and sniff. If I smell bleach very strongly I'll redo the dechlorinator and water soak and sniff again.
 
Didn't get much done on the tank today. I washed and put the new sand into the tank, rinsed and scrubbed everything that I let sit in pp overnight to get rid of any and all creepies. In the morning I plan on moving the tank back to its place and aquascaping and then getting the cycle started over again.

I think for aqua scaping this time I'm going to try and place the driftwood on the right side with the moss on it, crypts surrounding the driftwood and the c. helferi and micro sword on the left leading into the crypts. Still haven't thought of where to put the anubias. Maybe I can find a way to put it behind the driftwood at the top. I'll post pics tomorrow as I experiment and then see which I like best before flooding the tank.
 
The tank is put back together. Calibrating the heater and then I'll get pics to post.
 
Here is the rescape and clean tank. Cloudy water but I'm hoping that will clear up in a bit. Not sure if I'm 100% about it yet but I do like the dip down in the middle.
 

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Thanks, Caleb. I'm just hoping this time will be a little easier and free from all of the unwanted pests. ☺
 
I'm really glad you didn't completely throw it in. It's going to be great watching everything be built up!
 
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