sorry I need some sympathy...

[zig]

Your plants and fish will be absolutly fine, the plants maybe a little droopy after 3 days with no light but within a couple of hours of the lights going back on they will be fine again, fish can last for over a week with no food easily, just thought id ask did you remember to clean the filter as well? maybe you did its just something you could easily forget, or putting it differently something i could easily forget.

 

[houndour]

I did clean the filter, but only rinsed the sponges in tank water. I didnt want to clean clean cos that would cause a cycle.

I wrote a list I even remembered to dose the 10ppm of nitrate. Altho I nearly forgot to unplug the light after testing for gaps!!

One question, should I steralise everything....nets, rocks I had riccia on, the CO2 units etc just to be safe?

 

[zig]

I did clean the filter, but only rinsed the sponges in tank water.  I didnt want to clean clean cos that would cause a cycle.

I wrote a list I even remembered to dose the 10ppm of nitrate.  Altho I nearly forgot to unplug the light after testing for gaps!!

One question, should I steralise everything....nets, rocks I had riccia on, the CO2 units etc just to be safe?

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I knew you would, it would just be a shame to go through with it and then find you forgot something after 3 days, it couldnt do any harm to sterilise them, you could also do a weak bleach dip, 1 part bleach to 20 parts water, and only dip them for about 2 minutes and no more and throughly rinse them afterwards a few times, this works with algae infested plants as well particularily hair algae, it kills the algae, but no more than 2 minutes with the plants and rinse them immeaditaly afterwards, most plants will survive, some wont, and it can take them a week or so to recover fully recover from a weak bleach dip, i think vallis is one plant that doesnt do well with a bleach dip, it will look ok for a few days and then the shoots will go brown, so you cut them off totally and the root should survive and produce new shoots and survive ok.

Edit: Sam i forgot to say and its very important, if you do bleach any plants always have a seperate bucket with water and add 3x the normal dechlorinator to the water and as soon as you have bleached the plant dip it immeaditaly into the bucket with the dechlorinator, bleach is made up of chlorine and by immeaditaly dipping the plant in the dechlorinated water you neutralise the bleach and it stops the plant from further damage, if you bleach your equipment do the same thing and it will immeaditaly neutralise the bleach, after you have dipped it in the dechlor just smell any item for any trace of chlorine, and dip it again if you get an odour, and then rinse all items under the tap.

 

[houndour]

OK, I'll do a bleach dip on my equipment. Thanks for the instructions! You are a book of knowledge, you know that?!

It was so wierd coming down to see my tank completely wrapped in binliners poor fishes.

 

[zig]

OK, I'll do a bleach dip on my equipment. Thanks for the instructions! You are a book of knowledge, you know that?!

It was so wierd coming down to see my tank completely wrapped in binliners poor fishes.

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No problem Sam, its auctually 19 parts water 1 part bleach im thinking 20/1, not that it makes much difference, with the equipment you could bleach them longer although not to much with the plastic equipment, and just to warn you some plants wont survive this treatment but its worth a go if you were going to bin them anyway, fingers crossed the blackout has a good effect.

 

[houndour]

It worked

OK, trying not to get too excited incase it comes back but the blackout worked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got a bit camera happy and couldn't resist a few pics of the fish they seemed so happy to have some food! All fish and shrimp are alive

Zig, what do I do now in regards to EI? I did the 50% water change, added 10ppm of nitrates. Should I go back to dosing micros tomorrow?

Here are the pics. Sorry for so many

Java moss...i know it still has the black brush algae on, but believe me this is like a 99% improvement!



Swords. Looking quite healthy apart from holes. But they've always been there. It looks like even some of the fine furry green algae has gone (maybe the hungry fish and shrimp have been at it).


And Lily... they had shot to the surface so have cut some out.


more to come (sorry)

 

[houndour]

Vallis from the top...it's unrecognisiable! It was completely black, even after cleaning.




view from top. The hygro is probably the worst off out of all the plants...a lot of leaves have died (gone kind of see through), but I think they were on their way out anyway cos the bga was just covering them.



Top of lilys

 

[houndour]

Before water change



And after water change



And fishes

 

[nodding_dino]

fantastic result! I'm so pleased for you!!! It all looks spotless!

 

[zig]

Well great news Sam im delighted for you and the pictures look fab, the plants look great, id say you were nervous taking the wrapping off the tank having just spent a ton of cash on co2 and everything if it didnt work, id loved to have seen the tank in person before and after to see the difference, its great when things like that work out (for a change) anyway its great its worked now you can start afresh.

What you should do next is

Ok you have dosed the 10ppm of KNO3, make sure the PO4 levels are ok as well and dose that if nescessary tonight, tomorrow you can dose the trace as normal.

What i would now start doing is to bring your KNO3 levels up to 15ppm and maintain them there from now on, i have started to do this myself, this will help even further to combat BGA if it tries to make a comeback (which it wont if you maintain high enough levels of KNO3)

What is your normal water change day?

and what is the uptake rate usually of KNO3 every couple of days and i will work out a schedule for you, or show you what i do to maintain 15ppm.

 

[houndour]

Normal water change day is Sunday.

Over 2 days my plants uptake of nitrates is about 2.5ppm.

I wish I had taken detailed pics of the tank prior to the blackout, its just at the time it was so depressing I didnt want to take photos!! The 5 gallon is 1 day into its black out so I can compare those pics with what it'll be like on saturday night.

The other thing was the sand was soooooooo clean and smooth!! The fish must have eaten everything they could find! There was surprisingly little poo too.

Can I use the solutions I've made up for my 20 gallon for my 5 gallon, but divide the quantities by 4 to get the required amount? Would that work?

 

[zig]

Not sure about useing the solutions on the 5 gallon, id say if you looked at the calculator you might be able to work out if it is possible, just play around with the figures and see if what you suggest works.

You see the reason you didnt take more pictures Sam is because you didnt think it would work, only joking i really am glad for you its like you now have a new tank.

Obviously you will have to get the co2 working asap or you will have other algae problems, anyway here is what i would suggest, i would do another 50% water change on sunday and dose 15ppm KNO3, 2 days later i would dose another 5ppm of KNO3, and 2 days later another 5ppm, and this should keep you slightly above 15ppm throughout the week and dose the PO4 to 1-1.5ppm.

In the meantime before sunday add a little KNO3 tomorrow and sathurday just to keep it topped up and on sunday you can introduce the new dosing regime.

And just follow the routine as normal with the trace etc, the only change you are making is to increase the KNO3 level to 15ppm and thats all you have to do.

 

[George Farmer]

Sam - Once you've conquered your algae issues in your 22G then why not use water from that in your 5G? Just a thought.

 

[houndour]

it didnt work. *confused* The only thing different is the 5 gallon is 1) smaller 2) has no fish.

The bga has spread all over the sand. Although it looks darker than before. And not so web like.

I'm going to do a small water change, prune dead leaves and clean as much as I can. Then test the water, dose nitrates if necessary and play it by ear for a few days until I decide what to do. I've already got the nutrafin running CO2.

On the upside the glosso looks good give or take a couple of brown leaves. It seems to have grown too! Baby tears doesnt look so good tho.

 

[houndour]

sorry just trying to bump this rather than start a new topic. Wondered if anyone knows why blackout didnt work?