nabokovfan87

Yeah that is how I would handle it. You can also spray with bleach, let it air dry (10-15 minutes) and then go ahead and soak that to rinse it, then boil it. To be safe, if you opt to use bleach at all then you would soak it, off gas it for a bit for anything that leached in and use dechlor just making sure you don't have any bleach smell at all.

Nice!

Photos from the WC today. This is of the infested tank, following 1 week of blackout. I did the direct treatment on "problem spot" shown below. It might be slightly difficult to see, but the open spot on the wood was cleared of the moss so I could more directly treat this stuff. It's very likely on the wood and growing through the moss itself. More on this in other photos, but it's difficult to see because the plants are above water. The wood is covered in this black slime, which is that algae and makes it difficult to see the wood itself. You can also see all the black tufts/spots on the lower section of the wood as well. In the moss itself, you see the dark green / grey coloration which is that algae again growing a bit too well. This is another section of moss in a shady spot underneath the above photos. This is from the rock over towards the right of the tank. Again, the dark spots are the algae in question. This is the S. Repens on the front left of the tank. It's a little difficult to see the black algae on the black substrate, but there is some algae all over there. This is a bigger shot of the S. Repens. The substrate is all over the place from filling the tank back up. I hope the Hygrophilia pops back to life. We'll see.

Yeah.... that's what caused me to end up swapping from the 24" to the 36" light to get that more powerful light at the substrate bed. It totally worked and is doing that desired effect. I had the 24" to just about max power and the plants still weren't getting enough light. No need to worry about it now..... I have had microsword before as well as DHG in the 75G. I had the 4' light on that tank, but essentially the same method / lighting on both that tank and this one for that plant. I did drown a few of the pots with tabs, but alas... the algae kept growing faster than the plant could. I just gotta push this stuff back and fix whatever issues are going on and then I can pop some in. At this point I'm down to literally growing only S. Repens and Moss and neither are doing "ok" but it's just the plant that actually is able to stick around right now. Everything else is just gone. We'll see. Like I keep saying, I just feel pretty hopeless with the whole situation. I want to see some progress and I just am not. I have to track things this week and either cut the light back or change it out back to the 24" light and see if that does anything. I'll keep the same settings, which is essentially cutting that same light I have now in half. AND THEN..... we just go to town with the h2o2 and the easy carbon and CO2 dosing and hope that things improve. I ended up taking the window apart and running the hose into the room. Wasn't pretty, but it is what it is..... I'm in the same situation where the faucet doesn't work or isn't the right size to work with the python and I get to use the hose outside. It's a small diameter hose and only works to fill. The python is way too big to siphon the gravel but it would technically work if I felt the need. I dig your setup and your skills putting all that together. I definitely trust myself with a bucket. If I had the room, I'd get a giant trashcan on wheels.

I appreciate the info. There was a video of his talk that you might really, really enjoy. It's the guy over at BRS and he started up ~10 tanks using a variety of methods and tracked what algae, bacteria, microorganisms, pests, etc. all showed up in the tank. What was most interesting was when certain things showed up and how some tanks did well to settle themselves while others had issues due to certain factors. I think out of all of the tanks they had, only one was a "success" and I am pretty sure it wasn't the one that used actual live rock. They brought about a technique that I would use if I ever had a saltwater setup and it essentially amounted to QT for the bacteria itself to remove things you don't want so they can't be introduced. I am heavily considering cutting the lights down / back further. I pulled some photos today that I'll toss in the algae experiments thread. Essentially, a week (8 days) of no light, didn't touch the stuff. the only spot on the tank that showed signs of "improvement" was where the algaecide was being poured into the tank and it's already recovered after one 4 hour lighting period. It's not a "fun" experience and like you're saying light is very likely the cause here...... but. I have a tank that essentially has 0 light for the most part and it's still growing the algae, even with the low dose of the algaecide. I don't think anything I've done is "drastic" to this point. I'm trying easy green currently, but I am definitely at the point where I feel like this crap is in the pipe before the water gets to me and there's no stopping it. You can see from the photos above it was very minimal, then maxed itself out, it's been cut back, and now it's back to cycling and trending in a bad way. To give you an idea... this is new growth after the blackout I pulled off the S. Repens today.

For reference.... File says 5/16/2021, the black discoloration has been there for "a bit" and was a result of the CO2 system crashing which let it start to develop. All of this stuff went into bins and was fed nitrate and tons of light. Note: This is wood that was not in the 75G tank, but was to the side of it with the black corydoras and is the 29G tank setup at the new house. Same date as the photo above, but the same 29G tank the black corydoras were in. Clearly the same stuff. December 6, 2021: March 2022: July 2022: New plants added, most recent effort to out-compete but adding bioload. Second batch of S. Repens as well as more hairgrass, added the moss, and the hygro / bacopa. This is middle of September 2022:

This is definitely a consideration and I would go ahead and swap substrate and wood. I would likely get rid of the tank entirely and set up my 75G sitting in the hallway. I got directions via DM a bit ago on how, exploring the method for this algae and literally every possible option to go through with it. I am definitely at the point of "this is your last shot" to get rid of it and considering such drastic measures. Getting the CO2 working and setup was a pretty critical step, but what kills me i losing the bacopa and the Hygro. It's the two plants that should've done very well for me and bacopa has done very well for me in my water previously. Call me dumbfounded, but I'm blown away that with all the efforts I haven't gotten one pot of hairgrass to grow in 20+ pots over months and months of efforts. Grow, yeah, thrive or put out runners... never. Some of the methods I'm in the middle of right now is the algae thread (experiments) and it's something where I definitely need to go ahead have a plan for how long I will "put up" with issues. Barring removing the tank entirely, I will end up going the route of a tank without plants and changing everything, bleach, etc. But I really have my issues with 29G tanks right now and I think I'm fine with the change to a different setup, bigger tank. The only thing preventing the move right now is space, not having the funds for a whole new 75G full of substrate, and replacing items. But.... the biggest issue is trying to change out 25-35G of water with buckets.... every week. I can probably get away with filling the tank off of a hose through the window, but it's not something I can do easily without help from the family and I can't really vac the tank with the stuff on hand currently. Very good idea. I do use my phone for reminders, but I think a chalk marker or wet erase will work as well as the calendar. I love the idea. I have a chalkboard I can hang up on the tanks, sounds perfect for what I need. Looks like a trip to staples might have to happen tomorrow. It's one of those things where I do wish I had a daily 5 minutes of help from someone who knows a lot more than I do. Plants I can handle.... this algae just sucks. This video is extremely well done.... Worth the watch for the camera work alone. All I could think to myself was that by the time one section was "done" that I would move to the next one and then it just keeps growing and growing as I fight off little bits at a time. It's a chicken and egg thing, so my real mental struggle right now is just needing anything in the tank to eat algae. Both tanks have fish now at all levels, plecos, and shrimp in this one, so my hope is that with all this effort, direct treatment and pushing myself that I can have some success. And I also went back and re-motivated myself again by watching this: I am pretty sure the "summary" post of trial and error on this tank would be useful for someone... but one decision led to the next, to the next, and it's hard to offer anyone good advice at this point when I can't fix it myself despite having the information.

For me it's not just a question of how, but specifically why.

I removed the towels and such last night and today was the first "normal day" for the new schedule. The fish were definitely in hibernation and very confused at what light was at first. I had the blue LEDs on and I did see that one spot at the top of the wood, "the problem area" appear to be slightly dead. On the rock on the right side of the tank with the ball of moss everywhere it does look like the amanos spent some time there going to work while the lights were out. I did see them today on the wood, but not the high flow parts. I also think I lost yet another anubias nana petite, but unsure. For now I pulled the infested roots and will re-glue it tomorrow with maintenance. I am going to do a pretty healthy WC tomorrow which isn't fun because it's buckets, but I really hope I can make some progress prior to needing a heater in these things. I feel like that's about 2-3 weeks away. I did find a very awesome video online that showed, in pretty good light (metaphorically, not literally) how to fight this stuff. It's just going to be a pretty brutal battle. I am very likely going to be pulling the wood, soak it in some peroxide every week on maintenance, and then in addition to that doing the spot treatments as need be. I will very likely need to do this DAILY because of how annoying this stuff is. I don't know what the "best practice" method is for spot dosing an entirely infested tank, maybe start with the silicone seams? We'll see. I will check parameters and phosphates tomorrow. I do expect them to climb pretty high as a result of some dying organics. When I checked the tank this afternoon, I didn't see red / dead anything, but it looked normal and just a little thinned out if anything. We'll see. I name this algae "rocky algae" because it comes back for so many sequels.

You can use a bucket with an airstone or a tupperware container if you have one available for use. Getting the fish as close to the water surface without agitating them with too much flow is going to help a little bit to relieve pressure. If you're talking a full on rupture, the fish probably jumped and then did some severe damage on the hardscape or lid of the tank causing the issue. It does happen and I don't know if that is something that can be repaired over time. If the fish is continuing to suffer I would suggest to put it out of it's misery.

They really appreciate a cave or a large flat surface with shade to hang out on. They will tend to hide during the lighting hours and then you'll see them as they get comfortable. Some will hide, come out once the lights go dim. Other RLP's will just not care and hang out on the glass all day. There is acclimation time though and you might just need to give the little one some time. You can also try feeding something like repashy or wafers to see if the fish comes out with the lights on and encourage that comforting atmosphere so the fish knows you're friend and not a predator.

Towards the 2nd half of the video is the snail trap you can make with a water bottle.

Hey there, welcome to the forums! First, have you connected the light to your phone via the app at all? I would suggest starting with Cory's, Bentley Pascoe's reviews and beginner light videos. I'll grab them for you, but I think both show how to connect the light. It doesn't use a "timezone" per say. It's going to be set via bluetooth directly off the app. You can use the light manually with a timer like a kasa timer and the on/off modes. You would set the brightness by press / holding the power button when it is illuminated white. You can also do this with blue (blue mode = night light). Red = off. Green is where you are connecting the phone to the app, running it via bluetooth. Happy to help with any further questions 🙂

1. A Seachem Tidal that "works" with all the flaws fixed barring that..... 2. A HoB style filter where you can change the pump GPH into whatever you need for the tank. You buy the box and swap out the pump, but the rest of it "just works" for anything from a 75G down to a 10G. Needless to say, you get a lot of media room. 3. A HoB filter that has the pump at the end instead of the beginning (probably a terribly idea) so that the pump can actually end into a spraybar that you can mount onto the tank instead of a waterfall.

Yeah, that's the big tip for something like this. They do actually have fish traps that might be a good use for you in your situation. Honestly. I think when I do it I see the fish I want to get or know where they like to hang out and then it's a matter of pull the wood / drop them into the net in the fashion that Cory and the crew does for wild caught fishing trips. I tend to use the hand method and plecos are definitely fast when they want to be. I would be concerned with draining that tank 1/2-way down just because they can totally be stuck in that rock and not move. I think your best chance will be to bribe them and then use the hand method and coax them towards a net trap if they don't go for the food / fish trap. I try to spook them to the edge of the glass somewhere and then they tend to run along the glass until you can corner them somehow. It might not work for this big of a tank, but that's my method.

Definitely not.... It all depends on the water. The place I moved to the water company changes things every 3-4 months on us and it's never great. They use water testing to track diseases and there's a lot of stuff in water besides water, depending on what that water goes through before it gets to you. Honestly, always use dechlorinator. Its cheap, safe, smart, and easy to do. Agreed. From the stuff I looked at you're talking up to 24 hours to off-gas chlorine, but chloramines can take much longer and usually get removed via sunlight in most cases. As mentioned, we don't really know what goes on before the water gets to us, and so if you can't get that tested often, then you're best bet is to just use a few drops of dechlor and take some of the concerns out of the way very easily.

RIP Red bucket. You didn't last, but you were loved and cherished. That sucks. At first, I thought it was much worse then a bucket! Glad it's all ok. That's one of my favorite things. It makes the tank feel like a chemistry set making magic potions or something 😂

@Beardedbillygoat1975 You get the choice for tagging the next one for the thread! 🙂 Beautiful tank. Those rocks are so unique and not ones I've ever seen used before. Especially the high polish black obsidian looking rocks, I really like those! Beautiful fish / tank as always and the progress is great. I think we're all excited to see it grow in!

Here is the dimensions sheet from Aqueon; A 55 , 75 does have braces. My guess would be that you're looking in the range of a 75G-->120G potentially and in either case I do think you're going to have a brace on all of those tanks. I thing you can find a way to get the wood to fit and get it into the tank cohesively, but I do understand. Custom aquariums has metal, removeable braces for this type of a setup, so potentially that's a solution for you there.

ACO sells the Neo Diffusers and they do pretty well. The other one I have used is the ones from Seachem (a little different style, but really nice product. And there is also a barrel style diffuser from CO2 art that's pretty nice. If you can run in-line I think the one from NilocG is the go to standard.

Hopefully you see some more improvement with the next round of treatments. I get the feeling you're at about where I am with round whatever it was with worms (and this algae). I know it's stressful and I am just really hoping you and all the fish are able to get through everything. Stay positive, keep pushing, you'll get there 🙂 .

No appreciable difference at all after 1 week on the right side tank with the lower overall infestation of this stuff. There is one specific spot that is pretty easy to monitor and track growth. I will keep at current pace on that tank and try to run a longer term test as mentioned to really test what can get rid of this stuff.

worms........ 😞

What is the light you're running? Are you seeing algae issues or just melting? If it's just melting, it could be a water parameter issues. Hard going to soft or soft going to hard water and that causes a lot of issues for some. Something to look into, but there's a lot of possibilities and a lot of information to dive into before anyone can say what's really going on.

Might not be relevant, but...... This is always a fun vlog when I think about outdoor tubs.