Catastrophe!!

[Aqua junky]

My son has a 40 Gallon planted tank with a bunch of snails and neo's  a few guppies and a juvenile Fahaka Puffer that's maybe a couple months old.

Anyhow I have a fluval auto feeder on it and I just refilled it less than a week ago and somehow I opened the drum wide open causing it to completely empty itself out in less than a week.  I added the auto feeder cause my sons not very good at keeping them fed.

This is a heavily planted tank that's been up and running for probably 2 years full of red cherry shrimp and all kinds of rams horn, and mystery snails   I literally started this tank that way knowing I was gunna be getting a puffer and  the last two times vie attempted to keep a puffer fish I couldn't get them to eat and they always just died so this time I made sure the tank was thriving with live food to give it the best start possible and its worked. He's doubled in size nice and fat.

Anyhow back to the main topic. I went up to his room this morning and found the tank completely littered with molded food that looked like it had been there for a few days.

I instantly went into panic mode and started a 50% water change and doing a substrate vac. The good news is I've got enough filtration on that tank for a 100 Gallon tank. I've got a Magnum something something canister filter that's supposed to handle up to 75g, with a large sponge on the intake and also have a large Co-op sponge filter running.

I pulled the sponge filter and the intake sponge off the canister filter and washed them out in the sink. We have well water so I wasn't too concerned about the BB on the sponges.

Should I change 25% water everyday until it straightens out?  Should I remove all the plants and doo a deep clean than replant.  Will the plants absorb the excess ammonia from the rotting plants?

I'll keep a close eye on parameters but just kind of wanted a little bit of advice as to how to handle this. Thanks in advance 

[Zenzo]

Since it is heavily planted, you are probably okay. I would just continue with your water change regiment over the next few days. 25% water changes daily sounds like it's manageable, and should clear things up rather quickly. I would avoid disturbing the plants. Since it's heavily planted, it will help.

Good luck...hope it's back to normal soon!

[lefty o]

if you got the bulk of the food off the bottom, just keep an eye on it.