Please Help!

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mtdewlover

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Dec 19, 2002
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I had a huge algae problem that I simply could not get rid of. I had green stringy algae. Then I had the green algae, bright green algae and brown algae! :eek: So it was suggested that I bleach it to kill it. I put my fishies in another tank. They are ok. :) I am in the process of bleaching everything. I have two gallons of water with three cups of bleach sitting in my kitchen sink. The gravel and ornament are soaking in that. What about the tank? I am scrubbing it out with paper towels and the water bleach solution out of the sink. Is all of this ok? Do I need to do anything after I clean everything? Or just rinse it well and put it back together? Should I scrub anything? I am so confused. Please help! I have a betta fish and four other small fish whom I love very much.

Thanks!

mtdewlover
 
Well it sounds like you're doing a bang up job of cleaning up the algae. Need to figure out what started it in the first place, so it doesn't happen again. Make sure you rinse everything in water that has a dechlorinator in it (the usual conditioner stuff you are probably using with water changes). Use a bucket and sponge if you have to.
 
As Pleco suggests, the cleanup is nice, but you need to figure out why it was happening in the first place or it'll just come back. Comes down to 2 things -- light and nutrients. Look at tank size, filtration, bio-load, and feeding, as well as hours of light, any direct sunlight, ambient room light, etc. In most cases you need to make adjustments in all of these areas if you're having a problem.
 
Won't bleaching the rocks kill her beneficial bacteria and cause her tank to cycle again?? Aren't her fish in danger if she just puts the tank back together and tosses them back in?

I've bleached my plants and decorations before in old tanks, but i've never bleached the gravel...

Just don't want you to lose your fishies!
 
Ok here is the details. The tank was a ten gallon tank. My rubber mouth died and I decided the algae had gone too far. I'm pretty sure it's because the tank was getting too much light. It was next to a window, but I didn't realize how much light it was getting. I will put it somewhere else. I tore down a 29 to build a vivarium so I took the water out of that and put it into a spare ten gallon I had. The filter sponge from the 29 is in there as well as bio balls from that tank. My fish are loving their new living arrangement.

So...I am thinking I'll keep them in their new ten gallon and store their old one. I'll put the ornament back in after dechlorinating it. I'm going to get new gravel for the tank. The fish look so much nicer without dark blue gravel. The filter sponges have not been rinsed from their tank. I'll keep the bio balls in the tank and the sponge from the 29. I bleached my filter too, but not the sponges of course. Will any of this cause the tank to recycle? Oh and I'll keep the water that is in the tank now, that came from an established 29 gallon.

:confused: What about this dechlorinating process? How do I go about doing this? I need to dechlorinate the acutal tank, ornament, gravel, and filter. :confused:

Thank you so much for all of your help!
 
If you're in a hurry you can get one of the many products available for dechlorinating. If you don't have fish in the tank, all you have to do is fill it and let it sit for about 24 hours.
 
This dechlorinating stuff...is this something special I have to buy from the pet store? Or are we talking the about like Prime, or the water conditioner you put in your tank after a water change etc?
 
mtdewlover said:
This dechlorinating stuff...is this something special I have to buy from the pet store? Or are we talking the about like Prime, or the water conditioner you put in your tank after a water change etc?
Click to expand...

Yes, the Prime or other water conditioner you use should be fine. Bleach is chlorine, so using a water conditioner (a dechlorinator) will get all of that chlorine off and make things safe to put back into your tanks.
 
mtdewlover said:
...It was next to a window, but I didn't realize how much light it was getting....
Click to expand...
rather than bleaching everything you had all you had to do was move the tank away from the window and your problem would be fixed.....
 
The algae was getting so bad and someone told me to bleach it. I didn't know he had no clue how. So here I am asking for advice. Next time I am not bleaching. This sucks!

Ok I have my gravel soaking in four cups of water and 2mL of Prime. I put maybe about 2mL of prime in the sink and put the ornaments in that. I'm not sure how much Prime to use to get the chlorine off???? Or if I can use too much???
 
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