Excel & synthetic sponges?

[fishorama]

So, I'm doing a major tank redo in my 75g. I have several issues after 7+ years including overgrown moss, stems, duckweed & BBA.

I had prefilter sponges on my filter intakes (hoping my rare loaches would breed) & 1 especially has bba. I don't think bleach is the answer, I've had it damage synthetic sponges before. Is Excel safe for them?

I'm hoping increasing the flow & Excel doing will help. Opinions?

Just removing the prefilters has helped with duckweed removal & flow, so that's good! Manually removing bba as best I can. It's very hard to remove from the silicone side
seals...Any suggestions there?

 

[dougall]

If you're not using the sponge, I would expect the algae to die if you let the sponge die off.

for inside the tank, I would remove as many dissolved organics as you can, and as much as nobody wants to, cleaning filters especially can be a huge help. Excel should help, as should peroxide as well. If there are no plants that need to stay in the tank short term, removing them and using something emersed as a nitrate sponge would certainly help too.


But I expect you are well on the way to taking care of it.

 

[the loach]

You mean cleaning without anything in the tank or with the water still in it ?
Does it have fine sand as substrate? What kind of lighting?

 

[fishorama]

Thanks guys.
No, I have plants & fish in the tank (& of course water, lol). But the sponge is out of the tank for now. I would likje to kill & rinse out as much as possible so it doesn't add to the duckweed clogging of the prefilters. I'll likely need to treat the filter media too. 1 at a time

bba goes from top to bottom on the "window end" silicone, some on the glass too but that's easier to remove.. I have high windows that in spring & fall especially allow late day sun to hit it for 20-30 minutes. I have T-5s x 2 & use coarse pool filter sand (#20 grade).

 

[fishorama]

Well, slow typing ate the rest of my post. I'll redo tomorrow when it's not dinner time.