V.PooH

Your aquarium is gorgeous! It's looks fantastic! I love it! I'm sorry to what happen to you, I never used Amazonia, (I used soil, which I make by my own),but it's really strange. You had stabil tank for a years? month? and mud storm just during one night? Loaches? How many you have them? Army? They can digging subs, but do it regular and can't do such a big mess at one night.Korallia same,can't do it. If you sure it's just dust (not bacteria film), everyday water changes don't help a-lot, just broke biological balance( because you didn't do it before).Any chemicals will help, because it's just a dust. Now looks like you done of it. I just tell you what I did if have some dust from soil. I use soil a lot of years, when I just start use it, I had bunch of trouble with it, Mud storm too( but just when I start aquarium, at first month) , so best solution which I find it's addition filtration, A-LOT filtration! For sample, if i have 125g, my usual filter is fx5, which do more than 1000g/h, so in situation like that, I add powerhead for 900-1000g/h( I have some from HAGEN ) and during 3-6 hours very gently take out dust from leaves (by the hand), don't let dust get down on the ground, make your own storm until you get all this dust out. I know you'll win and restore your beauty aquarium. Cheers, Steve

Tex Gal

Thanks Steve. It will be back to it's good state soon!

I have had a dust storm since I changed to the Amazonia II. It has progressively worsened until it began killing my plants. I have been fighting it for 4 months. I kept thinking that different things were causing it. Finally after getting rid of my 2 clown loaches, 1 botia, 1 ruby shark, 1 yoyo loach I realized the only thing left was the soil was breaking down into fine dust. Then I discovered that the soil in the back of the tank had disappeared from 3 inches to 1-1/2 ".

For filtration I have 2 XP3 filters. I have added a Vortex LX filter and also have a Korolia 650 gph. in there. I have plenty of filtration.

I have new soil to put in the tank. I will change it out this weekend. It will be a big job again but then it will be finally over.

davemonkey

OUCH!! That's a ton of work, TexGal! I wish you the best of luck (and patience, and medication for backpain, headaches, joint relief, stress....).

That kind of trauma would be enough to send me back to my "fish-only" days. You're a braver and more dedicated aquarist than I am.

-Dave

V.PooH

Looks like something wrong with amazonia... weird... I hope you'll get fun and satisfaction from this titanic work! I guess it's always exiting when you rescape or start new aquatic garden. I wish you luck! Cheers, Steve

davemonkey

TexGal! How's it going with the re-do on the substrate? Were you able to work on it this weekend?

-davemonkey

The old man

Sorry to hear about your "dust storm". Sounded worse than those on Mars. I have a magnum pro canister and doubt if the water polishing would have helped what you had. I'm not sure if the HOT version has that capability. I do like the feature on the magnum and also when I'm about to change the medium in it I do a gravel vacumn attaching it to the intake and without needing to change any water it cleans it very well. If the Hot version does use the water polishing filter it would be nice to have one on hand just for that. Might look into it when I finally get my 75 gallon tank. Bet you enjoying memorial day cleaning out that tank.

Tex Gal

Well, the holiday has come and gone and still I have not touched my tank. I chose, instead, to go down and see my new grand baby! I wish I had a better excuse but I don't. I dread doing it all over again, but really have no choice. I think I will just have to tackle it this week. I'm gonna go get a huge rubber maid container for the fish. I'll put in on a table and I guess I should run one of my seasoned XP3's on it while my new substrate cycles with my plants, other XP3 and diatom filter. (I got all the new parts so that it won't leak anymore.) I don't think I'll even need to worry about a heater since summer is in full swing and I'm running the A/C. Hopefully with all the side, plants, driftwood and plumbing, 1 filter, seasoned with bacteria, the ammonia phase will pass quickly and I'll be able to put my fish back in quickly. I'll keep you posted!

davemonkey

That's a WONDERFUL excuse not to have time for the aquarium! Congratulations!

I think the container-on-a-table thing should work fine, as long as you don't have jumpers. You might also want to keep a couple plants in there with them in case some get stressed and need shelter.

As far as the heater, I unplugged mine 3 weeks ago and my temp has stayed the same since, even with an air vent blowing right above the tank. The more gallons in the container, the more stable the temps will be (but you probably already knew that).

Tex Gal

The process has begun. I'm exhausted and only have water, fish and hardscape out of tank. I'll take the old substrate out tomorrow. I think I'll put in on my flower beds. It ought to work well on those.

Notice the seine net I made out of netting and dowels. We were able to block fish down into one end of tank so that I could catch them with a large net. I never would have been able to get them if I hadn't done that! It worked great!!



Rocks and large plants.


Plants in bins



Fish and driftwood and some plants in a 35 gallon container with an airstone

davemonkey

Looks like you've got a lot of work still ahead of you, but progress is progress.
That substrate will definitely do the flower beds good! Good thinking with the seine/net.