[ir0n_ma1den]

After a week long vacation to toronto I came back to a mess of decay and algae:

I have been dosing regularly ( as prescribed for a 29g tank) and have 4 Amono Shrimp. What can I do to get rid of the algae and decay?

thanks

 

[Tex Gal]

Pull out all the decay. Dose excell or peroxide. So sorry! I know how you must feel!

 

[bigstick120]

Clean the glass, pull out the decay, then do a nice big water change!

 

[Bert H]

What happened during the week? I've been gone for longer than that, and luckily, never come home to that kind of mess.

 

[jmontee]

I second Bert. There must be some other parameters that went awry. In one week to have something like that happen, IMO, there is something else going on. Did electricity go out and things didn't get filtered, or temp out of control. IDK, but make sure to check what else might have happend so you are not afraid to leave for a week's vacation every once in a while. I was gone for two weeks about 2 days after I set up my tank and all I had was some algae on the glass and plants that got taken care in a couple of days by CAE's.

BTW, I am really sorry that this happend to you, hopefully it won't happen again.

 

[ir0n_ma1den]

Well, the algae had been a problem before the trip and I was in the process of taking care of it. I guess 1 week on not taking care of it really caused some damage...

I think i might need to buy new dipildis becuase I have a bad feeling that none of it will make it...

I think another thing that caused the problem was that a week before the change, I preformed a major prune/rescape where I took out a bunch of ludwigia and replaced it with freshly cut dipildis.

ughh... the road to recovery will not be very fun...


BTW: What would be a good replacement plant if I lost the dipildis? I want something a little more hardier, but also something that looks just as good.

In the tank I have Blyxa japonica, Ludwigia, and HC.

 

[jmontee]

Myriophyllum matogrossense looks like a cool plant and someone is selling a whole bunch of it right now really cheap on the FS forum.

I think your best bet might be to do a complete clean up and just about start again. You will already have the cycling done but you can pull out plants, hardscape and equipment and clean them off. Throw out anything that is completely dead and replant anything that still has nice roots. Do several 50 to 75% water changes and clean the substrate. If anyone doesn't agree let me know cause this is what I would do. Maybe it's too drastic? IDK

 

[Bert H]

I think another thing that caused the problem was that a week before the change, I preformed a major prune/rescape where I took out a bunch of ludwigia and replaced it with freshly cut dipildis.

A thing to keep in mind whenever doing major pruning/re-scaping is to be sure you do a good gravel vac in the area AND a major (60%) water change. You introduce a whole lot of nutrients into the water column from the substrate by the re-scape which weren't there before. If you're replacing a fast grower with a slow grower, or one which needs to become accustomed to a new environment, you might also want to consider lowering your fert doseing for the next week or so until it acclimates.