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Tank Disaster

Cat

Cat

Member
Joined
24 Jan 2013
Messages
116
Location
Cambridge
Hello,
This was my tank, its over 400 odd litres.
tank diasater.jpg

This very large piece of bogwood has been creating so much dirt I couldn't get the tank clean. For various reasons I had to plant when I did, anyway the bogwood situation wasn't getting any better so I had to take it out ( it had been in the tank for two years just not a planted tank ).

The tank had ADA soil and gravel and some inert sand and gravel, now it is a massive pile of gravel with mulm everywhere, I keep doing water changes and syphoning but I just can't get rid of it. I do not know how much of the dirt is from the bogwood or the ADA soil or both.

I have plants in bowls and buckets all over the living room, I don't know how long they can survive this way. I don't know whether I should take all the gravel out and start again. I don't know if the ADA stuff is reusable once it has been churned up. I was never able to do a dry start because of the way the tank is plumbed, I could only ever take about half the water out so it was always going to be a bit messy.

Any advice would be appreciated, I'm going away for my honeymoon in two weeks so its all a been a lot of stress I really don't need. I am disabled with a 1 year old daughter so I only have a certain amount of energy/time! aaagggh
 
If possible, get the wood out and brush it or even use a pressure cleaner (do NOT set to full power) to get into all the little corners and holes. Bogwood often rots on the inside and this can leak out, a good clean could help, don't use any chemicals just plain water, but that goes without saying.
 
Aquarium Soil can break down to dirt overtime, how long have you had it?

Light + nutrients + microorganisms can generate detritus as well, diatom for example.
How often do you change water?

You might be better off with smaller tank, easier/less energy demand to maintain.
 
Thank you for all of your responses, I've had the wood in the water for over two years in this tank. I had scraped a lot of the soft wood off but I don't think I'll ever be able to keep up with it so I took it out yesterday. I only have this tank, I used to have 7 but my health made me simplify and just have this huge one!

I just really need to know it the remaining ADA soil and gravel are still viable now its all really churned up. I don't want to keep the plants in bowls for too long as I assume they will all die. Should I be buying more soil and should I take all the current soil/ gravel out first? I've obviously bitten off more than I can chew but you never know!
 
Try and invest in some Purigen that always helps with discolouration in the water.

In regards to ADA soil, personally I hate it. When I used it once I had a similar issue to you and it's just more mither than it's worth. I don't use any soil in my planted tanks and yet I still get amazing growth and colour in the plants. Maybe it would be worth just starting again if it's just a load of mulm and sludge?
 
Cheers DRG93 I will look up Purigen. Thats half the trouble is I don't know if I'm syphoning up 'good' dirt or 'bad'! I can see all these pristine tanks on this website and others and I don't think I'll ever get mine as clean. Its such a big tank that originally had several Discus fish in but its probably a bit crazy to attempt a planted in for a newbie but if I could make it work it would be glorious! I was going with lots of Eleocharis Acicularis as I read it was easy so good for a beginner I'm not sure how to keep them alive while I work things out?
 
I think that perhaps it'd be less work in the long run to start again. I persisted with a similar problem and it can work if you finally manage to get things to settle down and the plants to grow, but it's a difficult cycle to achieve and requires a lot of hard work.
 
Hello Hogan53,
I am using co2 fire hydrants, I have lots of Eleocharis Acicularis and a couple of Hemianthus Callitrichoides 'cuba', one Alternanthera Lilacina and a Pogostemon Helferi. I'm not expecting the Hemianthus to survive but I would like to save the Eleocharis if I can? I only have a fluidized bed filter so I am syphoning everyday with a homemade pump that draws the grud through a net with filter floss in it. I have a pretty hefty pump to spray bar system running the length of the tank which has a good turnover rate
Thank you for your time!
 
Hi Cat
You should be aiming for a 10x filtration turnover minimum.
You could transfer the grasses/plants to a emersed soil set up for now, the grass will survive but I'm not sure on the other plants!
I'm inclined to go down the re-scaping route as Trio mentioned!
It would be much easier in the long run...you could try a Trio tutorial...http://ukaps.org/forum/threads/the-soil-substrate-or-dirted-planted-tank-a-how-to-guide.18943/
A cheaper alternative for larger aquariums!
hoggie
 
Hello,

I'm inclined to agree. I need to see if my basic setup can actually grow plants and not algae first or even grass for that matter! So unforgiving the planted tank. I'm still quite concerned with how much CO2 I might need to go through though. Although I am confident our water turnover is more than adequate because we followed the article Ceg wrote about such things and made sure it was more than enough. I will read this tutorial with interest, Thank you.
 
I have a largish pleco as it happens, its been sort of re-homed while everything has been set up. However the large piece of bogwood has been banished to the back garden until I can either jet wash it to death or find a more appropriate fate for it! In its place I have cultivated a beautiful lawn of algae encrusted (or incrusted?) Eloecharis. I don't know what to do really, the algae actually appeared over night which I didn't even know it could do!
 
I was planning to get some pygmy puffer fish and maybe something like a small schoaling fish like some lamp eyes.

We've been having real problems with our CO2, we should have a needle valve by the end of the week. If it is a CO2 problem and we manage to fix it will the Eleocharis get better or is it too late do you think?
 
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