Tank Restart Questions

[Peahi]

Hi folks,
Long time lurker here from California. I'm cross posting a question I posted in another forum bc I value others opinions here.

I have a 4 year old tank that I want to restart and I wanted to get some advice and for people to share their experience with restarts.

In this past month while contemplating my next move, some BBA is starting to take over the gravel...my fault/neglect. Its a Nuvo Peninsula 20 gallon (an all in one tank) with some Kessil lights. Part of my other reason to restart is that Riccia and some moss has spread like a weed to infiltrate all the hair grass. I want to start with fresh culture short variety dwarf hair grass (I made the mistake of planting various DHG cultures from different sources, and low and behold, completely different behaviors and heights for "dwarf" variety).

Anyhows here are some questions:

1). Once I gut the tank and let it dry out, is there any chance that BBA can survive and then contaminate a new tank? Should I do any special cleaning to prevent this? Should I only use new tools for this tank and avoid using scissors and tweezers from my other tanks? (I really, really want no BBA to grow back in a fresh tank).

2). I want to go back to an classic iwagumi, but using a short DHG that doesn't require cutting. I grew tired of cutting HC Cuba long ago and tired of carpets eventually lifting. Yes, boring. I'm thinking classic Amano. I'm gonna go back to my Amano book "Nature Aquarium" for some inspiration.

3) Dry starting DHG. Is this still a valid technique? Last time I did it, I did have some expected melting and plants floating up. I thought it was so so and at least for me, not worth the time.

4) Slopes. Any tips on how to hold up aquascaped slopes? I had used some plastic dividers and some salt water tank coral supports last time I did my tank. My slopes eventually flattened out. I think it was due to an excessively powerful filter pump that creating super high flows that eventually flattened out things. ...I will go lower flow this time around.

Feel free to add any tips or lessons learned from your experiences. Thanks in advance.

 

[ceg4048]

1). Once I gut the tank and let it dry out, is there any chance that BBA can survive and then contaminate a new tank? Should I do any special cleaning to prevent this? Should I only use new tools for this tank and avoid using scissors and tweezers from my other tanks? (I really, really want no BBA to grow back in a fresh tank).

Hello,
BBA spores are likely to be in every tank in the world, so there is no point worrying about that.
BBA blooms occur because of what we do or do not do in the tank as explained in the post=> cleaning dry algae from a used tank
So you'll need to get a full understanding of the causes of BBA.
BBA blooms are related to poor CO2. There are MANY ways in which CO2 can be poor. Review the Algae section of the forum for examples.

4) Slopes. Any tips on how to hold up aquascaped slopes? I had used some plastic dividers and some salt water tank coral supports last time I did my tank. My slopes eventually flattened out. I think it was due to an excessively powerful filter pump that creating super high flows that eventually flattened out things. ...I will go lower flow this time around.

You can use any object placed under the substrate to build up that part of the slope. You can use rocks, bricks, old shoes - anything that is hard and stable.

Cheers,