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Re: [APD] neglected tank




ok just a personal observation.  I have on a few occasion over the  last 
several years of keeping freshwater planted tanks, had to do a bit of extra  
cleaning to get a tank back into balance.  This usually entailed removing  
all of the flora and fauna, stirring up the substrate (old wooden spoons 
retired  from the kitchen work really well) and then draining, refilling and then 
 repeating this until the tank water was clear. Then i would refill the 
tank with  25% water from other tanks and fresh clean water.
 
This was usually necessary when the fish population was just too high or  
ferts and CO2 had been neglected or a compination of both.
 
But i never had a fish kill associated with the clean up, and usually never 
 even lost a single fish during this process. Certainly didn't see any 
adverse  reaction by the plants. This is a great time to clean off the really 
bad leaves  and do some creative re-arranging.
 
What i did see was a severe lack of any algae growth after such a clean  up.
 
Of course, ferts and CO2 or Excel were done on a more regular basis, fish  
population was reduced etc.
 
I always had tank water available from other tanks, but if the tank being  
cleaned was of a reasonably small size, ie less than 75 gallons, a 32 gallon 
 trash can would hold plenty of tank water while the cleaning was done.
 
I was always of the opinion that you just could not do massive WC's without 
 endangering the fish.  One day i was at the LFS and watched as a WC was  
done in a 40 gallon tank which contained 6 big royal blue discus being  
quarantined before sale.  They took the water down to almost the top of  their 
dorsal fin, dumpen in some de-clorinator and filled the tank back up with  tap 
water.  Since the fish were worth about $400 i guess that they were not  
too concerned.  
 
As long as the temp of the new water is pretty close, doesn't seem to  
matter.
 
rich green
milton ma
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