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[APD] RE: that neglected tank



>My tank has suffered some serious neglect and I have a serious hair
>algae algae break out. The CO2 ran out, water changes ware very
>infrequent.

If you like killing weeds, we have a job for you:-)

>What would be the best way to recover. Should I dismantle the system
>and sterilise everything and start again.

Well, some of both.

>Or would I be able to recover by cleaning of all the algae, getting
>the the CO2  back to decent levels and regular water changes ?

Some of both.

>I would prefer not to dismantle the tank but if that's the best way to
>go I'll have to.

No, but a dandy good scrub and few hours can whip it back into shape.
>From there, the nutrients, pruning, preening and picking can have about any
tank up to snuff in about 3 weeks time.

Take out each plant and pick it clean, if you cannot remove the algae,
harass it and rub it.
Toss in regular tap water without any dechlor. I do not harm any leaf too
much getting the algae off, just whatever can rub off or pester.
 
Now the tank is fairly empty, 
Fish can be taken out as well.

You can do a few things here.
Scrub good, and rotate the top 1" gravel under, bleach equipment etc, scrub
glass etc good.
Then do 50-70% water change, suck up all the detritus/mulm.
Clean filter first.

Replant
Crank CO2, add nutrients 2-3x a week, or try every other day with the
macro/traces.
Prune any algae that appears, clean off any on the glass, do another good
water change and preen the plants well for the next 2 weeks.

You can bomb the tank after it's empty with H2O2 I suppose. 
It kills everything, bacteria/fungi as well. Don't run your filter and do
not leave in too long, maybe 15 minutes is all. Water change.
I would not use the other stuff.
Bleach is fine for very tough plants, but in the end, trim the plants,
those leaves are 1/2 deaf anyway and provide good growing conditions for
the new leaves to come in.
 
A good prune, pick and preen( the 3 P's) will go a long way.
Always remove what is there first, clean the dickens out of everything,
clean filters etc, then once you have done everything else, then do the
water change.
It's alright to do more than 50% also.

You do not have to wait a week either, do 2x a week water changes for 2-3
weeks to get things really going.
Dose heavy after.

An alternative method is to do only 1/3 of the tank at a time till you have
hit everything or the main problem areas, but in general, I do the whole
kick and kaboodle at once. But I tend to do the 1/4 to 1/3 of a tank each
week like this.
I preen a lot.Most folks let stuff go, we all do at some point. But the
seasoned plantie knows what to do and know it takes just a few weeks to
whip it back into shape.It's old hat after awhile.


Or you can hire me to come fix it. 

Regards, 
Tom Barr








 

I have some experiments we might do with some other treatments using acetic
acid.
H2O2 is more controllable and can be dosed with a dosing pump and
controlled with a redox probe etc.



 












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