Complete clean

[pmcsomething]

So I have neglected my tank in a sense. There is algae on the glass, on the driftwood and the plants have hair algae on them. I want to clean my tank to make it look better. I want to clean the plants as well. However, I am thinking it might be just a good idea to start out with new plants and what not. I am going to setup a quarantine tank, to help get rid of snails. Here are some of my ideas.

My problem is I do not have enough plants to grow fast enough to out grow the algae. I am going to look at some stickied threads, check out some planted sites and what not.

My main concern is fish safety. What would be the safest way to clean my tank without causing too much trouble for the fishes.

 

[MadridKid]

just do your normal water change, and take your plants out aswell. im guessing you have plastic plants, so just rinse those off good, and your plants, ornaments, etc... wil be good as new. as for everything else you said, i have no clue what your saying.

 

[pmcsomething]

My tank is planted, and the plants would be harder to clean. By pulling those out, I would be pulling out the roots. Thanks for the suggestions though.

 

[FroggyFox]

I suppose the best thing would be to just take your fish out and put them in a bucket for awhile...and go to town on the tank. Use a toothbrush or sometimes your fingers just work best, gently dislodge as much of the algae from your plants as you can and then do some water changes and heavy cleaning to get as much out as you can.

Some planted people might be abe to help more, but usually if you have algae and snail issues there are other issues with the tank, not that it needs to be cleaned persay. Or maybe that is the issue. Snails and algae tend to be abundant when there is more than enough for them to consume...ie, overfeeding or not cleaning well enough.

 

[eward2331]

There is a chemical that will get rid of hair algae without any harm to your plants or fish, unfourtnally i do not remember the name of it. However i can describe it in full detail, Its a brown liquid before it hits the water. It smells like barbeque sauge and tobasco sauce mixed, its an awful smell but it works. You suck the liquid up with a syringe and when you put it into the water it will turn a bright purple color and almost into a gel like substance, you put it directly on the hair algae and it will stick to it. If it doesn;t diappear fully right away you can repeat the process with no harm to the tank. This stuff can be used in fresh or salt water. I will see what i can do about finding out the name of the product.

 

[ishar]

I would not go so far as to use a chemical in your fish tank. Algae issues are caused by a misbalance in nutrients, light, and CO2 in a planted tank. Algae is very normal in small levels, but when you have a big outbreak like this it points towards a problem with our water and the nutrients in it.

When I got my big algae breakouts, I would just scrub the glass every week during the water change (and avoided much splashing when I did so) and pull off what algae from the leaves I could. Once you figure out what you are missing then you can start to eliminate any new growth of the algae and it will go away.

What are the specifics of your tank? What plants do you have? How many? Under how much light? Do you fertilize or add any type of CO2? Is it just inert gravel substrate or something like ecocomplete or flourite?