# Is my tank salvagable?



## jixie007 (Jun 18, 2015)

I have a five gallon natural tank on my desk at work. It's been up and running since 2012.

Substrate is miracle grow organic topped with sand. The only equipment is a heater. Light is from a sunny, southeast window. Our tap water is hard with a high ph. The tank is divided, stock are two male bettas and just added two small nerite snails. Plants are: emersed Lucky Bamboo (Dracaena), emersed Pothos vine, Anubias, lacy java ferns, marimo balls.

Mostly I just do top offs, water changes are small (about 20%) and infrequent (maybe 3-4 months). When I check, the water quality is always good, no ammonia, nitrate, nitrites. It's had an algae problem for some time. But it used to be manageable. I'd wipe down the glass and some of the larger plant leaves before doing a top off.

Well, it's a kind of chicken-or-the-egg situation, but over the last few months the algae got a lot worse, the algae-scrubbing was neglected, and I'd grown disinterested in the tank. The bettas are fat and happy (and gorgeous!), the emersed plants are growing like weeds. But the algae (green, green spot, and bga) has thrived, while the submerged plants stalled and even died.

A month ago I had to move the tank across the room and realized the problem was worse than I thought. Between algae and the massive smothering network of pothos roots, the anubias and java ferns have really suffered.

After doing some research, I started coming up with a plan for the algae. Manually scrubbed as much as possible, temporarily moved the fish and snails, temporarily added an empty (no media) hob filter for water movement, and treated the tank with hydrogen peroxide (which is one of the few remedies I saw for both regular algae and bga). It seemed to help but I think it'll need a second (& possibly third) treatment. I was planning to add a bunch of anacharis and more snails (probably ramshorns).

Scrubbing the algae, revealed a really gross looking layer of mulm on the bottom of the tank. before when I did water changes I tried to avoid vacuuming the sand, a) to avoid kicking it up and exposing the soil, and b) so the organic debris could break down and replenish the soil. I did not expect it to build up like this.

*1)* Is this normal for a natural tank? I can't figure out, is this something that would be hidden by submerged plants? Or stuff that snails & shrimp would usually take care of? Is it not permeating the sand for some reason?

I really, really want to vacuum this crud up and do water changes until it's gone, because as the algae clears up, my tank looks a wreck.

But I suspect, after three years, the soil is spent and this stuff is needed to replenish it. So, if it _is _normal for a natural tank:

*2)* What, if anything, can I do to clear it up / break it down / get it back into the soil?

*3)* Would I be better off, at this point, cleaning it up and adding fertilizer tabs to replenish the spent soil?

*4)* Also, what about my sad, dead and dying anubias and java fern? I don't want to pull them for fear of making a total mess of the tank. Can I (should I?) just plant over / around them because they'll break down and feed the new plants?

*5)* Why did they fail, while the emergent plants are doing so well? Was the sunlight from the window just not enough, or did the lucky bamboo and pothos starve them out?

*6)* So what should be my next move, if I wanted to continue trying to rejuvenate this tank? Or is it even salvageable? Would I be better off saying we had a great run, tear it down, and rebuild it?

Thanks for reading my long winded post, and thanks for any suggestions.


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## qwe123 (Jun 15, 2011)

1) That's why it's good to have MTS or blackworms, or something to sift through the substrate and bring that mulm down into the dirt.

2) Vacuum it up. Maybe someone else has ideas of methods of saving and utilizing it, but it wouldn't be worth the effort to me. Certainly can use it to water your houseplants!

3) Yes, imo, unless you just start over

4) I'd trim off any dead parts and hope that they come back (hard to know without actually seeing what they look like)

5) My guess would be that the algae smothered them. Being slower growing plants, the algae covers their leaves and then they can't get any light. They are both pretty undemanding, so I wouldn't imagine they starved...

6) With something as small as 5 gallons, I would just tear it down and start over personally. The stem plants are a good idea and should help with algae.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

I agree with qwe, tear it down and start over. You could spend months trying to rehabilitate it with uncertain success. If you mineralize the soil before you put it in the tank, you should be able to put the fish back in quickly.

Since you are having massive algae problems, reduce the light when you start over. And use the emersed plants sparingly if at all--in three years a pothos easily could fill an entire 5 gallon tank with roots! You also could keep the HOB filter on the tank, fill it with biomedia, and plant the pothos in it. This would contain the roots and make it easier to maintain the tank while still getting the water-cleaning benefits of the pothos. The water movement might help with the algae.

Good luck!


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## qwe123 (Jun 15, 2011)

That's a good idea with the HOB. I know my 3 gallon got full of pothos and wandering jew roots really quick.


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## jixie007 (Jun 18, 2015)

Thanks for the feed back. Never heard of using blackworms as clean up crew, that's... awesome. I'm going to have to try that for round 2. And, I'll plant the pothos in the HOB or get some hanging "planters" in the tank to keep them reigned in. 

Tank is definitely getting overhauled. Because the moment I started tinkering with it, I managed to kill everyone (except one of the nerite snails).  RIP Blaster and Whirl.

For the record: the hydrogen peroxide was super effective against the algae and bga. It had no effect on the plants. I took the bettas and snails out before treating and did a water change after, but I think I put them back in too soon. They got stressed out, a few days later developed fungal infections and by the time I diagnosed & treated it was already too late.

On top from that, started trying to mineralize the last of the MGOC I had and it got moldy. So I'm having a pretty bad run right now.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

The mold will not be a problem with the soil. It is part of the decay process that removes excess nutrients and stabilizes the soil. Just let the soil dry out before you wet it again.


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## jixie007 (Jun 18, 2015)

Okay, thanks. 

I was thinking, if I understand the "mineralization" process it is speeding up organic decay to create humus. So wouldn't the old spent soil be just farther along in the process? If I scoop up most of the sand cap, could I mix some of the old soil with the new (rinsed) stuff? Is there any advantage / disadvantage to doing that?

Related tangent: okay so, organic potting soil straight out of the bag is too "nutrient dense" for (most) aquariums, which is why it's good idea to break it down into humus first. But humus straight out of the bag lacks adequate nutrients and that's why it's not recommended. So... the mineralization process doesn't decay the soil as much as actual humus? It's more like "kinda humus"?

Unrelated tangent: capping the soil with lava rock: good idea, bad idea?


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Our mineralization process only takes the organic matter in the soil part way to humus, so it has plenty of nutrients in it. The other important thing to remember is that MGOC is 100% organic matter. Natural soils are rarely more than 10% to 20% organic matter, so they do not undergo such complete and rapid decay in the aquarium. This is why recommend mixing 100% organic soils with clay, Turface, Safe-T-Sorb, cat litter, Flourite, et cetera--to reduce the percentage of organic matter to levels found in natural soils. 

Sure, you can re-use your old substrate and mix it with something else. But this is only a 5 gallon tank--it's not a lot of trouble to start from scratch.

Lava rock is so light that it won't do a good job of holding soil in place, or anchoring plant roots. Most of it is way too coarse, and it can have microscopic sharp edges that are harmful to catfish and some invertebrates.


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## jixie007 (Jun 18, 2015)

Makes sense! Thanks for the explanations.


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## jixie007 (Jun 18, 2015)

*Updates + more questions - Re: Is my tank salvagable?*

Update: Emptied the tank, brought it home, refilled about two gallons of old water. Hoping to keep plants + bacteria happy, or at least alive. Hoping to add just enough old soil to kick start bacteria in new soil. Planning to renovate tank during the weekend.

Realized I didn't have enough of the MGOC, went out and got cheap soil. Realized cheap soil was "starter" not "top" soil and consists of peat moss (d'oh), vermiculite (d'oh!), and perilite (d'oh!!). Gave up and dug up a bucket full of back yard soil.

I haven't tested the soil in our back yard, but I can say, after three days of rinse / stir / soak / dump cycles, I'm not seeing any appreciable difference in the rinse water. It doesn't look any clearer than when I started. With the MGOC it seemed like the rinse water got clearer with each rinse (never 100%, of course).

Is this normal for regular ol' backyard dirt? Or is this a sign of the dreaded "clay that never settles" type dirt?

Thanks!
Jasmine


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

If you are worried about colloidal clay, do a jar test. Take a clear glass jar (quart mayonnaise jar works well), put an inch or two of soil in the bottom, and fill with water. Shake it up, and let it sit for 24 hours. If the water is still cloudy, you probably have colloidal clay. Clear but colored water is OK.

I can't use my native soil because of colloidal clay.


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