# Removing all algae bleach method?



## potatoes (Jun 25, 2010)

hi,
I am going to be restarting my 29 gal tank I t is planted in simple gravel, and i have been battling algae for a year. After a test run on a 5 gal, have decided to change over to a NPT. The problem is, I would rather not plant the tank with algae covered plants and give the algae a foot in the door. Since i am going to remove all the plants anyways, i want to eradicate what algae i can. I read the sticky on the bleach method. is this only effective for hair algae? the tank is going to be stocked with fish quite soon after the change, so i do not want to bleach the whole tank, just the plants in a bucket or something.
They have diatoms, green spot algae, some weird grey slime, hair algae, and some strange algae that looks like green fish poo attached to the plant. I found that when i let the diatoms cover the anubais, it killed the layer of green spot algae below it. I jsut found that interesting and perhaps useful since diatoms are so much easier to remove.
I do not want to throw out good plants, so will this method work? if not, is there a better way? ANy tips? I do not need to sterilize the whole tank, just the plants
Thanks in advance,
Mike


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## darkoon (Jun 7, 2010)

it is probably safer to dose with excel, vals and crypts will melt in excessive excel, but will grow right back once the treatment is over.


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## potatoes (Jun 25, 2010)

That makes sense, I guess bleach is a bit harsh. Will the excel kill all of the algae in my tank? And are you talking about the triple dosing method?
Can i dip/soak the plants in a perioxide water solution or an excel/water solution rather than treating my whole tank, or would you recommend the latter?
Thanks for the reply


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

There is an article on the bleach method here. This method works for the kinds of algae that are too tough for snails or fish to eat. I don't know how useful it is for green spot algae, but I know it keeps out a lot of troublesome types including _Rhizoclonium, Spirogyra, Cladophora, Oedogonium_, fuzz algae and _Audouinella_, black beard algae. These types of algae do not come from the soil unless the soil is collected near a lake or a pond. If you get your plants free of these types of algae, you don't have to worry about these types returning, floating in on "hellish spores" as a traumatized aquarist once wrote.


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## potatoes (Jun 25, 2010)

Thanks for the reply. I would prefer not to bleach the entire tank unless absolutely necessary. Do i really need to sterilize the whole thing? I would like to keep the tank established to some degree, and i assume the bleach will kill all beneficial bacteria. I understand that there are spores, but it is not an over aggressive algae. There is some grey hair or fuzz algae, diatoms, a green layer on the leaves, and green spot algae, nothing like black beard algae. Would i be correct or just sterilize the plants and not he tank? if so how would you go about doing so (excel, h2o2, bleach, other..)? Or am i wrong , and any trace of algae while switching tank substrate will overwhelm my tank die to cycling/ammonia? I am slightly confused. Thanks for your help


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

If you bleach the plant, but not the tank, the algae will just climb on the plant when it is returned to the tank. The best way to do it is to get another tank that is free of hair algae and move plants into it after bleaching them. That way you can keep the old setup. Just don't move plants, fish or snails from the old to the new tank. You can move fish, but they should go into a temporary, unlit, intermediate tank for a day or two so that algae pieces that came with them can fall down in the gravel and not get picked up when you move them on to the new tank. Snails can carry unwanted fuzz algae on their shells, and they don't take well to bleaching except, perhaps, MTS, which carry little trapdoors that close behind them when they pull in their shells and protect them from the bleach. Plants, you gotta bleach. If a tank plus gravel and other equipment is bleached, it is easy to return the bacterial community. Just get a teaspoon of soil, put it in a small container with a few inches of water and drop in a piece of dry dog or cat food. Three days later, pour some of the water into the sterilized tank. It will introduce all the useful bacteria. They came out of the soil and multiplied on the food.


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## ddavila06 (Jan 31, 2009)

if you have that many tipes of algea i woudl re-do the whole tank. you have others right? soak the substrate in heavy bleach, the plants in not-that-heavy bleach, and the filters etc in with the heavy bleach as well. clean everytihng off and rinse super well. the way i would get it back running soon is with water from the other tanks, the filter mulm cal be added too.


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## Gordonrichards (Apr 28, 2009)

Get some algacide?


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

Algacides do not work quickly. They work in time periods of days, and they are pretty rough on aquarium plants, too.


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## potatoes (Jun 25, 2010)

That makes sense, i guess the initial ammonia/nitrite spike would cause an algae explosion. Alright, i will bleach the whole thing if thats what you all recommend. I have 2 pearl gourami and 10 zebra danio in it right now, but they can stay in my 10gal tank (which is for my breeding cherry shrimp and endlers livebearers) until the initial ammonia/nitrite spike is over. I will just toss the gravel, i am not going to be using it because i am switching to the NPT, in which i am using dirt and a sand cap. Thank you all for your help, especially HeyPK (I found that bit about the dog food fascinating, i will do that in all tanks for now on) ? Once i gather/finish all the components for the tank, i will bleach it then make the switch. Anything else i should do


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