# [Wet Thumb Forum]-bleach bath?



## jpmtotoro (Feb 13, 2003)

having a little spat with algae and right now "right conditions" aren't possible, not for a few weeks until i find, order, and set everything up. i also have a nice little algae crew coming in the mail next week, but i'm trying to hold it back as much as possible while i'm getting everything up to date. would a little bleach bath help? it appears most of it is BBA growing on the plants. pruning doesn't help too much because it comes back faster than the plants regrow. i was hoping some quick bleach baths for the leaves of my larger and more infected plants might at least slow it down. any thoughts? i'm also playing with other algae-limiting techniques, but i'm curious about the bleach baths and how effective they are. i'd appreciate some feedback if anyone has tried them before or knows anything.

JP

PS for bleach baths, isn't it very diluted? something like 19 parts water and 1 part bleach? just don't want to over/under dose in case i do this.


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## jpmtotoro (Feb 13, 2003)

having a little spat with algae and right now "right conditions" aren't possible, not for a few weeks until i find, order, and set everything up. i also have a nice little algae crew coming in the mail next week, but i'm trying to hold it back as much as possible while i'm getting everything up to date. would a little bleach bath help? it appears most of it is BBA growing on the plants. pruning doesn't help too much because it comes back faster than the plants regrow. i was hoping some quick bleach baths for the leaves of my larger and more infected plants might at least slow it down. any thoughts? i'm also playing with other algae-limiting techniques, but i'm curious about the bleach baths and how effective they are. i'd appreciate some feedback if anyone has tried them before or knows anything.

JP

PS for bleach baths, isn't it very diluted? something like 19 parts water and 1 part bleach? just don't want to over/under dose in case i do this.


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## Hawkeye (Aug 20, 2004)

Your right 19/1 
I have use this method in the past to help keep algae for getting way out of hand before I got things balanced. One thing to remember is the tougher the leaves the more time in the bath. Plants that have delicate leave will most likely lose them after the bath. I never left a plant in the bath longer then one to two min. Rub the leaves to get the algae off faster. Remember you have to rinse the plants and then rinse again. YOu don't want any bleach getting back into your tank.

Hawk

Trust But Verify Â«*Â»Â®


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## jpmtotoro (Feb 13, 2003)

sweet thanks, i also heard rinse them off in some dechlor? matter at all?


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## qbal18 (Jul 19, 2004)

if it was me i would use the dechlor as well, it should help neutralize the bleach

50g tank, 2.5wpg, 2-3mm, gravel Fe root tabs and jobes spreads out in gravel, 11hr full light period,


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## jpmtotoro (Feb 13, 2003)

woohoo! the bleach bath... was interesting. i ended up tearing my tank apart (i wanted to remove the UG filters, add some more gravel, and landscape anyway) so i set it up how i wanted, and i left my plants in a bucket for over a day, then i gave a quick bleach bath to the really nasty plants, soaked them in some heavily dechlorinated water, then planted them again in the tank. i let them sit there for another day before adding any fish back, and i just added my otocinclus back in. i am sorta impressed though, the BBA algae (pretty sure that was it) has turned pretty much white and isn't hanging on the plants as well, i was able to rub some off. what was odd was that when i added the ottos back in, i checked on them later and they were attacking one of the plants and cleaning the leaves off! very surprising. although with my luck, there is still a small amount of bleach in the algae and leaves and all my ottos will be belly up soon... 5 bucks says the bba will come back with a vengeance in a few weeks anyway... as soon as the light can penetrate into the flourite-muddied water...


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## Hawkeye (Aug 20, 2004)

Did you say you have UG Filters? If so thats your problem. They are bad for causing high NO3 witch BBG loves. I had them and never did get totally rid of BBG until I started using a canister filter. I just discounted them, leaving the plates still in the tank.

Hawk

Trust But Verify Â«*Â»Â®


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## jpmtotoro (Feb 13, 2003)

i just removed them this weekend, BUT... i never had high NO3, in fact it was almost 0. i did a good job with the siphon (probably at the expense of some roots, but oh well) but i'd say with relative assurance that the NO3 was not high, in fact very close to 0 (and it still is) i'm wondering if i actually had a lack of nitrogen in the water. the tank was doing good for a long time and then within a week or two it came full force. i'm not sure what precipitated it... i've been trying to think of different things i did but none seem to point in the right direction... the only thing i can think of is perhaps i ended up depleting some nutrients completely. some of my plants suffered big time, but some continued to grow quite quickly so i'm not sure. right now i don't even have a filter







i'll have to get an eheim canister as soon as possible, but right now i only have a powerhead to move the water around. another thing i just removed was my emperor HOB filter... perhaps the carbon filter media was a bane as well... i guess we'll see how things go, but i still have 0 NO3.


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## imported_aspen (Feb 20, 2003)

i don't see how one filtration method over another can increase the nitrate levels more than another. nitrate is produced from the available amm in the system, from the fish food and whatever other sources are available. it makes no difference how that ammonia is cycled, it is the nit bacteria which do this. having said that, i don't believe that ug filters are good for a planted tank, and you will enjoy the growth without it. maybe you have a filter that doesn't dissipitate the co2, which you are now adding? that would be a big improvement.

rick


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## otherguy (Feb 2, 2003)

I dont know the specifics, but I believe people who have saltwater reef tanks are going away from wet drys because the theory is they are nitrate generators. My friend who has a reef tank took all his bioballs out and now relies only on his live rock as biological filtration.

Brandon

75gallon tank, wetdry filter, pressurized co2 with controller, uv, flourite substrate, 220watts lighting


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## b3dlam (Feb 1, 2003)

otherguy,

'Live Rock' is just that. Its alive. It has numerous organisms living on the surface and crevices of the rock. The bioballs etc are not really necessary in predominately reef setups as the organisms utilise the nutrients. The move away from those filters is because they are 'too efficient' in breaking down the ammonia to nitrate, ie. it gets to nitrate before the organisms can use it... In addition, the core of live rock is said to break down nitrate as its a anaerobic environment...


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## Hawkeye (Aug 20, 2004)

When I first setup my 55gal I used UG filters. The problem I ran into was when using 4-5 inches of gravel for plants. The filters would pull the muck ( fish waste and food ) so far down into the gravel that it would build up NO3, I have seen this in several tanks with UG filters with deep gravel levels. If I don't do the gravel such thing at lest once a month the NO3 would get 25-50ppm. Its was a constant battle with BBA. I wouldn't recommend using an UG filter at all but if you do you shouldn't use more then 2 inches of gravel. At that level you wouldn't have much luck growing plants.

Hawk

Trust But Verify Â«*Â»Â®


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## jpmtotoro (Feb 13, 2003)

under ground filters are out, algae is pretty under control now, nutrients are normal, LIFE IS GOOD! can't wait until i can afford a pressurized CO2 system. now that my plants are growing again i have to wait to let them grow in, i chopped them down so much during the algae fest that they are all 1/2 size now







it's ok, in 2 months they should be full and healthy again. thanks for everyone's help! and in case people wonder about having the UG filter... i had probably 2.5 inches of gravel with the UG filter and the plants seemed to be fine. the ONLY annoying thing was that they loved dropping roots into the plating and then growing 4 foot long roots down there in no time at all. my tallest and healthiest plants all had deep root systems in the filter, so perhaps UG filters get the bad rap too often. regardless, i ripped it out and i'm not putting it back in. it didn't appear to be my problem, i think i just let my nutrients get so out of whack that everything was suffering. oh well, live and learn









JP


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## plantbrains (Mar 11, 2003)

You can try copper sulfate at low levels, see the Krib and Neil Frank's comments on it. I tried it years aho. It's fairly effective but roast some plants.
Dipping in Bleach works, I'd rather just pout the infected plants in a dark bucket for 4 days though. Seem less harsh on the plants.
Regards, 
Tom Barr


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## jpmtotoro (Feb 13, 2003)

actually tom i had the plants in a dark bucket for a day and a half while i was working on the tank. when i pulled them out, the plants looked TERRIBLE and the algae was fine, so i didn't feel like leaving them there for another 2 days since it appeared my plants weren't even gonna survive a 4 day bucket vacation. i think rex (or someone else, i apologize) suggested that the algae would outlive the plants sitting in a bucket anyway so i wasn't too interested after seeing the plants after a day. it all worked out, after the bleach bath i could rub quite a bit of the stuff off, and i got a few SAEs that cleaned the entire tank in 2 days flat. now they are fat and i'm happy. tom i thought you had a different name... i dunno, 1:30am for me right now, can't think straight.


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