# Hospital Tank



## bushynose (Aug 17, 2004)

I will be setting up a hospital tank for my anubias wich have collected variuos types of unsightly algae. The plants will be removed from the driftwood that they are anchored on since that wood has collected algea also and will be discarded. I plan on giving the plants a bath in 20:1 solution of h202 and putting them in a 10 gallon with 20 watts of 5100K lighting and adding a co2 reactor. They wil be kept there until the parameters of my 90 gallon tank is suitable for their return. Can anyone add any comments concerning my hospital tank and what I may also need such as substate light timer any calculations would be helpful.


----------



## TomE (Jul 24, 2004)

When my anubias used to get a lot of spot algae, I simply pull up the drift wood & anubias, place that in to a black garbage bag, move that in to my basement for four days, then scub off what algea is left with a soft tooth brush, and place the piece back.


----------



## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

About a year ago I put an anubias that was severely affected by BBA in a black plastic bag and the bag in a trash can with a tight lid on top. There was no water, just the moist plant on a big piece of driftwood. The plant lived in that total darkness for 4 months in the Texas heat during summer.

Somehow the anubias (cafeefolia) produced a new leaf on the second month of that madness. The BBA was not affected at all - could not be manually removed from the leaves and it took the usual scrubbing to get it off the wood.

All other algae (green ones, including cladophora) had no chance - they died and disintegrated the first few days in the total darkness.

Lately I've been trying to fight algae with a simple approach - water changes every single day, vacuuming all visible debries, using water that has enough fertilizers to compensate for the ones that have been used/ removed. The idea is to eliminate as much organics as possible. I use RO water but I guess if the problems indeed come from organics any water will do. So far it seems that that approach works. If your "hospital" tank is only 10 gals changing 2 gals every single day and adding a few mls of ferts is a breeze. 

--Nikolay


----------



## bushynose (Aug 17, 2004)

*Thanks for the ideas*

I never thought of removing the whole peice of planted driftwood to a black garbage bag, that will save me alot of trouble attempting a blackout for a 90 gallon tank. My algae is confined to removeable items. Does this black out kill BBA at all?


----------

