Starting Over

[Huugs]

I have about a 13gal tank with 10 smaller than 1 inch Zebra Danios. Did have it planted but the plants were struggling. They were mostly water sprite, twisted vallis and a hygrophilias. But I had an anubias nana in there aswell. They seemed to be doing fine but then I moved and the water is different so they died. I ended up getting bga algae i think so took a lot to clean up but i think i got most of it. I have a 36W light above the tank.

My question is would it be better to start fresh with new substrate and everything to make sure there is no algae at all?

Im going to get more plants again. Water sprite, hygro, twisted vallis, green umbrella fern, spongy saggitarius and possibly a creeping jenny. Should I get a substrate like Onyx Gravel or Sand? Which is better of the two because Im not sure how keen I am on the sand idea coz it sounds like harder to clean?

Im also gonna use Flourish and Flourish Excel but I would like to have it as the lowest cleaning times as possible.

[Damon]

I would keep the substrate. Its the best "bio-spira" you will ever have. If the plants are dead, remove them and put them in a bucket. Ambient light will be enough for them. Cover the tank and do a 3-4 day blackout. Then do a large waterchange (like 60%). Rplant the plants before refilling up the tank. Clean the filter at this time also. Rplant and add more if you can (like anacharis, or hornwort). Should be good to go.

[Huugs]

Thanks thats great. Nice clean looking tank at the moment. Theres a few bits of algae, which Im almost certain is BGA, still in the tank.
Will these dissappear when the new plants take hold and keep the nutrients down?
At the moment my nitrates are the lowest ive seen them. Somewhere between 5 and 10ppm and i think they were about 20 yesterday.
Should using Flourish, Flourish Excel and Iron be good enough? Atleast to start?

[Damon]

For BGA, remove what you can. If it is still spreading do another blackout and waterchange. BGA comes (usually) with low nitrates. Resetting the tank (as you did before) and planting more plants will help. You might have to start adding KNO3 (potassium nitrate) to your tank. Its common for planted tanks as well as (Kh2po4 and K2SO4).

[Huugs]

OK so the algae is kinda appearing on the plants that I only put in a few 6 days ago. It is the quick growing plants that its growing on which is strange.
Im not certain that it is BGA really cause it looks like a sort of slime with little tiny hairs about 1 or 2 mm long and it is a really dark greeny bluey turquoisey colour.

My tank stats are:
Ammonia and Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 5.0pmm
Phosphate 0.25-0.5ppm (probably 0.25)
Iron 0.2ppm
pH 7.8-8.0
gH 4.48-5.04 degrees
kH 11.2 degrees

I have been dosing with flourish at the recommended dose twice in the week. Flourish Iron twice since putting the plants in and doing Flourish Excel once a day at three times the dose. Its about 3wpg with the lights on for 10 hours a day since I re-planted. Its a 13gal with 11 no bigger than an inch zebra danios.

Do you think its probably BGA or something else?

Im thinking of getting the KNO3 stuff but what sort of level should I try and keep the nitrates at?

Gonna try a black out again in a week if its not cleared up so should I keep the plant in there or remove them?

[Damon]

Your nitrates are low (ASSuming your test kit is right). BGA comes when NO3 bottoms out. Just keep up the manual removal and see if it spreads. If it does, another blackout is the answer or erthomyacin will kill it. It is harmful to your bacterial though.