Jobes sticks/leaching.

[AZFish1]

Ok so I am guilty of trying Jobes sticks in the substrate and now am in the urea induced algae battle . I have been cleaning like crazy for weeks trying to get it under control to no end. I am ready to tear it down and start over as I am doing the EI method in another tank that is .... well...... perfect as can be. I have one question before I do this dreaded deed though..... would zeolite help to save this tank? How would it change my NO3 dosing? Can I use a media or chem to remove the raw ammonia and not screw up the other nutrients? I hate the thought af tearing it down and if there is any way to avoid it I think I would try it at this point.

Thanks in advance for any insight

 

[Greg Watson]

Re: Jobes sticks/leaching.

Ok so I am guilty of trying Jobes sticks in the substrate and now am in the urea induced algae battle . I have been cleaning like crazy for weeks trying to get it under control to no end. I am ready to tear it down and start over ...

Let's just say that I had a similar "experiment" that went awry that resulted in six inch round "crop circles" of algae on my substrate (no algae anywhere else in the tank) ...

Nothing would get rid of the algae crop circles on the "contaminated substrate" ... I finally removed the fish inhabitants, "planted" water lettuce (a nice obnoxious weed) in my little crop circles and cranked the CO2 for a couple long weeks (so high that there was this "sweet" smell in the room) ... dosed heavy potassium and micro nutrients ... they seemed to suck the contaminants out of the substrate quite effectively ... most of the other plants in the tank survived, some even grew quite nicely ...

Lots of crypt wenditii plants seemed to take care of the rest of it over the course of the next year ...

I don't know whether there is a better answer ... that was just my approach ...

 

[AZFish1]

Re: Jobes sticks/leaching.

Theres a thought. I could plant it like mad with crypts and swords and let them clean it up couldnt I? Would I stop water ferts if I went with all root feeders to clean up the substrate?

 

[Greg Watson]

Re: Jobes sticks/leaching.

Theres a thought. I could plant it like mad with crypts and swords and let them clean it up couldnt I? Would I stop water ferts if I went with all root feeders to clean up the substrate?

I didn't ... in your case, I would assume that the primary contaminant problem is the amonia nitrate, so I would dose potassium, phosphate and micro nutrients in the water column ...

And if this is done long term, I probably would even consider a little Nitrate in the water column as well ...

Like I posted earlier, I don't know if this is the best answer ... just an approach I tried when I created a similar problem ...

Greg

 

[Tom Barr]

Re: Jobes sticks/leaching.

Routine:

Vacuum the dickins out of the substrate.

Work in 1/4 sections vacuuming and thoroughly clean, pick, preen each plant well, then replant.

Refill tank from the vacuumed water loss, then do another water change(50-70%).

Add dechloro, nutrients back.

Clean filter/equipment.

It does not need a complete tear down, I find that these don't do any better and require a few more hours of time.

The main time spent should be on preening plants and makign sure yoyu work the tank in sections and get everything picked over good.

Then take a net and fluff the tank to get any loose bits.

Regards,
Tom Barr