20/12/2020
Questions I see in Forums Answered!
Our normal water change process is to remove the decorations, fake plants, sometimes live plants, and rinse/scrub off all those things.
The beneficial bacteria only live on surfaces, not in the water! You scrubbing everything killed off a lot of what you want. Never do that.
That's where the most horrific odor was coming from and there was a ton of this brown stuff underneath the gravel.
That is only mulm, it smells, but hurts the fish none, not one bit. Unsightly, but the fish don't care.
I'm a little afraid we lost a lot of good bacteria in the process so I added half a bottle each of Tetra Safe Start that has the added bacteria.
I am a dealer for DR.Tims, same type stuff and not sold on it. It will help Start the process but does not "instant start" the cycle. So, many people get this wrong! It speeds it up by a few weeks, but it not the end-all cure-all.
Brown Algae or Diatoms.
The cause is usually too little light or too much(you have to figure that out). I say about 8-10 hours is fine, not much more or less, but it depends on the lighting used as well.
It can lower the oxygen in the tank over time. Live plants can help a lot. Large water changes of 50% a week can definitely help! Adding Flourish Excel can also help, research it, and now my last point!
I just did a water change and everything died.
There are times, many municipalities flush the water systems out. They may add chemicals such as Chloramine when you only had Chlorine before! Maybe a lot of rains added to well water minerals it did not have before? This is why my water sits in a 33-gallon garbage can for 3-4 days before water changes, in case and only change a few tanks at a time, to see if anything happens.
I would highly suggest people use Seachem Prime as the best Water Conditioner of choice. Not only does it remove metals and both Chlorine versions, but it also can detoxify, in an emergency to buy you time for a few days. Again, not a fix-all, but a lifesaver in a tank crash.
My 2 cents...