Restarting tank

[Qwedfg]

My basement flooded over the weekend (first time in the 6 years we lived here...) and I had to take down my tank for the time being. I gave my shrimp and fish to a LFS, dumped my plants and rinsed all my filter media and threw it in a bucket. My old aquasoil is just sitting at the bottom of the tank still moist but there is no standing water left I can see.

My tank had been set up for almost two years and I had been having a persistent problem with blackbeard algae for quite a while. About 2 weeks before my basement flooded I took out all my media and aquasoil then rinsed it before putting it back which seemed to have partially solved the problem but now I'll never know!

My question is what should I do upon restarting my tank once the basement is sorted out to avoid a recurring algae problem. Should I toss my aquasoil and start over with fresh soil (I have a new bag sitting at my house from a new tank I was about to start up...)? Should I bake or boil my filter media to get rid of any algae spores? I am kind of excited to start this tank over after a year or so of persistent blackbeard I am hoping I can avoid it this time.

 

[Tim Harrison]

By all means bake both soil or filter media it won’t do any harm. But I think algal spores exist everywhere just waiting for suitable conditions to germinate.

It’s perhaps a better idea to try and work out why this persistent bba problem occurred in the first place, so it can be avoided in future. The algae section would be a good place to start.

Also starting a journal might be a good idea then folk can offer help and advice along the way should you get stuck.

 

[Qwedfg]

By all means bake both soil or filter media it won’t do any harm. But I think algal spores exist everywhere just waiting for suitable conditions to germinate.

It’s perhaps a better idea to try and work out why this persistent bba problem occurred in the first place, so it can be avoided in future. The algae section would be a good place to start.

Also starting a journal might be a good idea then folk can offer help and advice along the way should you get stuck.

Ok thank you. I believe that my blackbeard algae came from a dirty substrate because I played a lot with co2 and pushed it to the point where any more co2 would cause my shrimp to stop moving during the day.

I will start a journal but I only have a phone camera and my pictures always stink compared to all the great tanks you see on here!