Tetra Holiday Sticks - How To Clean Mess After Use?

[bevS97]

We went away for a week about a month ago, and put a holiday stick in the tank while we were gone.
We have 4 Neon Tetras in a Baby Biorb tank. When we got back the stick was at the bottom of the tank untouched.

I tried to remove it and it disintegrated and the tank was just full of food. Within a week or so we had a tank full of algae which I assume was related to the excess food.

We've cleaned the tank, done a partial water change, and the levels are all fine, but you can still see all this 'stuff' which I presume is the old food at the bottom of the tank - I've no idea how to remove it - any suggestions?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

small daily water changes and lots of gravel vaccing, unfortunately these things make a right old mess of the tank.

count yourself lucky that the fish haven't died, it will have really polluted the tank.

for future reference the fish are fine for up to 2 weeks without food, much better than this mess

 

[gilaesther]

Also, you can use the Tetra Gel feeders, much less mess