Whats Happening To My Tank

[regimail]

What’s happening to my tank. Suddenly everything is turning black, the plants, the gravel, the ornaments …. Everything.
Water stats are all normal Ammonia:0, Nitrite:0,Nitrate:5,ph:7.2
I have an external canister filter. I used to put activated carbon in it. Few weeks ago I had power failure which stopped the filter. This was reset by my wife. Later that evening I noticed everything turned black. I thought some carbon may have made its way in to the tank (I don’t think that was the case). I removed everything from the tank plastic plants, ornaments…. and washed it in bleach. I did not put the plastic plants back in the tank as I just want to keep real plants in the tank no (which I bought 2 weeks ago). I did not put the activated carbon back in the filter.
Recently I have noticed same thing happening again. I don’t understand what’s happening. I tried to scrap the black thing off the leaves of amazon sword plant but it is not coming off.
I am thinking of removing the plant from the tank and wash the leaves using diluted bleach solution. Is this the right thing to do. Should I do something else instead or in addition?

Here are some pics

 

[aaronnorth]

it is algae, you will have to remove the infected leaves.

Also take the carbon out, it only lasts a few days and it removes nuttrients from the water which plants need.

 

[trojannemo]

Also take the carbon out, it only lasts a few days and it removes nuttrients from the water which plants need.

sorry to "hijack" the thread but can you elaborate on that? this is the second time i hear that and i'd like to understand it well before i do that.
i have two filters. one of them i only have filter media (ceramic + plastic) and filter cotton. on the other i have two big carbon pads as well as
one small filter media bag and more cotton.

would you recommend just using filter cotton and/or a filter pad without carbon in it?

 

[aaronnorth]

Also take the carbon out, it only lasts a few days and it removes nuttrients from the water which plants need.

sorry to "hijack" the thread but can you elaborate on that? this is the second time i hear that and i'd like to understand it well before i do that.
i have two filters. one of them i only have filter media (ceramic + plastic) and filter cotton. on the other i have two big carbon pads as well as
one small filter media bag and more cotton.

would you recommend just using filter cotton and/or a filter pad without carbon in it?

Carbon is said to become saturated very quickly, so therefore it starts leaking out all the impurities it has collected, i do not have a better answer than that, so ask in the scientific section and i am sure Bignose or Andy will give you a better answer. Unfortantley the search function is broken so i cannot find the thread

You want as much biological and mechanical filtration as you can in filters, there isnt much need for chemical like carbon unless you need to remove medication etc.

 

[trojannemo]

Also take the carbon out, it only lasts a few days and it removes nuttrients from the water which plants need.

sorry to "hijack" the thread but can you elaborate on that? this is the second time i hear that and i'd like to understand it well before i do that.
i have two filters. one of them i only have filter media (ceramic + plastic) and filter cotton. on the other i have two big carbon pads as well as
one small filter media bag and more cotton.

would you recommend just using filter cotton and/or a filter pad without carbon in it?

Carbon is said to become saturated very quickly, so therefore it starts leaking out all the impurities it has collected, i do not have a better answer than that, so ask in the scientific section and i am sure Bignose or Andy will give you a better answer. Unfortantley the search function is broken so i cannot find the thread

You want as much biological and mechanical filtration as you can in filters, there isnt much need for chemical like carbon unless you need to remove medication etc.

i have biological filtration to give away by the truckloads. my mechanical filtration gives me about 12x turnover...so i should be fine then...
thanks!

 

[regimail]

it is algae, you will have to remove the infected leaves.

Also take the carbon out, it only lasts a few days and it removes nuttrients from the water which plants need.

I have removed carbon few weeks ago. Also I had PhosGuard in my filter which I have removed. So now there is no carbon or phosguard in my filter. Only 3 layers of filter media (cermic cylinders, ceramic hexagon, black balls, sponge and filter pad (I think)). I also have a sponge filter in my tank which I have put in the tank to mature. I am going to move it to a separate small tank where I intend to raise angel fries.

Regarding removing the infected leaves. I have about 5 amazon sword plant and almost all leaves are infected. If I remove all of them then I will be left with no leaves. Do you recommend cutting the leaves and leaving the stem and roots in place or remove the whole plant.

Also what should I do with the gravel which has turned black? I am going to remove the ornaments and clean it with bleach. Is this OK?

Thanks for you comments.

 

[aaronnorth]

as long as the plant has roots, that are alive then the plant will survive, although it make a take a while to regrow again. I would just pick the gravel up in your hand and rub it to get it off, and turn it over, not much else you can do.

 

[regimail]

as long as the plant has roots, that are alive then the plant will survive, although it make a take a while to regrow again. I would just pick the gravel up in your hand and rub it to get it off, and turn it over, not much else you can do.

Thanks for you advice. I will cut the leaves which have turned black and hope they regrow. I did this to few stems a couple of weeks ago and I can see new leaves growing on them so hope it will work. I will do it tonight.

Thanks again.