bleaching stuff

Yes, the bleach water should kill all living things possibly found in your gravel. As you mentioned, this will kill all your good bacteria. If you are sure you want to do this, then just make sure the bleach solution is weak... and make sure you rinse it out VERY well. I'm talking 20-30 times!

You can bleach everything, but there is no need to go crazy. You can make the water fairly strong, but you must rinse well. aquariumfishguy you don't really need to rinse it out that many times. 2-3 or even four times with WARM WATER, if that makes you feel better, is fine. Many Aquarium stores do wash nearly everything like this, including the one I previously worked in. Bleach is exremely harmful to fish, so make sure you don't go half way on this! If it does make you feel better rinse it out as many times as you'd like

can you not just make sure its chlorine bleach and let the chlorine gas out after you rinse it and put a strong dose of dechlorine product like prime or amquil etc?

I'm not sure about that, but I wanted to tell you I once washed stuff in bleach and I (too) thought I rinsed it out well... I think I must have rinsed it 5 times really well. So I go to put whatever it was back into my aquarium and 5 mins later I had 7 dead fish. Hmmmm... yeah, I would wash things very well, call me paranoid but I wont risk all those fish again.

Originally posted by johnnyxxl
can you not just make sure its chlorine bleach and let the chlorine gas out after you rinse it and put a strong dose of dechlorine product like prime or amquil etc?

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I woudnt do that bleech has a little more than just Chlorine in it, it is full of some really nasty chemicals and it could also have a drastic effect on PH if not rinsed completly away.

IF you are looking to kill off snails eggs and Algae why not try washing a powerfull jet of water through the gravel while its in a culinder or something as that will knock all particals/eggs/dirt off it. Algae can just be scraped off or washed off with boiling water.

Are you sure you want to do this as it will mean your new tank will more or less have to be cycled from scratch???

Originally posted by RobUK
I woudnt do that bleech has a little more than just Chlorine in it, it is full of some really nasty chemicals and it could also have a drastic effect on PH if not rinsed completly away.

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Some bleaches have other additives but not all. Others are just chlorine and rinsing and then soaking in a quadruple amount of dechlorinator should work. People do this to dip their plants and ornaments in all the time.

Here's a good article called How to "Nuke" a Tank http://www.bestfish.com/tips/100699.html