Urgent need for advice!

Web Gazelle

Web Gazelle

Guardian Of The Cave
Dec 1, 2004
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Planet Earth
Here is the situation..

I recently was treating my tank for a bacterial infection. I finished the treatment and all was well. Time to do a 25% water change. While I was doing the water change I decided to wash some build up from around the tops of the glass. I grabbed a sponge and wiped it down not thinking that the sponge might not be suited for aquarium use. Later I come back to see that all my fish are dieing. There must have been a chemical in the sponge that got into the water and poisoned all my fish. Now they are all dead and I just did a major cleaning of my tank. Do you think I am at square one again? Do I need to get the bio filter established again? When will it be safe to add a fish or two?
 
I did this in the beginning with my 29 gal. Used a new sponge and two fish died and I regretted it terribly. Dipped the new sponge in the water and then said "Oh crap!" My tank was OK after I did a major water change and I didn't lose any other fish. The bacterial in the gravel was OK.

As to starting over ...... Did you completely clean the gravel??
 
IMO, I would basically start over if your tank is small enough to do so! I'm not sure what the proper way to clean a tank is, you should do a search on that, I think they recommend a VERY weak bleach solution maybe?? Like I said check that out! I would run your old filter media on the fresh tank and water for a couple days, then maybe get one or two fish and wait at least a week or so to make sure all is good!!
In the future for cleaning you might try the alge scrapers, or just a plain washcloth and water to be sure there is nothing toxic!
Sorry about the fish!
 
Yep I just cleaned the gravel and pretty much everything else. I guess I am starting over now. Oh, and the gravel is the medium for my filter, it is an undergravel filter. The tank is a 20 Gallon.
 
alot of sponges have anti-microbial enzymes in them to keep them from stinking when soiled. if i had to guess, this is what did it.
as for cleaning around there, i use paper towels, those blue cloth "shop towels" in the bucket work very well too. just make sure whatever you keep doesnt have any chemicals in it.

as for tough algae, go with a about 1 to 8 vinegar solution. might stink a little but doesnt bother the fish and works suprisingly well.

hope i helped
 
Sponge

Yeah, I agree with Hibidi. There's no telling what is in that sponge. It's a little late, but I would not have taken the tank apart and re-started. I would have just changed the water, cleaned the inside glass with a paper towel to remove any residue from the sponge, added water, put new carbon in the filters and run the tank for a while. Wait some time, and add some fish.

As far as cleaning the side glass: I simply take one of my large plastic plants use that to scrape any mineral residue or algae from the glass. When I'm done, I simply rinse the plastic plant in the tank water.
 
I wanted to be sure to get all the chemicals from the sponge out of the water and off anything that was in the tank. I guess I went all out after losing almost 20 fish.
 
well my from my experance ive done the same things before. i only use water to clean a tank if its that grimmmy boil some water bye a new wash cloth rinse the washcloth out verry well and rubb=p never use any kind off soap or bleach or cleaning sulotion in a tank dry or full. run the gravel under boiling water too to get everything out. you never know whats in a washcloth or not always clean the washcloth out use to scrub you tank yourself bye hand no soap or anything just water in the sink with hot water.
rember boiling water is your best friend when it comes to cleaning your tank never use anything that has ever had anything else in it you can never get it ALL out nomatter how sure you are you got it all and it only ttakes a verry tinny bit too kill off your fish
 
Just qa thought from reading all the posts here... But maybe this would be a good time to mention that maybe an algae scraper is just what you need, obviously it wont help with your dead fish, but incase you get crud on your glass you want to scrape off in the future try one of these, it'sb basically two little wooden or plastic magnetic blocks, the rough one goes inside your tank and scrapes of algae/slime/crud that it comes across and it wont scratch your glass. There pretty cheap and is faer better than using a sponge, plus you have the advantage that you can clean your galss without sticking your hand/arm in the water.
 
I am pretty sure I have done more than was needed to clean out the chemicals that got into my tank from the sponge and I am going to get a couple of fish tomorrow and see how everything goes. Thanks for all of your advice.
 
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