What to do with a diseased tank?

M

mooby

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Jun 17, 2003
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I'd like some advice about a diseased tank I have. No, I don't need treatment advice.

All 30 of my fish died within about 3 days as a result of some sort of incredibly virulent fungal infection. My first question is this; what do I do with my tank? What's the best way to disinfect everything? Finally, and this may seem a little silly, but is it possible for this fungus to infect either me or my dogs?

Thanks in advance!
 
Probably won't affect you or the dog but I would wash my hands really well. If it were up to me I would probably take the tank apart and use a mild bleach solution to clean everything, then make sure to wash well (without soap) and allow it to dry. Bleach will break down once dry, into a gas and salt. Then you will need to start the cycle again of course before adding more fish back in.

That is just the way I would do it. I am sure there will be other ways from other people.
 
it might actually be beneficial to figure out what the disease was before you go cleaning, but more than likely any way you would have to treat the disease would have wiped out the bio-filter anyway........ wondering if it was columnaris.

so, i would go with the bleach method too i suppose.

edit: when rinsing before use, you might want to use some dechlorinator to be on the safe side.....
 
Well, my first question is, what was recognizably fungal about the way the fish died?

If it's Saprolegnia you're talking about, there's no way to eliminate it. It's like trying to get the kitchen so clean, that bread doesn't even go moldy.

Efforts at "sterilizing" an aquarium can't help being fruitless. You can't keep nature at bay.
 
I once came across this article regarding sterilizing with chlorine. The author says her experiment wasn't scientific but it is very interesting, really deserves a read.

Excerpt: In older publications (20 years ago), bleach was commonly recommended as a cleaner. No claim was made about sterilizing. I suspect that somewhere along the line clean became synonymous with sterile.

http://www.mn-aquarium.org/masart35.htm
 
I use 1 part bleach to 19 parts water. Don't use any bleach that is scented or anything, just plain ole 100% bleach. Don't use any types of soap or cleaners or anything like that, just rinse thoroughly with water and I use some dechlorinator in the rinse water just to be sure.

It may or may not actually kill all the bad stuff, but it makes me feel better anyway :)
 
One thing that hasn't been mentioned is your rocks. I would ditch them or use them as some sort of landscaping and start over with new rocks. Cleaning will help them, but there are way too many nooks and crannies and other surface imperfections that you'll never get rid of everything. I guess you could always boil them to ensure all bacteria are dead?
 
Originally posted by Mulla
What about using alcohol? Something like Metholated Spirits (sp?).??

Just wondering....
Click to expand...

i would be afraid of fire or cracking. alchohol ignites extremely easy, it has a very low flash point. another odd little thing i found by accident one day working on something was the evaporation of the alchohol (cool) on one side of a piece of plastic and the heat from my fingertips on the other side caused cracks. i would imagine this would also hold true for glass, especially in thinner sheets.

i know this might sound like some sort of strange blasphemy, but i wonder if an ammonia mixture would work. i use it around the house for alot of cleanups, it has a pretty high germ and bacteria killing property i think? :confused: if the tank is empty and being totally cleaned i'm not sure if it would ever affect your tank later. it also has a pretty good evaporative property so i think it would be gone pretty quickly if you left the tank to dry..... then rinse and start over.

anyone else want to chime in on this? this is sort of a wild thought that seems to make sense........
 
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