Gill Passman
April 21st 06, 07:16 PM
Dave W. wrote:
> I have an aquarium that had recently suffered some sort of horrible
> bacterial infection (everything I put in there died wihtin a week with
> the same symptoms). At any rate, I am planning to break the now-empty
> tank down and use it again later. A person at one of my local pet
> shops where I sometimes buy fish told me not to wash the tank with
> bleach and water, because the beach gets into the silicone and can
> remain. I thought it evaporated in a few hours, especially after
> thorough rinsing. She said just wash it out with water and let it dry,
> as whatever the disease is would die when everything dried out (aquatic
> parasites/fungus/bacteria can't live out of water) and also suggested
> the same for the powerfilter. Anybody have any experience/thought
> about this?
>
I've always bleached aquariums under similar circumstances or if I am
setting up one of my old ones from scratch again. I then rinse them
thoroughly and put them out in the sun to evaporate the
bleach/chlorine...usually I replace the gravel but this is probably
overkill - others bake it or rinse it with bleach as well. The plants
get dumped just in case....
My feeling is that it is better to be over-cautious than to skimp on
anything....safer that way....
Gill
> I have an aquarium that had recently suffered some sort of horrible
> bacterial infection (everything I put in there died wihtin a week with
> the same symptoms). At any rate, I am planning to break the now-empty
> tank down and use it again later. A person at one of my local pet
> shops where I sometimes buy fish told me not to wash the tank with
> bleach and water, because the beach gets into the silicone and can
> remain. I thought it evaporated in a few hours, especially after
> thorough rinsing. She said just wash it out with water and let it dry,
> as whatever the disease is would die when everything dried out (aquatic
> parasites/fungus/bacteria can't live out of water) and also suggested
> the same for the powerfilter. Anybody have any experience/thought
> about this?
>
I've always bleached aquariums under similar circumstances or if I am
setting up one of my old ones from scratch again. I then rinse them
thoroughly and put them out in the sun to evaporate the
bleach/chlorine...usually I replace the gravel but this is probably
overkill - others bake it or rinse it with bleach as well. The plants
get dumped just in case....
My feeling is that it is better to be over-cautious than to skimp on
anything....safer that way....
Gill