Black Shuck wrote:
On Fri, 07 Apr 2006 02:08:36 +0100, Altum
wrote:


Cleaning the display tank is a very good idea - especially since you
wanted to anyway. Are you going to disinfect it?


Don't know, should I??? Need direction.... How do I eradicate whatever
it is that's killing these fish?

Are there ANY symptoms other than sudden death?

If you had a better idea what was happening, you might be able to use a
med that leaves your filter intact. With no idea, you might want to
sterilize. Unfortunately, it will kill whatever is left of your
biofiltration (probably not much after the acriflavine).

First, remove the old substrate that you intend to replace. Then
disinfect. Finally, set the tank back up and use Cycle (or I prefer
BioSpira) to help get the filter going.

I usually use potassium permangante. Kordon's Permoxyn or Jungle Clear
Water are two brands. For a tank with no fish, I add double the package
dose and leave it overnight with the filter running. If it goes brown
in the first few hours, I add more. Then rinse everything until the
water runs clear. Dilute permanganate (pale pinkish-purple) is a good
dip for live plants. Leave them in for 20 minutes and rinse well.

Permanganate may also help your fish in the Q-tank - it can kill
bacteria and parasites on skin and gills and has a different spectrum of
action than Myxazin. You treat fish for four hours with the dosage on
the bottle, add dechlor to inactivate it, and then change some water and
put in fresh carbon. It's strong stuff so never mix it with another med.

Salt kills most FW bacteria, is really easy to rinse off, and leaves no
toxic residue. Put at least 3% salt (30 grams/liter) into the tank and
run it overnight. In US measurements, it's a heaping 1/2 cup per gallon
- I don't know the metric equivalent but a cup holds about 250 ml. Any
cheap salt from the grocery store will work. Naturally, it kills plants.

Finally, you can use 5% bleach. It will kill EVERYTHING in under a half
hour. You have to be extremely careful to get all of the residue out of
the tank and off all the equipment, either by completely drying
everything or rinsing and using dechlor. Supposedly plants can survive
a brief bleach dip, but I've never tried.

Whew! long post. HTH - just pick the method that looks easiest.

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