Cleaning Infected Aquarium

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