Tank Cleaning Q's for New Half-Moon Betta!

[Sara]

We went home to visit my family this weekend and ended up stumbling upon a little lfs with a small selection of beautiful half-moon bettas! Despite knowing better, we decided to take one home with us...he's a little stressed, but doing ok after being smuggled onto a 2 hour flight earlier today (apparently the airline will allow dogs, cats, rabbits, chinchillas, ferrets, guinea pigs...blah, blah, blah...but NO FISH?!?).

So we've got him home in a small container, but want to set him up in our now empty 5.5 gallon. The tank was home to our betta who died a few weeks ago of an unknown disease...we never could figure out what it was that killed him. So my question is, what is the quickest and safest way to clean out the tank that our old betta was in?

We don't want to keep our new little guy in this little 500 mL container for too long, but want to make sure that we clean out the old tank as best we can to avoid any chance of disease still being present. I'm going to go pick up cleaning supplies tomorrow (which I assume will probably be bleach), so any advice is greatly appreciated! I need to know the what to use to clean the tank, and also the best method to actually go about cleaning the tank.

TIA! I'll post pics of our new little betta (named Jetson) as soon as we get him in the tank

...edited twice because I can't spell...

 

[medge00]

Avoid chemicals. Hot water and a sea salt scrub should do it. Be sure to rinse super well.

 

[frshwaterfinatc]

No bleach!! It leaves a residue you can almost never remove, especially from small crevices in artificial plants, substrate, decor, and glass! 8O

 

[Sara]

Huh...no bleach? I could have sworn that I'd heard something about a 10 to 1 ratio of bleach and water on this board...but I could be going crazy...

Any other suggestions? Specific product that have worked well for people?

Thanks again!

 

[medge00]

you could use a VERY weak bleach solution. like 1 parts bleach to 19 parts water,, then follow with a lot of dechlorinator, but I think the bleachless solution is better. search AA for suggestions on how others cleaned old tanks.

 

[TankGirl]

What I would do is to take the gravel out and pour boiling water over it, if it does not have any kind of plastic coating on it. Let it soak in that water until the water has become cool -repeat if there was a lot of gunk present.

It is your call, but I personally do use a very weak bleach solution on tanks that have had an ill fish (like a hospital tank) and then I rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse - fill the tank and overdose with dechlorinator, let that sit for several hours, dump, rinse again, and fill. I have never had a problem from this method, but you could use a SW solution, as above, scrubbing with coarse salt, or vinegar would work somewhat as well. Sitting the tank out in the sun if it is warm there where you are would be helpful, too. Don't use boiling water, as it will loosen the silicone seals.

Good luck, and congratulations on your fish, covert operation and all!

 

[Menagerie]

What airline were you flying that you couldn't take fish?? Did you have the betta go through the x-ray machine?

 

[Sara]

We were flying WestJet... We bought him and I thought I'd just phone to double check that it was ok to bring him on board...and they actually told me no! Something about "special handling" and "packaging restrictions"! I tried to explain that he was in a container the size of a water bottle, and people bring water bottles on board all the time...but no go.

So we just ended up hoping that security wouldn't know that they weren't allowed. (Obviously) they didn't, and we just kept him in a container with a lid (that had a vent so he could still get air) and we had that inside of an insulated lunch bag. Once we got through security, no one knew the difference...I just took him out and showed them the container (no x-ray!) The best part was that one of the security agents had just had a bad fish experience (her lps said that she could put goldfish in a bowl), so I could to tell her all about how great bettas were and how to take care of them!

 

[Menagerie]

Okay, I am going to attemp to bring some young plecos up from the states--well actually they will only fly in the states and get driven across the border. I hope that works!

 

[krap101]

if you live in the city you could try putting undechloronated water in there for like a day or so. then you could dechloronate it and that should kill the stuff. but youll probally have to recycle it