Bleaching a tank and staring over

[AngelFishGirl]

Well... That makes 9 for 9 adult angels dead. 2 weeks was all I took for Angelfish Aids to destroy everything and everyone I loved.
The angels were all at a friend's house being treated, the stock I had was:
1x red tailed shark
2x otos
3x guppy fry
8x angel fry
1x Dalmatian molly

I set up my 8 gallon (or so?) tank with my old tank water and put the baby angels, the guppy fry, and the 2 otos in there for the time being (they're still young, so it's not at all cramped) the shark and Dalmatian molly was sent to my friend's house.

Ironically, angelfish aids wiped out all the adult angles, all the quarter sized angels, but NOT the pea sized. I have not lost a SINGLE one. I have absolutely no idea :/

Anyways, tank was taken down, all water drained, sand removed into a bucket, and bleached out. My two filters were washed with bleach as well as my heater. My two dividers and sand will also be bleached.
The tank was scrubbed down with bleach and has been sitting for 5 days air drying.

Hopefully I did this process correctly. If I didn't how Gould I correct it?
And how do I bleach out the sand good? There can be NO TRACE of the angelfish aids left! I can't go and lose all of my precious babies all over again!

Thank you for the time.

 

[jlk]

I am so sorry


My advice is to toss the sand. There really isn't a way to make sure every particle is thoroughly bleached and rinsed and devoid of infection. Its cheap to replace and really not worth the potential risk it harbors.

Did all of the items soak in bleach for atleast half an hour? If not, I would bleach them again. Filters should be run with bleach solution going through them as well to make sure it reaches every surface that the prior water touched. Rinse well with hot water. I would then soak everything in triple-dosed dechlorinated water to make sure any bleach that has soaked into seals or gaskets has been neutralized. Finally, I would dry everything in the sun (if possible) as this will neutralize any remaining bleach.

Also, make sure any equipment (nets, buckets, hoses, water changers, etc) that was used in the infected tank have been disinfected as well. As a precaution, I would wipe down surface areas around the tank locale with Lysol or some other disinfectant too.

 

[AngelFishGirl]

I am so sorry

My advice is to toss the sand. There really isn't a way to make sure every particle is thoroughly bleached and rinsed and devoid of infection. Its cheap to replace and really not worth the potential risk it harbors.

Did all of the items soak in bleach for atleast half an hour? If not, I would bleach them again. Filters should be run with bleach solution going through them as well to make sure it reaches every surface that the prior water touched. Rinse well with hot water. I would then soak everything in triple-dosed dechlorinated water to make sure any bleach that has soaked into seals or gaskets has been neutralized. Finally, I would dry everything in the sun (if possible) as this will neutralize any remaining bleach.

Also, make sure any equipment (nets, buckets, hoses, water changers, etc) that was used in the infected tank have been disinfected as well. As a precaution, I would wipe down surface areas around the tank locale with Lysol or some other disinfectant too.

Awesome. Thank you so much. Question: if something completely air dries with no bleach will it still harbor the infection?

 

[jlk]

I don't know what they had but it was very lethal. Certain types of bacteria can tolerate being out of water. Viruses are tougher and can survive on surfaces of almost anything. Play it safe and make sure things are properly disinfected. Good luck!

 

[AngelFishGirl]

I don't know what they had but it was very lethal. Certain types of bacteria can tolerate being out of water. Viruses are tougher and can survive on surfaces of almost anything. Play it safe and make sure things are properly disinfected. Good luck!

Wow really, even if it's out of water for a month or so? That's crazy!

 

[jlk]

It really depends on the virus or bacteria and other factors such as environment, light, humidity, temperature, etc. Examples such as the smallpox virus or anthrax bacteria can survive for decades (or longer) while the HIV virus can only survive for somewhere in the range of hours to a day.

Without lab work, we don't know what you were dealing with or anything about it, so play it safe!

 

[Mebbid]

You could save the substrate by boiling it. That's a more certain way to clean the substrate than bleach will be.

 

[Kristian Tombs]

You could save the substrate by boiling it. That's a more certain way to clean the substrate than bleach will be.

I second that opinion

 

[Fishperson]

You could save the substrate by boiling it. That's a more certain way to clean the substrate than bleach will be.

+1!

Definitely! Because with bleach, it may not get everywhere in the substrate, and it is hard to work with, and hard to get out of the substrate (and has big consequences if you don't get it all out ).

 

[AngelFishGirl]

What would I do without all of you?

Thank you so much for all the help!

 

[jlk]

Sorry, but I disagree. How many pounds of sand would need to be boiled? 50? 100? For something so inexpensive to replace, its simply not worth the effort. Second, no one here knows exactly what these fish were inflicted with. Without knowing exactly, we do not know if boiling would be sufficient or not. A basic protocol of heat sterilization is 30minutes at 100C/212F. Below is some interesting information as well as a chart that lists sterilization methods and what they are effective against.

http://textbookofbacteriology.net/control_3.html

 

[BillD]

Interesting that there is nothing about microwaving in that treatise. Regardless, using the oven seems to be a pretty sure way of killing everything, and easier to do with large quantities.