Cleaning Out 40g Tank - This Cleaning Product Okay?

[Twoapennything]

My ich saga gets worse and worse, argh! All the fish are now quarantined and I'm going to have to completely disinfect my entire 40 g tank. I've disassembled most of it - heater, filter, air pump, etc. Now it's just sitting there full of water, which my husband and I will drain later today. I will replace the rocks with sand substrate (brand new).

Excuse my French, but the tank looks like absolute s*** - it's filthy. I actually took pictures to post, as I think I made a lot of n00bie mistakes - this is my first large aquarium. The amount of detritus alone . . . shocking! Seriously.

But anyway. I need to clean and disinfect my tank. I know that commercial cleaning products are totally discouraged (except for the 10:1 bleach solution), but I purchased a product that is all natural and I thought I'd run it by the forum and get peoples' opinions on whether it might be a safe choice for cleaning out a fish tank.

The product is called BioKleen SoyBlends - Low Voc Citrus Soy Solvent (Clean/Degrease/Dissolve). The ingredients are: Soybean oil extract; vegetable-based surfactants; orange peel extract; Zeolite, Low pH Silicate, linear alcohol from coconut; and grapefruit seed extract. The dilution ratio is 2 TBSPs solvent to 1/2 gallon of water.

From the product description: BioKleen products are concentrated in order to leave te smallest footprint on the environment. CONTAINS NO: Phosphate, Chlorine, Ammonia, Petroleum Solvents, Alcohol, Butle, Glycol Ether, SLS or SLES, EDTA, DEA. No SARA Title III, CA 65, or EPA Priority Pollutants. No Materials Listed by the ACGIH as Hazardous. NO ANIMAL TESTING; NO ANIMAL INGREDIENTS; INGREDIENTS: Soybean Oil Extract, Vegetable-based Surfactants, Orange Peel Extract, Zeolite, Low pH Silicate, Linear Alcohol from Coconut, and Grapefruit Seed Extract.

I have used other BioKleen products for years and love them, but this is my first time purchasing this particular product. What do you think? Would it possibly be a safe choice for cleaning out a fish tank?

 

[jsoong]

NO!!

Just because something is "all natural" does not mean it is not poisonous!! <Cyanide is all natural!>

"Vegetable based surfactant" is another name for soap .... "Orange peel extract" is a volatile oil from the peel which is a skin irritant in people (burns my skin ... prob. worse for fish) .... "Linear alcohol" is ethanol or propanol .... both toxic in large quantity.

I personally will not use that in my fish tank.

 

[Zagz]

I must agree, it is not safe for your tank from the sounds of it. Hot water and bleach solution are best, then rinse rinse rinse and dechlorinate.

You do realize you will be starting over with cycling? I hope you are able to keep your fish safely QT'd while the tank recycles.

 

[CA_BroncoFan]

I have to completely agree with the above posters....please do not use the meds. the bleach and water tech is the best way to go.

 

[Aquarium1]

+1 for all the replies lol.

 

[Twoapennything]

See, this is why I post here and ask these questions first! Thanks, guys, for having my fishies' backs!

Yeah, I know I'll have to recycle the tank. But what else can I do? The fish were quite ill - I lost my school of tetras, my cherry barbs, and my gouramis I was using the Rid Ich as directed, and I cranked the heat, and I vacuumedvacuumedvacuumed (not very well, apparently, judging from the amount of crap in the rocks). So, now the fish are in a 10 gallon with only a thin layer of rocks (easy to vacuum), good visuals for me, and 83-84* water. Guy Noir (who started this whole thing!) is looking much better. It's true what they say, though - he looked better, and then looked awful again, before finally looking like he's on the mend. I'm doing PWCs on the 10g at least once a day, if not twice.

Funny, but the 10g tank is cycling fast. We're already passing the nitrIte stage and going full on into the nitrAte stage, and it's been only a week. NitrAtes are high - 80 ppm; nitrItes are at .50-1.0; ammonia is 0.00. I have no idea why this is happening. I just keep changing the water, LOL!

I think the fish would be fine in the 10g until the 40g cycles. It will be nice to see how a fishless cycle works, seeing as I had to do the first cycle with fish.

Thanks again, everyone, for your Intervention! I will use the 10:1 bleach solution only.

 

[jsoong]

...
Funny, but the 10g tank is cycling fast. We're already passing the nitrIte stage and going full on into the nitrAte stage, and it's been only a week. NitrAtes are high - 80 ppm; nitrItes are at .50-1.0; ammonia is 0.00. I have no idea why this is happening. I just keep changing the water, LOL!...

That is because you seeded the 10 gal with the gravel from the old tank. That, plus the high temp, really speeds up the cycling.

As I said in previous posts, you can also use the material in your 10 gal (after all ich is eradicated) to seed the 40. You should have a much faster fishless cycling.

 

[jessibell]

Maybe I will be quickly corrected but waaaay back in the day when I cleaned an old 20 gal I had, I used vinegar to get off all the slime and crud that built up on the water line. (I had a single goldfish in this tank that grew enormous, I had him for 8 years)

Vingar is 5% acetic acid solution, which is a weak acid. It worked well for disolving stuff and getting the glass clean, but I doubt it would work as a disinfectant. Of course I rinsed it really well afterward. On the rare occastions when I have to really scrub down a tank (like before I put it into storage) I still use the vinegar. Like I said, someone more experienced will say whether this is a good idea or a bad one

 

[DragonFish71]

FYI, when treating fish like tetras, bettas etc use the meds at half strength for a longer period of time. If the bottle says 3 drops per gallon (30 drops for a 10g as an example) for 3 days then go 15 drops for 6 days. Some fish can't handle meds well.


As for cleaning, vinegar works great, so does the bleach/water.

 

[Twoapennything]

That is because you seeded the 10 gal with the gravel from the old tank. That, plus the high temp, really speeds up the cycling.

I actually used new, disinfected gravel for the 10g QT, because I didn't want to bring over any more ich bits than I had to from the 40g by using the gravel from the infected tank. I will definitely use the new filter from the 10g to seed the 40g. I'm just nervous that I won't know when the ich is totally gone I'm going to go read the ich FAQ again.