Does bleach kill all parasites and or diseases? HELP!

[esagedesigns@ao]

I have had the worst nightmare of my life with my aquarium. I have 130 gallon salt water aquarium built into my livingroom wall. Worst move I have ever made. I have live sand, live rock, the best pump and equipment, the works. Ok, got it all set up and cycled, now time to add the damsels. Some died, some lived. Then I started adding regular fish, all of the tang varieties, clowns, wrasses, queen angel, coral beauty, emperor, gray angel, and some others that I can't remember the names of. Slowly, one by one, they were dying. All the same sort of thing. Started hiding away, didnt want to come out and loosing their color and scratching on the rocks from time to time. Then they got a blotchy appearance and just went down hill and died. One by one. Dosed for Ick, dosed with formalin, dosed for just about everything. Now all are dead and nothing left. I'm so discouraged, I cried for hours last night. I have done everything that they told me at the pet store to do, only to watch them die one at a time over a period of months. One person said it's nitrites, but my nitrites are 0. Another person said it was Ick, so I treated for that. Another person said it was Neobennidinia, so I treated for that. Still, all died one at a time. Something in my tank was killing my fish, and nobody knows what it was. They still don't know. So, now what? Sell the tank and forget about the nightmare? I can't, it's built into the wall. I have so much money invested in this thing, it was going to be something that gave me enjoyment, but it has turned into a hell hole that I don't know what to do with. Now I have a big empty tank and I"m clueless. I had someone tell me to sterlize the tank and start over, so that's what I did. I went out and bought some Clorox bleach and I put 70ML in the tank. Don't know for sure if that was the right amount, nobody can tell me that either. Sure looks nice now, it killed all the algae. Hey, I'm still trying to keep a sence of humor through all of this. Does anyone know if the bleach will kill everything and anything that is in my tank? I need to know. If not, I guess I will have to drain it, dry it out and start over again. Didn't want to drain the water because it's a pain in the neck. I'm just so upset about all of this and everyone I talk to has a different theory and they are all worthless becasue none of them saved my fish. Bottom line is there is something in my tank that killed everything and nobody could identify it. So, I have to start over. This time around, I'm going to go with a small hosiptal tank and leave every new fish in there for a few weeks first. I think that's the only way to ensure my entire tank won't crash again. But, now I"m afraid to put any fish in there again, I'm almost scared of killing more fish, and I don't know if the clorox will kill whatever the bad thing is in my tank. Any suggestions? Please help?

Lisa

[fishfreek]

I am guessing you took all the live rock and sand out of the tank before you added the bleach.

I really hope you did anyway as the bleach will have a very negitive effect on both.

Over what period of time did you add all of these fish? My first guess would be ammonia. You dont mention ammonia in the post.

I think what would be best is if we took a few steps back and started over taking 1 step at a time. It seems like you had gotten some less than helpful advice but I hope we can turn your luck around with this.

Bleach will kill the parasites. It will also kill just about anything else thats living in the tank at this point. The usual recommended mix is a 1:10 solution of bleach to water for disenfection and cleaning purposes. Simply running the tank empty of fish for a period of 1 month usually does the parasites in aswell since most of them require a host.

I would still drain the tank and refill it with freshwater to allow it a good rinse. Also use pleenty of declorinator on the tank to help remove the bleach once its been sterilized.

[Hara]

70 millelitres is about 2 and a half ounces.......is that roughly how much you put in there? In a 130 gallon tank, that is pretty negligible and I am surprised it killed all the algae.

!!!I am not saying it is safe to put stuff in there!!!

Just letting you know it is not so much bleach that you cannot fix the problem. At fishfreeks ratio, that would be 13 *gallons * of bleach for your size tank and I would say that would have warranted starting completely over and drying out your tank.

Not really on topic but kind of a wierd experiment.

I read an article once about how you can recycle your tank water by adding clorox bleach to it. I believe it was 1/4 cup per 10 gal. Then letting it sit for 48 hours and test with a pool test kit and then add dechlorinator and let stand another 48 hours and then test again, etc... I cannot remember where I read it, but in any case, I tried it in a 10 gal tank. Rock, sand and all. I tested and in 1 week, no chorine was present. I commenced to go into cycling again. Hmmm, the only thing is, it will not cycle now. It is really strange but, the ammonia went sky high..I mean so high, that the test wouldn't register it and you could smell it..I did a 50% water change and no good..Decided to let it stay and watch for nitrites. Sure enough they are there in such an abundance it is off the charts too. Now there is no ammonia, but the nitrites are still off the charts and not dropping..It has now been 2 months and it still hasn't cycled. I question if the bleach in that concentration was so destructive that the rocks and sand will not actually house the bacteria and it is suspended? It is so strange to me that it is still cycling after 2 months and it is only 10 gals...????I don't think I will use this method to recycle or treat my main tank ever.

[esagedesigns@ao]

I think 1/4 cup for a 10 gallon tank was too much. I used about 1/4 cup for 130 gallon tank. I"m just not sure if I put enough in there to kill the parasite or whatever it was that killed my fish.

Maybe try adding some botteled bacteria or a fresh piece of live rock or live sand to the tank to get things moving again. It probably just needs a jump start to get moving again.

If I lived near by, I would say I could bring my teeager over and dip one of his feet in the tank to get the bacteria in there again. Lord knows that is a bateria factory.