Disinfecting Aquarium Sand with Pool Chlorine

[Theafishtank]

Hey this is my first post. Unfortunately about a month ago I ordered five sorority Betta fish online. They seem very healthy and lively when I first put them in, until about a week later when my original fish started getting sick. They had dropsy, and some of them got really thin. I did everything that I could to try to save the fish, melafix, fungus cure, salt baths. Eventually I just started euthanizing them when I noticed that they were sick. But unfortunately today I had to tear down the entire aquarium and euthanize all the remaining fish. So what I'm wondering is can I use chlorine to disinfect the aquarium. I have about $150 worth of substrate at the bottom of my tank, and I don't want to start over. It's not enough to reasonably boil. And I'm nervous about using bleach because I don't think I'll be able to properly rinse the substrate. So I'm thinking I should use chlorine so that I can use aquarium dechlorinator to remove excess chlorine I'm not able to rinse out. My aquarium is a 55 gallon and I'm physically disabled, so I doubt that I'll be able to take it off the shelf and rinse it out physically. I am going to use bleach on my artificial aquarium plants and other decorations, because I'll be able to reach those out. Any advice would be greatly appreciated I'm really devastated by the loss of all of my fish and I'm trying to give it a good start.

 

[flitabout]

Yes you can bleach is. The biggest issue you will have is it rinse it as best you can and then soak it in Prime. Set it up cycle it and try again.