Sterilizing a hospital tank

[Zephaniah]

What's the correct method to steralize a fish tank + equipment?

I poured boiling water over the sides of the tank and over the heater, airstone, thermometer, etc. but want to make sure all the nasties are dead before I reuse everything.

I am reading conflicting reports on the use of bleach :?: :?:

So do you experts do?

[Hollowman]

Use a 10% mix of household bleach to water in the tank and equipment, this will kill any nasties. Wash out so you cannot smell the bleach and air dry. You can also, just to be sure the bleach is gone add some de-chlorinator to neutrilise any remaining.

Alternatively, you can use a strong PP mix, fill your tank and let it run for a few hours, this will also nuke any bugs. Wash out and ready to go. PP will stain nets, sometimes silicon so be warned.

hth

[Hollowman]

Should have added, that I use bleach. It's just so easy, and available.
Not sure what you mean about conflicting reports for using bleach??

H

[Zephaniah]

What I mean is that some people say it's not safe to use it and others say it is safe to use.

[ILLUSN]

un sented no name chlorine bleach is safe, once your done just drain the tank and refil with freshh water and add a tripple dose of dechlorinater.

another method is to bomb the tank with potasium permangenate, its an oxidsing agent like bleach (chlorine) but it stains the water bright purple, once it turns brown its done its job, adding hydrogen peroxide from the chemist turns it clear, once its clear its fully deactivated and you can drain and fill (or just do a 50% change).

[Hollowman]

Using PP, If you tank is reasonably clean anyway, it would stay purple as there would be nothing to oxidise. :)

[Mickey_owen7]

Agree wuth hollowman and illusn!!! I fully PP'd my tank (like 10 times recommended dosage for about 12hours). Then drained it 100% and filled it with fresh water again. Didn't wait for it to go brown, coz there was no organic wastes in the water so the purple would have stayed for days.

[ILLUSN]

Do you guys leave your filters on? when i bombed my tank i sterilized EVERYTHING!, nets filters hoses breeding cones/pots. The amount of muck in the biomedia (after i washed under running tap water and removed all sponges) always makes the pp go brown , i usually do a repeat treatment just to be sure.

bleach is cheeper i just never seem to get all smell out still if you can leave it to air dry after a drain and rinse I imagine it would be gone.

[Hollowman]

Illusn, I pp'd my 2 cannisters last time, with all the washed out sponges inside as well, I ran them both in the kitchen sink as I was shutting the tank down, just had them recirculating the same pp water around for a few hours.
Depends on what you want to do really i suppose, your gonna nuke all your good bio-mass of the filter, unless you remove it of course, but see no reason to remove everything from the tank, equipment wise. I guess i would neutrilise with Hydrogen Peroxide and do a large water change and refill.
I mean, you know what you are doing with PP, so go for it :)

Steve

[ILLUSN]

Cheers mate, when i sterize a tank i sterilze everythig, then do a fresh cycle, seems the only way to get rid of all bugs sometimes, I'm just still suprised your doesn't turn brown, guess i nedd to step up the cleaning of my filters,they get done once a month.