lish839

Question -

If I dry out the gravel from my Q-Tank, and the tank itself, and the decos - then its all good right? Because the diseases are killed off... right?

soldieroffortune1974

If they haven't been cleaned before,then it's a good idea to wash everything in bleach water,then soak in dechlorinated water (extra heavy on the dechlorinator).The spores and bacteria can live in the gravel,even after being medicated,you can't guarantee everything was killed off.

Most people don't keep decor and gravel in a quarantine (makes for easier cleaning)

MeGustaUnaPez926

Someone else is going to need to respond too, as I'm not sure exactly what the guidelines are for this are, but I think you need to do more than just drying. From what I understand, you need to use a weak bleach mix to clean (not soap) and then rinse until you can't smell bleach. And shouldn't you clean out the filter media? I'm not sure about that though, again, wait for someone else. Did you have fish die in the tank?
One more thing, if you do clean the gravel and the filter, I'm pretty sure that will un-cycle the tank, so you'll kind of be starting from scratch. Good luck!

lish839

well, I did have a fish die in it, but I don't think it was sick. Like no spots or anything, I think it might have just been from old age. So thats why I even wonder how important it is for me to clean it super well, but I don't want to take any chances. I was also asking the question because in the future I would like to use it to quarantine new fish, and don't want to introduce anything bad to them

soldieroffortune1974

I would remove the gravel and all decor from the quarantine.

The only thing in my quarantines are water,heater,filter,air stone.......That's it.Easy to clean up and guarantees there's no nasties left over hiding somewhere waiting to cause havoc.

lish839

ok - so if the fish is sick, no gravel, no decor

if its a new fish, shouldn't they have some comfort items otherwise they won't be happy, right?

ps. I only added the gravel and decor because I was in a pinch, and needed things that had bacteria on them so my Q-tank would cycle faster.

lish839

oh, and thanks everyone for the advice!