Bleaching My Tank

It can be helpful to let things fully dry between your rinsing cycles at well.

I've let it dry before using tank conditioner. Hopefully that will be Ok!!

 

I have tried everything to kill my pest snails and nothing is working. My plan is to remove my fish from the tanks and bleach all of them out one at a time. I will then rinse them completely at least 3 times before putting everyone back. My questions are:

1) how long does the bleach need to stay in the water to kill the pest snails?
2) will the bleach kill the eggs or do they need to hatch first?
3) will my plant absorb the bleach, and if yes, how long must they sit in fresh water before theu have perged the bleach?

 

I have tried everything to kill my pest snails and nothing is working. My plan is to remove my fish from the tanks and bleach all of them out one at a time. I will then rinse them completely at least 3 times before putting everyone back. My questions are:

1) how long does the bleach need to stay in the water to kill the pest snails?
2) will the bleach kill the eggs or do they need to hatch first?
3) will my plant absorb the bleach, and if yes, how long must they sit in fresh water before theu have perged the bleach?

Firstly, you have to rinse like 4 or 5 times just to be safe. And wipe down with a sponge/cloth or leave to dry between each one. Remember to clean each nook and cranny very very thoroughly.

1) less than a day. Probably only a couple of hours bit just observe them until they are dead.

2) it should kill the eggs but if in doubt then squish the eggs a bit before bleaching.

3) better safe than sorry. You should only have the plants in a weaker concentration of bleach for a shorter time because plants are sensitive, so try to pull all snails/eggs off the plants before giving them a half hour diluted bleach soak just to be sure. Rinse the plants thoroughly like everything else then maybe leave to sit in clean water for a day.

 

1. The snails will most likely die within an hour if you add the right amount of bleach.
2. I would assume that it will kill the eggs, however proper scrubbing and removal will do the trick if it doesn't.
3. Live plants will be impacted by the bleach. You'll want to move them with the fish.

Here's how I would perform this treatment:

1. Separate fish and move to quarantine tank.
2. Remove plants and thoroughly search them for snails and snail eggs.
3. After search is complete, rinse them with dechlorinated water and move to the tank that the fish are in.
4. Add the bleach solution to the water and observe the snails. Many will attempt to chill at the surface to try and survive. Move them back into the water if they do this. Separately clean mechanical equipment.
5. Once the majority are dead, dump out the water.
6. Begin scrubbing the tank sides with water to remove snail eggs. Search the gravel for stragglers.
7. Rinse the tank out with tap water at least five to ten times (or until the smell is gone). Use dechlorinated water with the last rinse.
8. Let the tank dry out in the sun for at least two hours.
9. Add water back and restart your cycle.

 

^ this is similar to how I cleaned my tanks with bleach!

It's hard to tell the difference between damp tank and damp bleach sometimes. If you can no longer tell if the tank smells or not, wash another one or two times just to be sure before adding water again.

 

Here's what I ended up doing.

First, I took out all of the decorations and I soaked them in their own thing of bleach and then I went ahead and added the plants and submerged them as much as possible. I kind of forgot about the plans for a while so they may have been soaking for close to 4 hours.

Second I collected all of my fish and move them into different tanks. Since I have bettas I had to move them into several different tanks rather than just 1 quarantine tank.

Third, I ended up removing the gravel and boiling all of it for at least 10 minutes each

Since the tanks were already empty I went ahead and took out the last of the water took straight bleach on a sponge and wiped out all the insides until they're shining and clear. I then got a new bucket of clean water and I use my sponge to wipe up all the bleach. Then, I grabbed a brand-new rags and for each tank I had new clean water and new rags to wipe it out again.

The tank no longer smells like bleach, but when I come home I'm going to wipe them out with fresh clean rags and fresh clean water one last time.

I simply took all of my Mechanical Devices out and have been letting them dry all night long and they will continue to dry all day. I scrub them last night on the outside and thoroughly rinse with a lot of pressure for the inside.

This process took care of three of my 10 fish tanks. Does anyone believe it is successful and I should repeat the process on the other 7?

 

Here's what I ended up doing.

First, I took out all of the decorations and I soaked them in their own thing of bleach and then I went ahead and added the plants and submerged them as much as possible. I kind of forgot about the plans for a while so they may have been soaking for close to 4 hours.

Second I collected all of my fish and move them into different tanks. Since I have bettas I had to move them into several different tanks rather than just 1 quarantine tank.

Third, I ended up removing the gravel and boiling all of it for at least 10 minutes each

Since the tanks were already empty I went ahead and took out the last of the water took straight bleach on a sponge and wiped out all the insides until they're shining and clear. I then got a new bucket of clean water and I use my sponge to wipe up all the bleach. Then, I grabbed a brand-new rags and for each tank I had new clean water and new rags to wipe it out again.

The tank no longer smells like bleach, but when I come home I'm going to wipe them out with fresh clean rags and fresh clean water one last time.

I simply took all of my Mechanical Devices out and have been letting them dry all night long and they will continue to dry all day. I scrub them last night on the outside and thoroughly rinse with a lot of pressure for the inside.

This process took care of three of my 10 fish tanks. Does anyone believe it is successful and I should repeat the process on the other 7?

Sounds good! Go ahead and repeat it on the rest if you feel the need to!

 

Apollo was dead today after I just added him in yesterday. The clown plecos and the snails seem fine, but Zepher seems to be struggling.

I did a bunch of research and it says the bleach only had a half life of 26 hours, but I can't help but to wonder if it was the bleach. Would chlorine test strips tell me if there's still bleach in the tank?

 

Apollo was dead today after I just added him in yesterday. The clown plecos and the snails seem fine, but Zepher seems to be struggling.

I did a bunch of research and it says the bleach only had a half life of 26 hours, but I can't help but to wonder if it was the bleach. Would chlorine test strips tell me if there's still bleach in the tank?

Did you acclimate them?
What are the water parameters?
What type of fish is Apollo?
What type of fish is Zepher?

 

Tank is 82 temp usually. Water parameters on pic.
I did a 50% acclamation in cup for a few hours while they floated them transferred them.
Apollo was a veiltail
Zepher is a delta tail. He was struggling before the change but seems worse now

 

Alright. Everything seems fine, so that leads back to the bleach; I'm pretty sure you can measure the amount using chlorine test strips. However, this only works when the bleach you used had chlorine in it. You can tell by looking at the ingredients. Chlorine bleaches have sodium hypochlorite as the active ingredient while non-chlorine bleaches have hydrogen peroxide.

 

I'll check the bleach bottle when I get home and I just bought the test strip so I can figure all that out in about an hour

 

This is all I could find for ingredients in the bleach bottle.

according to this test, I need to treat for high nitrates but I have 0 chlorine

 

Zepher is on his way out. He was spinning on his head this morning

 

Zepher is on his way out. He was spinning on his head this morning

Your bleach has chlorine in it, so if there was any left in the tank it would show up in the test strip. I don't know what else to tell you. Are the bettas the only ones affected?

 

Yes

 

Yes

Alright. It sounds like Zepher has a swim bladder issue, which shouldn't have anything to do with bleach. Did Apollo show any signs of illness before he died?

 

Nope. It took me a minute to even realize he died

 

That sounds like a problem with his tank specifically. I'd assume that every tank except Apollo's is fine. Zepher simply has an issue with his swim bladder, which could have been caused by multiple things. Have you rinsed Apollo's tank out yet?