Tank Crashed, Bleached The Water

Hello, I'd been extremely ill for some time (I won't bore you) and one of my 29 gallon all-in-one's just...crashed.
Got home from hospital two days ago and both of the baby mud minnows were dead, snails were salvageable so I got them out and put them in another tank but the urchins were just gone, couldn't FIND any hermits, and nothing else was to be seen because the ENTIRE BOTTOM of the tank as well as the live rock was completely covered in bristle worms. And I mean, completely. Couldn't see the sand, in most places couldn't even see the rocks. Just bristle worms. Probably an easy inch and more layer thick of fat, undulating bristle worms.

We'd had a teenage Nephew over to feed the tanks and add RO to their reservoirs, etc, as well as report to my Wife regarding their conditions but he isn't being blamed here and I won't go into any further detail regarding ANY of that. Our other seven tanks are fine, he did as well as anyone who knows absolutely nothing about fish much less marine tanks could have done and it was an emergency obviously and we will never stop thanking him. SO. Back to the point of this posting.

The water was clouded and the rotting stench was filling the living room.
Last night I added a cup to a cup and a half of bleach to the tank to kill everything left and to rid the room of the unimaginably nauseating smell.

The PLAN is to leave it circulating like this for at least 24 hours, scoop out what is reachable (substrate, worm corpses, like that) with a ladle and bin them, turn the "live" (hopefully extremely dead at this point) rocks over to be certain there will be no place possible that the bleach will not be able to get in, to make certain to murder the (expletive deleted) worms, before VERY slowly beginning the replacement of absolutely everything.

Take out the rocks and set them out in the Sun for a few weeks.
Bin the sand.
Bin the filters.
Take that water and pour it down my toilet, can't just toss it into the yard or the storm sewer system.

Then start all over again with fresh (RO) water, no salt, letting that cycle with NOTHING AT ALL (no sand, rocks, NOTHING) for a length of time until I am confident that the bleach is rinsed completely out.
I know that I've basically swatted a horsefly with a nuke, but as I've mentioned I am ill and haven't a lot of energy nor money left to do anything tactical. Now that you are all no doubt sitting there with your jaws hanging thinking various unflattering things, I'm asking for advice.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Please, no sarcasm nor cheap shots, I feel bad enough as it is.

What I'm after, is how long do I wait between water changeouts, and how many changeouts should this probably take (ten? Twenty?) how many months should I wait until I even CONSIDER live sand/pods, much less a live rock or a snail or other invert, advice like that. Should I even KEEP the pump at all? 24 hours of chlorine bleached water surely shan't HURT it, right?

Also, considering what I've already DONE and what I've described as my PLAN, any suggestions as to alterations to that 'PLAN' will be appreciated.
Thank you for reading and again, any suggestions will be considered, I only ask that you consider being a bit kind. Thank you again. Very much.

 

I'm not exactly sure with your plan but any cheap dechlorinator will bind with the bleach making it harmless when that time comes.

 

That hadn't even occurred to me. THANK YOU. That helps a LOT. So the bleach isn't the issue that I thought it was, regarding the tank itself, and equipment. It's not like I took out all of the water and then poured 29 gallon of pure bleach in there, right? THANK YOU. Okay, great. So far, so good then.

 

Even if you did fill it with straight bleach a large water change would get rid of most of it. What's left looks like it would offgass on its own in a few days. So if not everything dies on the first treatment you may need to redose.

 

Jesterrace does this sound like a plan?

 

Well, it hasn't been 24 hours yet, but they surely appear dead at least the visible ones. I can see the rocks again, somewhat, at least... I'm just so pleased that once I get it cleared out that it shan't be such the problem I'd thought it was going to be, setting it all back up again. Might go with nothing at all but 'pods for awhile, with hermits to keep them jumping. For the sake of sheer simplicity and to give me time to recuperate and rehab, all that nonsense. For certain, here on out I'm going to be watching my sources of live rock and doing best I can to avoid any more bristle worm infestations WOW that was like a B horror flick once we got home "What's that ODOR, what's DIED?", they were EVERYWHERE in great moving piles and it happened in just nine weeks. I am sure, yeah, the young man overfed, but point being I won't be going through this again. Nightmarish to say the least. I'd known there were a couple in the rocks but traps are useless and tongs were only helpful if they were in certain locations, so I knew that eventually I'd have to do SOMETHING about them. Anyway now I'm nattering. Thanks I'm off

 

By the sounds of it it has had the dissiered effect. Ibprobaly would do a second dose in a day or 2 just to make sure. Then a big water change and either wait a week or add some dechlorinator and go for it. I really see no reason to tear the tank apart.

 

Well I have to get those rotting worms out, otherwise this will take months. And the ODOR is making it next to impossible to even keep simple foods down much less all the meds I'm having to currently take. So I'll be needing to take all of that out, and no telling what's rotting inside the rocks. But you sure had it right about the bleach not lasting worth a ****. Wish I'd gotten the Wife to pick up bleach last night on her way home from work, we're out and now I have to sit all day and try to endure the stench of death filling the living room.