Antiseptic in my fish tank

[gowlers321]

I got some rocks from outside and soaked them for about 10 minutes in a little bit of diluted antiseptic and then scribed them repeatedly to remove it from them. I then put them in my brand new 125 l tank and by the morning it killed my fish and leached the antiseptic into the water. I then removed the rocks and the substrate and gave the tank 3 water changes and allowed it to air dry so there was no moisture left. I then set it back up as a bare tank and put a fish in there as a test and by the morning it was dead and there is more antis.eptic in the water. I honestly don't know what to do. Can anyone help me.

 

[Colin_T]

Get some plain old soap without perfumes or antiseptic in it. use the soap to wash the tank out 3 or 4 times, just soap and water. Then rinse it out a few times with plain water.

Get some new gravel and wash it with fresh water. Don't use the bucket that had the rocks soaking in. Get new buckets and use a permanent marker to write "FISH ONLY" on them.

Set the tank up with new gravel and clean water. Add dechlorinator and let it run for a few days before adding a fish and see how it goes.

If you had a filter on the tank when you put antiseptic rocks in, you should throw out the filter media/ material and wash the filter with warm soapy water too. Rinse it well and put new filter media in it.

If you have a heater and coverglass you should wash them with soapy water before rinsing well.

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In future, if you want to disinfect rocks for an aquarium, hose them off and then soak them in a bucket of water and add a heap of salt. Leave them to soak in salt water for a week, then rinse off really well. You can also boil rocks to kill anything on them.

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

Colin - that's the first time I've seen you recommend using Soap and water (which all the literature warns you not to use) - so as long as he rinses everything to death his fish aren't at risk from any soap residue? I can't imagine having to rinse a tank so many times. Very frustrating. I always boil rocks and/or driftwood before placing in a tank - seems the safest by far.

 

[gowlers321]

So should I use soap ?

 

[Colin_T]

As long as you use a perfume free and antiseptic free soap you are fine. Just wash it out after with water and there is no problems.

 

[gowlers321]

Okay thanks