Cleaning With Bleach

[bluesword23516]

I have an 8 US gallon tank that I am going to bleach clean. The other tanks had camalanus worms, and only one shows a possible sign. I might be a deformity from the guppy (she was born at my home and has grown up like that but I'm not sure if she has it and that's why she looks like that). Anyways I want to get a betta fish and I have cleaned my eight gallon for her (hopefully I can find a female they are really hard to find where I live).
How would I clean the tank with bleach? I might just be using sand box sand so would I have to bleach that too? (It's outside) also the tank is plastic so is the bleach ok to use in it?

 

[KrystaK]

I had the same issue. My 30 gal got worms and I had to tear down the tank, bleach everything, get new substrate ect ect. First things first, while doing this, wear old clothes that you don't care about!
To continue, I bleached my tank with straight bleach in a spray bottle, and then had a second bottle on hand full of straight water. I'd spray the tank down with bleach, wipe it down, and then I'd spray it with water, wipe down. I repeated the water spray down 3/4 times to every rinse I did with bleach. (I rinsed the tank 3 times with bleach) This equalled a lot of paper towels
Don't forget to clean the filter and your nets as well (I soaked both in the water bucket, filled with 1/5 bleach, 4/5 water. And then rinsed them in the sink with the tap running. 
 
My tank is almost done it's cycle, there are snails and shrimp in the tank and they seem to have had no problems thus far. 

 

[star4]

Rather than standard household bleach you can use the bleach for steralizing baby bottles. Just rinse really well.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Fill the tank with water, add bleach to create a between a 5% and 10% bleach to water level. Let it sit for an hour with an empty filter, powerhead or airstone running to create water movement. Also put into the tank any equipment you need to sterilize. Bear in mind these things must not be able to be damaged by bleach. if you put in a silk plants it would lose its color. if you have to bleach sponge media be aware bleach can begin to break down the sponge if the solution is strong or the exposure too long.
 
Next, drain the tank. Repeat the drain and fill process a few times. The final time you fill the tank, add a triple dose of dechlorinator and let it sit for 5 minutes before the final draining. The final step is to allow the tank and the sterilized equipment to dry completely before you restart things.
 
Incidentally, this same process should be used to sterilize a hospital tank in which full recovery was not accomplished, If the fish have died the odds are the disease is still in the tank and it needs to be wiped out.

 

[daizeUK]

Fill the tank with water, add bleach to create a between a 5% and 10% bleach to water level. Let it sit for an hour with an empty filter, powerhead or airstone running to create water movement. Also put into the tank any equipment you need to sterilize. Bear in mind these things must not be able to be damaged by bleach. if you put in a silk plants it would lose its color. if you have to bleach sponge media be aware bleach can begin to break down the sponge if the solution is strong or the exposure too long.
 
Next, drain the tank. Repeat the drain and fill process a few times. The final time you fill the tank, add a triple dose of dechlorinator and let it sit for 5 minutes before the final draining. The final step is to allow the tank and the sterilized equipment to dry completely before you restart things.
 
Incidentally, this same process should be used to sterilize a hospital tank in which full recovery was not accomplished, If the fish have died the odds are the disease is still in the tank and it needs to be wiped out.

 
This sounds like very good advice.  Thanks, I will use this procedure myself when I need to bleach a tank!
 
Does it matter if you use thick bleach to make the solution?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

All that matters is you get enough bleach (aka chlorine) to kill most things. Chlorine is pretty dang toxic so it doesn't take a lot or too long an exposure.
 
Here is another another good use for bleach- cleaning out hoses. I use everything from airline size to garden hose size. All of these things mung up over time. This is easy to see in the clear hoses we normally use for siphoning.vacuuming. I also have an assortment of pumps. When a hose gets to dirty I mix a bucket of bleach and water and then hook up the hose to a pump and put the far end of the hose/tube in as well. i then run the pumps for a while, When done, I dump the bleach and run clean fresh water into the bucket with the other end of the hose not in it. I flush the pump and hose for 5 minutes or so to rid it of potential residue.
 
For smaller hose and airline hose i just fill it up with the bleach mix and let it sit for 10 mins or so. I use a clamp to hold both ends level so the bleach doesn't come out. When done I holed one end of the hose under the spigot and run water through it to clean out the bleach.

 

[bluesword23516]

Fill the tank with water, add bleach to create a between a 5% and 10% bleach to water level. Let it sit for an hour with an empty filter, powerhead or airstone running to create water movement. Also put into the tank any equipment you need to sterilize. Bear in mind these things must not be able to be damaged by bleach. if you put in a silk plants it would lose its color. if you have to bleach sponge media be aware bleach can begin to break down the sponge if the solution is strong or the exposure too long.
 
Next, drain the tank. Repeat the drain and fill process a few times. The final time you fill the tank, add a triple dose of dechlorinator and let it sit for 5 minutes before the final draining. The final step is to allow the tank and the sterilized equipment to dry completely before you restart things.
 
Incidentally, this same process should be used to sterilize a hospital tank in which full recovery was not accomplished, If the fish have died the odds are the disease is still in the tank and it needs to be wiped out.

Thanks!  and it doesn't matter that the tank is plastic?