Need To Nuke My Tank

[Helen G]

I recently bought a few guppies from pets at home. To cut a long and woeful story short, they seemed to have been carrying a disease and have wiped out my entire tank.

So I have decided to "nuke" the tank and start again from afresh.

My question is - What is the best way to strip the tank down?

Much appreciated!

 

[bricko]

Hi Helen,

If it were me I would remove all ornaments and boil the smaller stones / wood.

Soak all larger items using aquarium safe disinfectant.

Scrub tank out and replace substrate.

You will need to re-cycle your tank unless you can keep your filter going on another tank, you could always put your media in a bucket of aquarium water and run an airline to it while you undertake the strip down. That way most bacteria will survive the process.

Regards,

Mark

 

[Helen G]

Thanks for the advice

TBH, I'm thinking of starting the cycle again in case there are any nasties living in there

I also have 2 live plants in there... is there a way I can "sterilise" them without killing them, or should I just get new plants?

 

[doresy]

First thing I would have done would have been to test the water for ammonia and nitrites. Also did you aclimatise the new fish correctly.

Bad water is the main cause of fish death

 

[Monty-2010]

you might not need to nuke it, you should test your water and take action from there

 

[Helen G]

I'm pretty sure it was an issue with the fish (I'm pretty anal about tank maintenance and my tank was correctly cycled over a year and a half ago) On getting them home, one died within hours of being put in the tank (It didn't look so good - a bit manky - so I immediately "hospitalised" it) One of the other guppies seemed to be sexless.... ie colourings of a male (bright orange and a fancy tail) but with no gonopodium, which I thought was a little odd...... this one died a day later. The others (along with all my other fish) died over the course of 2 weeks.

 

[fish_tank0311]

Firstly sorry about your loss, but hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaa!!!!! NUKE!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Ok secondly, well, boil everything, wash everthing, especially the filter, and then let it sit for a bit just to let it dry etc. Then you should be all good

lol

fish_tank