Steralizing using water and salt

[Elisabeth83]

I just found out that when you boil water to steralize equipment like syphons, buckets it doesn't kill all bacteria So now I've read one of the best ways to kill everything is to use non-iodized salt (aquarium salt?). What temp should the water be and how much salt am I supposed to use?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

No bacteria in the aquarium can survive boiling water so i would have thought this would have been a satisfactory method of sterilising equipment, what exactly are you sterilising your equipment against?

 

[Elisabeth83]

Hmmm...I was just reading that spores could survive the boiling process?

I just want to steralize my buckets,syphons and nets ..I do that everytime I use them just to be safe.

edit: The site I was reading on wasn't an aquarium site so maybe the spores they were talking about were different spores? So boiling water does kill all bacteria and spores in aquaria?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Yep boiling your equipment or dowsing it in boiling water(remember you don't want to melt your prized equipment ) is the most surefire way of killing any nastys that may reside on it .

 

[Elisabeth83]

So boiling the equipment (syphons, nets etc) is better than using a salt solution?

 

[BigC]

I have been steralizing aquaria using salt and very hot, not boiling, water for over 25years. You can use ordinary cooking salt to do this and not pay through the nose for "aquarium salt"
Regards
BigC

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

So boiling the equipment (syphons, nets etc) is better than using a salt solution?

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As far as i know there are quite a few nastys that can tolerate salt, like internal bacterial ones, and salt can take a while to kill although it is still very effective on fungus and whitespot types of parasites, boiling water is still better as it kills everything absolutely .