fish tank sterilization

[chaoshybrid6]

I recently inhereted a 10 gallon tank from my brother; gravel, fake plants, skull and everything. The only problem is that when his previous fish died he left them in there... Now I'm pretty sure that I can't just wash it out and make a fresh tank out of it, but I would like to set-up an actual aquarium out of it.

I have no intention on using the fake plants and gravel he left me, they are replaceable. However, I would like to reuse the skull that was given with it.

My question is does anyone have a good way of sterilizing the tank itself as well as a way to do the skull? The only thing that comes to mind is soap, but I thought maybe someone out there would have a better idea. Thanks in advance.

 

[RoachGirlRen]

Never use soap; it is very hard to get the residue off of everything.
The methods most commonly used include:
- Highly concentrated salt water, boiling or close to
- Dilue 1/10 bleach solution
Whatever method you use, you'll want to let it sit for at least an hour. Bleach is the most effective on non-pourus materials. If the material is porus, I suggest the boiling salt water instead as residual salt won't hurt most fish, but residual bleach will. If you bleach, rinse very thoroughly and add a little extra dechlorinator; this will take care of any trace amounts of bleach left in the water. Salt is very easy to rinse away and won't hurt the fish in small amounts.

 

[chaoshybrid6]

Thanks for the ideas, yea I didn't think soap was a good idea lol. 1/10 bleach solution huh? sounds like a plan. What about for the skull just boiling it in water for 30 minutes or so? Do you think that might work, or does it need to be salt water?

 

[REAL]

Sterilizing can be overrated, at least from my experience. Most of the time its not needed, people just do it just to make sure and/or they're paranoid.

I've had many fish before and many times I don't sterilize much other than running really hot tap water through the container and I've never had problems.

Just note that many diseases that fish catch such as ich are mainly things that they catch if the aquarium is kept in bad condition. If they catch it but you keep the water clean and everything, nothings going to happen, or the symptoms are going to be very mild if so.

Like most of us have tapeworms in us or some kind of roundworm/parasites. They're only bad if we live in unhealthy conditions, like bad dieting, bad living habbits etc. If you have them, but you eat/sleep/live well, they won't even affect you. Of course there are some that will affect you, but I'm just saying many.

If I were you, I'd just run really hot water through your tank.

DO NOT, like the guy said above, use soap other than on your aquarium glass surface. Do not wash your gravel or porous materials using soap as the material can suck it in and it'll be a major pain to clean.

Just use really hot water. Should definately be good enough. I've done it, never had an issue.

I do a 1/15 to 1/20th water/chlor solution if need be, it helps kill any bad algae too.

 

[Choobaine]

I tend to microwave substrate sometimes and boiling hot water. Chemicals are.. tricky. I'd rather kill all bacteria and flush out any/all gunk in the tank than adding any. However in some case I'm not afraid to bleach (when it's cleaning the glass, it's easy to get rid of it then).

 

[RoachGirlRen]

Sterilizing can be overrated, at least from my experience. Most of the time its not needed, people just do it just to make sure and/or they're paranoid.

It really depends on what the fish died from. Most of the time it is indeed husbandry related as you suggested, but if you're dealing with something like flexibacter or TB or some other real nasty bug, it's better safe than sorry. It doesn't take much more time to give a good fill and rinse with bleach or salt than it does with hot water, so I figure the extra peace of mind is worth the couple of extra minutes.
It is true that parasites are rampant in fish and most fish will not exhibit symptoms until they are worn down from something else like age, illness, poor water quality, etc. However, we also have to remember that most non-domesticated species of aquarium fish (which incidentally is most species of fish; statistically, most are CB, but that is because this number includes bettas, goldfish, and fancy guppies, all of which are domesticated and massively popular in the aquarium trade [/tangent]) are still wild caught or bred in massive, fairly intensive farms. A wild caught fish from South America might not be as resistant to parasites that came from a wild caught fish in Africa, much like people often get ill from bacteria and parasites in other countries. So there is some validity to extra precautions even against parasites.

 

[REAL]

Take extra precautions if you choose, you're right, better safe than sorry, especially if you have any hint that the dead fish before died of some sort of disease.

But I still think really hot tap water is good enough. Plus, you can probably sterilize the objects and stuff inside the tank, but you can't fully sterilize the fish/aquatic animals you add to the tank. Just because the fish looks healthy doesn't mean they don't have parasites/diseases. There are many fine examples of diseases that aren't easily detected, if it was always easy then we wouldn't nearly have as much problems with them as we do.

Its like us, there's bacterias and germs all around us. We can't prevent them all, the best thing we can do is try to keep our bodies in tip-top shape as much as possible and try to stay in as healthy of an environment as we can. You can sterilize everything around you but there will always be germs and bacteria, some happen to be beneficial btw.

I work with kids every day and I've only been sick for 1 day. Like I said, sterilizing is a neat little preventative stategy but it can be very overrated. You can sterilize all you want but it can go just so far. I guess I'm just trying to get that point across, I understand what you're saying as well.

Btw...Merry early Xmas to all!
I gotta get ready for work...man yesturday I got a freaken ticket again for parking on street cleaning day....there goes my whole days pay...