Sterilizing Equipment?

[Somethings Fishy]

I had a particularly nasty problem that was never succesfully diagnosed or treated & killed all the fish in a 6x2x2 tank.
The tank & equipment have been sitting un-used for the last month drying out. Now I want to sterilize the tank & the other hardware, (heaters, canister filter etc), but am not sure of the best/safest way to do this.
None of the equipment is old or cheap, so I'm not wanting to replace it if I can avoid it. The filter alone cost me $1000aus.

I'm wanting to know if using a 20-1 ratio of chlorine or bleach will kill off all the nasties that may still be lurking in the filter etc? I was going to set up everything & run the whole lot with bleach running through it for 2-3 weeeks.

Is it going to be an effective way to sterilize the tank, filter, heaters & gaurds? Will having bleach in there for that long create problems for me when I want to restart the aquarium?

I have heard that I need to have direct sunlight to totally get the bleach/chlorine out? Is this true? I can't get the tank out in the sun, (no yard), so if it is true is there another way to get it all out? Can I just use a declorinator & rinse it heaps & heaps?

I only need to sterilise all the equipment as I have thrown away all the decor as well as airlines & airstones. Is there a better way than bleach? I thought steam but figure it's no good for the filter or hoses as it just won't get into all of the little crevices.

It was a really nasty problem the tank used to have & money is tight so I really don't want to take any risks with it. I need it to be right first time as I won't be able to afford to redo the tank again if the problem resurfaces.

Suggestions, hints & tips anyone? Any good advice will be very much appreciated.

[Wild Turkey]

I would do alcohol for the equipment, bleach for the tank

Alcohol is just easier imo

[Somethings Fishy]

Do you mean filling it with Wild Turkey? (joke).
Do you mean rubbing alcohol from a hardware store? Can I just use metho on the glasswork?

[Wild Turkey]

Yea rubbing alcohol. I prefer it for the equipment because you can just dip and its already sterile, plus bleach can eat plastic parts of equipment.

Metho? methyl alcohol? I dont know enough about wood alcohol that i feel qualified to comment on that

[Somethings Fishy]

Sorry, I meant Methylated Spirits?
Will that do the job on the glasswork? I always use it to clean a new tank then rinse it off about 100 times even though it evaporates completely. I don't know if it actually kills parasites & bacteria though.
Do you think immersing the hoses in boiling water for a short period would work? Assuming it doesn't melt them altogether that is.
The alcohol sounds like the go for the filter, so long as I manage to get all the crevices.

[Wild Turkey]

1/10 bleach/water should sterilize, its just harder to get the smell off than alcohol, the boiling water will do it as well as well but thats a lot more of a pain and somewhat dangerous. The way i sterilize my hoses in my immersing them in the alcohol bucket after im done dipping/scrubbing the other stuff

[Somethings Fishy]

Cool. Will get some rubbing alcohol today & set myself to work.
Thank you for your help.

[Rue]

I wouldn't use alcohol. I'd just run the tank/filter with a bleach solution. It should take a day for the chlorine to 'evaporate'...after that you should be good to go...

Your bleach solution will be weak enough that nothing should be damaged by the bleach. Unless of course, you goof...

[DrNic]

bleach and alcohol work pretty well. For extreme cases like this I also like to use something with detergent. Windex works pretty well. Just make sure to rinse your equipment REALLY well before you start using the tank.

[Wild Turkey]

Household bleach also contains soaps and detergents so if you use that, i also recommend scrubbing and rinsing like heck. Detergents and soaps will not evaporate, though chlorine will.

[Lady Hobbs]

I wouldn't use alcohol. I'd just run the tank/filter with a bleach solution. It should take a day for the chlorine to 'evaporate'...after that you should be good to go...

Your bleach solution will be weak enough that nothing should be damaged by the bleach. Unless of course, you goof...

Me too. Bleach can run thru all area's of that filter. Bleach is said to be the only way that TB in a fish tank can be killed, as well.

Empty the tank, add double the amount of dechlorinator when you refill and it should be just fine......or allow to air dry.

"Household bleach also contains soaps and detergents"???????? Not so, WT. Bleach is in our drinking water, remember, for sterilizing.

[Somethings Fishy]

Ok I think I will just run it with bleach/chlorine for a week or two then scrub the daylights out of it then let it air dry for a few days then scrub & air dry it again just to be sure. Sounds easier than the alcohol scrub.
I've got 20gal of pool chlorine. Can I use that?

[Wild Turkey]

The ingredients of household bleach arent even listed on the bottles in most cases because its not intended for consumption, to say what is or isnt in them for sure isnt a good idea i'll admit, but washing out the tank after is IMO.

Chlorine is what is added to your tap water, among other things, not household bleach.

If your bottle of bleach lists the ingredients and you can identify them as safe, by all means dont bother washing the tank out after if you think its not needed.

Whats funny is, the bottle in my laundry room says "Does not contain phosphorus" which kinda says to me that some do.. Short bits of research also seem to imply most household bleach contains surfactants..

My advice to the OP would be, wash the tank out, it takes 2 minutes extra to be safe. If you want to use the pool chlorine however, that should completely evaporate except for some chlorine residue and what hobbs is saying applies imo.

[robflanker]

I'm pretty confident there is no bleach in my water.

Chlorine and other disinfectants - yes
Bleach - not so much

[Lady Hobbs]

Yes, chlorine is added to our water supply but technically both are very much the same. Both remove stains, purify and sanitize. Restaurants and bars add bleach to glassware and dishes to santize. Far different than soap. Chlorine is stronger, I believe.

[robflanker]

According to the WHO and Wikipedia - it is the same base chemical used in bleach and drinking water for sterilization purpose - sodium hypochlorite.

Just obv in diff concentrations - very diff.

[Lady Hobbs]

Both are bleach but one is just chlorine bleach. Not a biggie and nothing to argue about but the statement "contains soaps and detergents" needed correctioning before it confused someone.

Sorry Somethings Fishy. Didn't mean to hijack your thread.

[Wild Turkey]

Whats the ingredient list say for yours hobbs? Mine says 94% other ingredients and not much else about any of them. Their website says it does contain surfactants but I had to dig for it

[Rue]

For what it's worth...we shock chlorinate our well using 'bleach'...

[Somethings Fishy]

OK. I have just bought CHLORITE liquid bleach. It's supposed to be a concentrate but I don't know if it really is. It's got 45g/lt available chlorine. I'm hoping it's as concentrated as they say because I am only using 5lt of it in the full aquarium to soak for 3-4 days. Then I'm going to empty, rinse, then 1/4 fill & put in another 5lt of the same bleach. I will put on the gloves & manually scrub the tank with it for a few hours then rinse the daylights out of it for a couple of hours. Then air dry for a few days then rinse & air dry again.
Does that sound like it will do the trick?