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Bleach to sanitize tank?
- Thread starter 9supratt4
- Start date
And then what? You would now have a dead tank with by products of oxidation from the bleach....a nightmare.
If you wish to re use rock and sand, I'd take both out and rinse and clean using tap water. Clean up the tank with vinegar, and start fresh.
If you wish to re use rock and sand, I'd take both out and rinse and clean using tap water. Clean up the tank with vinegar, and start fresh.
Out of curiosity. How many fish and how large was your tank?
I'm not sure what baking soda will do that fresh water can't handle. For all the single celled, or small celled organisms that I know of, going from salt to fresh water causes too great of an osmotic difference, and the cells burst. It is common practive with blood cells to harvest the DNA....a shot of fresh water bursts the cells "exposing" the DNA.
I just can't even begin to imagine what nasty soup you would get with existing sand. Any time you "kill" your sand, it has to come out and either thrown away, of given an extensive washing (with tap water) to rid of all the nasties in there. It is time consuming, and takes a good bit of water, but I've successfully done this a couple times.
With the rock, I'd simple soak it is fresh water with a number of water changes...tap water is fine. And after all this I'd re-cure the rock.
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Paul B
NJRC Member
Actually we used to do that all the time, and No, you don't even have to change the water. You can add one cup of "regular Clorox" to fifty gallons of water, let it sit for a few days and then add double the dose of chlorine remover to the tank. In a few days, add fish and make believe it never happened. I did it a few times and I didn't invent this. It is an old school remedy for tanks that were full of ich like all tanks in the beginning were. I sometimes collect seawater and treat it with Clorox. But it must be "regular" bleach and not "New Fresh Scent" or "No Spilling" or anything like that.
I know you won't do what I suggest but my tank that was bleached like that is still running from 1971. But good luck and have a great day.
I know you won't do what I suggest but my tank that was bleached like that is still running from 1971. But good luck and have a great day.
Well, here's the issue, it's not so much the chlorine (whatever that might be today), or the chlorine remover (which in the past was sodium thiosulfate).....it's the byproducts of the oxidation of all that crap that was in the rock and sand. Your nitrates (nitrites and ammonia too), phosphates and other stuff is going to be through the roof.
If the "bleach" is soduim hypochlorite (the most come of bleaches in the day, but today could be other oxidizing agents), the chlorine remover (assuming sodium thiosulfate), will simply produce salt (NaCl), sulphur, sulphur dioxide, and good old H2O. All "safe" for our tanks. Again, this chemisty is safe....it is the oxidizing byproducts that are the concern. The older the tank, the more "crap" you have in the sand, and the more of an issue this bleach process would produce.
I know Paul B has been around since Noah, and was on the Ark with a couple models, but I must respectfully disagree with this bleach approach.
If the "bleach" is soduim hypochlorite (the most come of bleaches in the day, but today could be other oxidizing agents), the chlorine remover (assuming sodium thiosulfate), will simply produce salt (NaCl), sulphur, sulphur dioxide, and good old H2O. All "safe" for our tanks. Again, this chemisty is safe....it is the oxidizing byproducts that are the concern. The older the tank, the more "crap" you have in the sand, and the more of an issue this bleach process would produce.
I know Paul B has been around since Noah, and was on the Ark with a couple models, but I must respectfully disagree with this bleach approach.
Noah had models on the arc?! He'll no wonder he kept it adrift for 40 days and 40 nights.lol
