Sterilizing tank

[(Dee)]

May be a stupid question but I can't find an answer on forum. My axie died of red leg he was in the tank all day as I was at work. Now I'm freaking out about the condition of my tank. I have taken the other axies out & want to know - how do I sterelise the tank??? I have a canister filter, should I clean that out as well.
I'm asking because I don't want to lose my cycle BUT I don't know if the bacteria will live in the filter???

Any help would be appreciated. I want to do what's best for the tank & my babies - thakyou

[dad of axle]

Dee sorry to hear about the loss of your axie, but I am really glad that you are asking this question about sterlization of the tank on the forum. I dont know the answer myself and am keen to find out what to do as I want to clean a tank myself.

My tank cleaning is because i have been unwell and been rather lapse with cleaning the axie tank so that it now looks rather merky water wise and i havent cleaned the filter for over 6 weeks probably more like two months.

I dont know how my axie has survived.

I do hope a knowledgeable person can answer the question soon.

[Jan]

To disinfect a tank, see this article that describes disinfection: Caudata Culture Articles - Quarantine and Disinfection

And if it was truly a bacterial infection, your filter is more than likely also contaminated with some bacteria. Tough call. If you have access to another healthy setup where you could use some healthy substrate, decorations, etc to help establish you new tank, that would be great. Make sure to monitor your ammonia and nitrite levels, do water exchanges, etc. Some helpful advice is given in these articles:

1. Caudata Culture Articles - Water Quality

2. Caudata Culture Articles - Cycling

[Coastal Groovin]

It's easy 10% bleach mixed with water wash the tank and soak the filters for at least 10 minutes. Rinse very well with cool water. I like to then set everything out in the sun to dry. I might be a little heavy on the bleach but nothing like a little overkill when killing bacteria....lol.

[~~Eddie~~]

yeah your deff gonna lose your cycle if you bleach everything

but thats not such a bad thing.

everyone on here is always going on about cycling but you can run a safe set up with out cycling your water (you would just have to change the vast majority of your water way more often).

If your really that worried about cleaning/sterilizing the tank then do it, put your axis in another temp contanair care for them and do what ever you have to. then just change your tank water 30% or so weekly to re establish a cycle (if you want one!)

[(Dee)]

Sorry to be dumb, I have a canister filter. Do I open it & bleach the sponges, noodles etc ? also, my tank is heavily planted - do I have to throw out all the plants?

[~~Eddie~~]

i dont know about the canister filter, i dont have one! lol but your plants you could dip in bleach water and then give a really good rinse after that (and maybe quarantine for a few days)

[markrimn]

You can probably goolge search a canister filter, but off the top of my head, you need to replace all the filter media.
*note, my entire suggesting is shooting from the hip on how I would do it, as I think it would work*
ie
Remove and dispose of all the consumable media. Then run bleach water through your canister filter empty of filter media. (if that is possible, and hopefully it is)

2 x 5 gallon buckets from Walmart should do the trick, cost a few bucks. Fill one with recommended bleach solution, soak parts that aren't the replaceable media. Run the filter either with new media, or empty through the bleach bucket for few hours.

Take 2nd 5 gallon, put it in bathtub, and fill it with water, make sure it has a wedge under it so the drain is clear, hook your canister up cycling from the filled 5 gallon and pumping the water out into the bathtub. Probably want to run that for half hour like that. Then maybe run some treated water with chlorine neutralizer in there a bit heavier than normal straight from the bucket and back into it for an hour.

Then put new clean media back into it, and start cycling your tank.

Definitely once you got the tank going again, do the water checks, making sure you don't have chlorine or chloramine in the water, and that everything else checks out again.

Good luck.

[Chris]

why do you want to disinfect your tank?

first thing that novice fish/axie keepers think when a fish dies is that it was sick and must have been caused by a bacterial thing or a parasite, which is usually not true as unless you have recently added new plants/livestock without quarantine even then it's not always the case. the risk of introducing something is next to zero as a aquarium is a closed environment, the only way pathogens like this will get in is with new livestock or plants.

only disinfect if you are 101% sure it was something that can be fixed by this method otherwise it's a waste of time.

I would suggest looking into other causes of death before you tear down your tank and start from scratch.

on another note about livestock, only pick the best specimens, if they look healthy and act like that spices should and the tank looks to be clean and a ideal habitat, chances are it's healthy. it doesn't make for very good business practices to have your animals dying all the time from pathogens/disease/parasites and have to constantly replace them in order to keep the stock available for purchase.

[(Dee)]

Hey Chris, thanks for answering. I had 2 confirmed cases of "red leg" & lost my axolotls. I took them to the vets, got antibiotics & still lost them. While I was there the vet tested my water & said all parameters where at zero, so she didn't know the cause.

I have not touched the tank since then. Filter has been running & the cherry shrimp have been thriving. Just wasn't sure where to go from there

[(Dee)]

P.s these were my babies I had for a year. Not 1 problem with them until the females laid eggs. A week later, they were dead, both mum & dad.

[Chris]

what is "red leg" and what causes it? I have never heard of it myself.

edit:

http://animal.discovery.com/guides/r...egdisease.html

taken from that webpage:

"It is associated with poor husbandry conditions such as overcrowding, poor sanitation, spoiled food, fecal-contaminated water, trauma to the skin as a result of poor cage design, housing at too low a temperature"

that implies you should be checking your tank environment and eliminating those factors.

[(Dee)]

I thought I was vigilant with my water & cleaning routine. I have a 4ft tank with 2 axolotls that weren't even fully grown. I have the tank well stocked with live plants & changed the water regularly.
Obviously I missed something but from all the guidelines on here, I thought I followed things to the letter.

I don't think I will tear down the whole tank. The vet said the bacteria would die because their are no hosts left. Fingers crossed.

I really appreciate your interest & help Chris.

[tusken raider]

Going on what your vet said run your tank with the shrimp for a month or a few weeks and the bacteria should die as there would be no host. Alternatively you could get a new tank new tanks are always fun!

[Chris]

you'll need to keep up a source of ammonia for your filter bed though so you don't crash your cycle.

[(Dee)]

Oohhh yeah, thanks Chris, wasn't even thinking of that!
Sorry to be a pain but any suggestions? Something that would be comparable with the cherry shrimp?