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Unfortunately, my young crowntail betta bit the dust last night. This now leaves my 2.5 gallon tank empty. I figured I would get off bettas and do ADFs or killies or something. My question is how do I properly sterilize the tank to get rid of the bacterial and other germs which are already forming on my betta (can't flush it until tonight, when my little brother's asleep). Normally, I'd just dump out all the water and use extremely hot water to puge the yuckies out. Then, I'd let it sit so the water evaporated, killing off any other water-dwelling bacteria which I didn't want. The only problem with this is that I had this tank planted. I could put the plants in my other 2.5, but I dont want to spread the disease. Therefore, what steps should I take to purge the tank and still have it ready for the plants to go in?

take out the plants- put them in a bucket of water, then clean the tank and gravel, ect.. with 10 parts water, 1 part bleach, let it sit wet with that solution on there for 10 min. then rince, rince, rince, rince, rince, dechlor, rince, rince, rince, rince, dechlor.... until your sure all the bleach is gone- well you get the idea, then set it back up.

10:1 bleah solution will kill any nasty bug if on ther for 10 min.

What kind of bleach? The clothes kind?
And what about gravel?

Last edited by djtj at 29-Jun-2005 17:17

what exactly killed your fish?
did you see any desease, or was it a kind of silent death?

as far as i know about people, most of the time you don't have to disinfect anything in the room if someone sick, because his illness won't affect healthy individuals that easily.

if you're concerned about the bacteria thriving on the corpse, and the fish died today, then don't. it takes time for such bacteria to reach critical mass, and one afternoon is not so much time. also, such bacteria lives in the water anyway, so it's hard to get rid of, and unnecessary.

if the fish was sick and it seems to be infectous, then use bleach (clean, the smelly stuff. take notice it shouldn't have nice smell to it, because that's hard to get rid of, and it might contaminate the water later).
throw away the gravel. it doesn't worth bothering with it.
soak the plants in a dilluted bleach solution (iirc 1:5 or 1:10, but don't take my word for it. look it up).
after cleaning the tank fill it with tap water, let it sit for a day, empty, repeat. do the same with the plants.

you might lose some plants in the process (too much bleach, for example).

dj, we were just talking about this earlier in another post, so I'll just link you, and you should be fine...

But why did the betta die? Was it simply old age?

[link=here's the link on sterilizing a tank]http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/forums/General%20Freshwater/61151.html?200506291603" style="COLOR: #00FF00[/link]

Sorry about the loss, and thanks for not traumatizing your brother...heidi

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

I doubt the betta died of any disease. There wasn't anything introduced to the tank that could have spread to the fish. The betta had seemed lethargic before its death. In fact, it was floating sideways yesterday, leading me to believe it was dead. However, I shaked the tank and he moved, leading me to believe he was sleeping.

Very sorry about your loss. You can just clean the bowl as you usually do with hot water & clean the gravel really well.


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i've never seen a betta sleep on its side floating.

Be careful with the bleach you use. It should be 100% chlorine bleach with no other additives whatsoever (scents, "fast-acting" nonsense or other gimmicks, etc). When you rinse the tank, use a heavy dose of dechlorinator and let it sit for a day or so.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

Fry

My aunt had commented that it looked like it wasn't doing too good, but whenever any of us moved the tank, it started swimming again.

Update:

Last night was the most disgusting experience in my life. Around 8:00 the house was starting to smell of old seaweed. By the time my brother went to bed at 11:00, we were all gagging. The tank (2.5 gallon) has a glass lid with an air hole on one side. Once I took the lid off, I was hit with all the nasties that must have been building up. That alone made me want to throw up. By the time old Spike was flushed, I had to leave the bathroom and collect myself for a few minutes before I went back in. I just dumped everything: plants, gravel, the terra-cotta skull (which I thought was tacky anyway) you name it. I even though of dumping the tank, but I knew Matthew would be needing anouth betta. Then I cleaned the tank with clorox and water.

Until last night, I didn't have a hypothesis on how the betta died. But, then I noticed that his plants (green hedge) were covered in a clear fungus. I then saw that one of the plants in my other 2.5 (holds my other 2 bettas: Geezer and Sunburst) had the fungus too. Needless to say, that tank got bleached to and I threw out all the gravel. The 2 surviving bettas are now in plastic cups. I think that the heat of the tanks (85 degrees in my appartment) m made the plants rot, killing Spike. He was in great shape, so I doubt anything else could have killed him.

Unfortunately, I couldn't let Matthew know that his fish was the only one that died, so we told him that all three had to go to the fish doctor. So, I'm gona "pick up" Spikes today (I hope to God they have another Navy Blue Crowntail betta at Petland!). Unfortunately, my bettas had to be hid in flower pots around the house so my brother would think they were at the doctor.

]:|:%)]:|