To bleach or not to bleach, that is the question! (tank switch)

[FRIENDLYFISHIES]

After dad passed a few weeks back I decided to rehome most of my fishes and now im down to just Moonie the Betta.
I would like to move him into the 20 gallon long that recently had 3 healthy bloodfin tetras (they just left the night before last). I am emptying all of the water/gravel out and rinsing it with a bucket outside. Normally I would bleach the tank and hose it out several times til the smell of bleach was gone, then id let it sit in the sun for the rest of the day. The next day Id get it ready for the fishes et.
Its always worked well for me, but right now we are covered snow, we have no hose and im concerned if I try to bleach it right now I wont be able to get all of the bleach out well enough...
The tetras were healthy and show'd no signs of itch or infection. How crucial is it to bleach the tank? Would it be okay to just rinse it out with hot water? Or should I attempt to bleach it?

thoughts/experiences?

[lohachata]

no need to bleach...only if there was some kind of serious disease in the tank...the only times i bleach a tank is for disease or snail or leach infestation..

[Vayurules]

Just remove plants/decorations, catch and relocate the fish, drain it, remove all gravel, wipe it clean, let it dry, then set it back up.


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[weedkiller]

question for one to bleach....
gonna bleach my 64 litre after they all died for unknown reason.... how much bleach to add to 64L?

[lohachata]

i would make a mix of 1 cup of bleach and 2 L of water.....clean out the tank and rinse...then wash the tank (inside and out) with the bleach mix..use a brush to get in the seams and under the rim...rinse it good a couple of times and wipe it and let dry for a couple of days...when you first fill it again use a triple dose of dechlor....since you will be using ammonia to cycle again that will kill any disease you may have missed in the tank..

[Betta man]

That is a little overkill, but overkill can be good. From what I have heard, it takes three drops of bleach into one gallon of water to kill giardia and other nasty stuff. I personally use about a cup of bleach to sterilize 5 gallons of water. I tried half a cup, but it didn't work well. When I bleach tanks, I usually fill them up, add the proper amount of bleach, and let it sit for an hour with the bleach water in it. Then I empty it, rinse it out, and let it sit for a few hours.

[weedkiller]

what about sand.... throw or will it be ok after bleaching?
will be using a filter thats already cycled from my larger tank with my acaras once the new filter will support it by itself

[kcrunch]

Originally Posted by weedkiller what about sand.... throw or will it be ok after bleaching? will be using a filter thats already cycled from my larger tank with my acaras once the new filter will support it by itself

Sand is rather cheap, so just go new..... makes no sense to take the risk...

[Obsidian]

I would wonder why you are going through all of that mess at all. You said you just re-homed the fish that were in there due to downsizing, it does not seem that there was anything wrong with the tank to start. Just put the fish in there and you're good to go.

[emc7]

FF doesn't need to bleach, all the fish were healthy. Doesn't even really need to rinse, Drain, dump, refill. WK, I think you should, If it was a fast-moving disease that killed all the fish in your tank, you don't want to give it any more fish to kill. Go with Loha here. The 3 drops could be enough for water-borne bacteria, but you want to kill ich-cyst and the like as well.

[weedkiller]

i will definately bleach, probably today so the tank is ready for when my filters are, add my 206 to the tank in question add ammonia to feed for a bit to make sure balance is restored then probably get some guppies as my daughter likes them and build from there, if all goes swimmingly i may put my mega clown pleco back in there as it seems they only grow to about 3-4" and not the 6" reported by the store i got it from
i may add another bristlenose to my bigger tank

[weedkiller]

took your advice and dumped the sand, has been bleached rinsed rinsed rinsed rinsed and now is sitting in the garden filled to the brim with x4 dose of stress coat to declor it
ill get it in and wipe access water an let it sit for a while, gonna be a few weeks till i stock it anyways

[FRIENDLYFISHIES]

Originally Posted by Obsidian I would wonder why you are going through all of that mess at all. You said you just re-homed the fish that were in there due to downsizing, it does not seem that there was anything wrong with the tank to start. Just put the fish in there and you're good to go.

I wanted to change the substrate and scaping of the tank

I emty'd rinsed and refilled with my new decor/substrate..now all I have to do is plant the plants and put his filter in and we're good to go