Is it necessary to nuke tank or meds can take care of it?

[SamS]

Hi Everyone,

I'm sure the answer will depend on what kind of disease situation you are dealing with but my question is, for diseases like ich, wasting disease and other common diseases, when you treat with meds (let's say the med trio) should you clean everything (tank, deco, gravel, filter etc) with bleach etc or is that only in extreme cases when a disease has hit hard?

And if you don't nuke the tank, will the med trio also kill anything that may be in the gravel, filter etc?

Hope that makes sense.

[lefty o]

a tank of mine would have to have some space alien disease before bleach ever touches anything in it.

[Chad]

Nope. You do not want to clean the tank too heavily no matter the illness. Unless you're tearing it down and starting over, you want to be as kind to the beneficial bacteria as you can be.

The med trio is a less invasive approach towards addressing potential illnesses that could be affecting your newly bought fish. It's not to be used if you can readily see or detail symptoms of any specific illness. 

[Levi_Aquatics]

I agree with @Chad I would not "nuke" the tank. I would probably change some of the water and maybe treat with salt or med trio to make sure there aren't going to be any issues for your fish.

[Guppysnail]

I don’t use bleach ever for tanks @lefty o possibly for alien invasion I would toy with the idea 🤣 I use hot water and hydrogen peroxide. Depending on what was going on I have no issues “nuking” or tearing down and restarting a tank. I always keep tons of extra filters in other tanks. Something easily fixed and easily identifiable like ich no I would treat several courses of treatment or until I felt it was gone. I’m a better safe than sorry and risk more fish and more aggravation if it was not something I was 100% certain of and it took a heavy toll on my population. To me high mortality means hospital tank for remaining critters sanitize and start over. The $$$ on meds now and possibly reoccurring need because original illness was not completely eradicated  time frustration worry over future deaths is too much in comparison to the peace of mind spending a few dollars on new substrate if it’s other than gravel that can get peroxide bathed a few dollars on new media and new plants…opportunities to try new plants you wanted…and an afternoon tearing it down and setting it back up, much easier. If the mortality rate is one or two and the rest recover fine I leave it be. 

[Torrey]

On 1/12/2022 at 2:20 PM, SamS said:

Hi Everyone,

I'm sure the answer will depend on what kind of disease situation you are dealing with but my question is, for diseases like ich, wasting disease and other common diseases, when you treat with meds (let's say the med trio) should you clean everything (tank, deco, gravel, filter etc) with bleach etc or is that only in extreme cases when a disease has hit hard?

And if you don't nuke the tank, will the med trio also kill anything that may be in the gravel, filter etc?

Hope that makes sense.

Odd Duck posted a fabulous answer on another post for how to address a tank that might have had mycobacterium. That will require a bleach soak of anything you choose to reuse. The post was something along the lines of "How long will disease stay in an empty aquarium?"

If there's a chance that the wasting was caused by mycobacterium, I would follow Odd Ducks advice. 

Otherwise I clean with H2O2, isopropyl alcohol  or vinegar.

I rinse well, and then rinse a few more times. 

[SamS]

Thank you all for the responses. All the info I was gathering/getting kept pointing towards nuking the tank, canister etc with bleach and I did not want to go that route especially for my situation. But I started getting paranoid that what if the diseases really do stay in the gravel, canister filter etc.

Long time follower of Cory/Aquarium Co-Op on YouTube. Guess I should have known better and come ask here first. Will do from now on 😃 Thanks again.