Escherichia Coli contaminated water

[Lauren A]

Hi,

I received an alert from my town today that our water is contaminated by E-Coli.  Moving forward I have a plan in place using bottled and/or boiled water on my tanks until this is resolved.  I do have a couple questions.  
 

This has to do with a new planted tank that is a month in cycling.  There are no fish yet, but I planned to add a betta very soon.  There are snails in there currently.  I did a large water change on Tuesday and this is the day the water sample was tested positive by my town.  

I’m not really sure what to do, besides big water changes.  I do use a filtration system by Hydroviv on our tap.   I reached out to the company and they said they can’t make claims that they remove the bacteria but they said there’s a chance that it may have been filtered out due to the micron size of the filters, but said still follow boil order notice.  
 

I just want to see if my tank is now completely unsafe and for how long.  I started the cycle with Stability for 7 days and used seeded media from a mature tank but I’m worried about the tank and more worried about adding my betta.  

He’s perfectly comfortable in his temporary tank so I am in no rush to move him but I want to double check this should be taken care of with large daily water changes making it safe for him?

 

Thanks so much!  I appreciate your help!

Edited September 22, 2022 by Lauren A

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Maybe you can use meds that kill bacteria, such as Erythromycin.

Or do level 3 salt treatment on the tank.

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-salt-for-sick-fish

Edited September 22, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[MattyM]

If the bacteria is only in the water column, I wonder if a UV light would get it. Looks like Amazon sells test kits for this. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

In Irene's video about her quarantine tote, she disinfects it and everything in it with a 10% bleach solution.  You'd want to give everything a thorough rinse afterwards. Not to worry if you're not sure you've rinsed it all; just do your best.  Since bleach is chlorine, a dechlorinator will take care of any bleach residue.  But, of course, you'd have to restart your cycle.  You can jump start it again with a bottled bacteria.

Honestly I'm not sure if e-coli would be a big deal to fish.  Fish live in lakes/streams and bears, deer, and whatever other animals go in the lakes and poop in there.  The animal poop would contain E. Coli.

Actually, @modified lung - can you weigh in?  Modified lung is a Fish farm water quality analyst.  Probably sees this all the time.

 

 

Edited September 22, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/22/2022 at 12:36 PM, MattyM said:

If the bacteria is only in the water column, I wonder if a UV light would get it. Looks like Amazon sells test kits for this. 

Yeah exactly.  Get a 55G trashcan with the wheels, fill it up, run the UV on it and then after a bit of time you can then do the boiling or whatever else.  that's probably the safest method.  Whenever you have an issue like this... always best to have some way to precondition your water.  I have to add a buffer, desperately wish I could do the same thing.

[Lauren A]

On 9/22/2022 at 3:42 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

In Irene's video about her quarantine tote, she disinfects it and everything in it with a 10% bleach solution.  You'd want to give everything a thorough rinse afterwards. Not to worry if you're not sure you've rinsed it all; just do your best.  Since bleach is chlorine, a dechlorinator will take care of any bleach residue.  But, of course, you'd have to restart your cycle.  You can jump start it again with a bottled bacteria.

Honestly I'm not sure if e-coli would be a big deal to fish.  Fish live in lakes/streams and bears, deer, and whatever other animals go in the lakes and poop in there.  The animal poop would contain E. Coli.

Actually, @modified lung - can you weigh in?  Modified lung is a Fish farm water quality analyst.  Probably sees this all the time.

 

 

 

On 9/22/2022 at 3:36 PM, MattyM said:

If the bacteria is only in the water column, I wonder if a UV light would get it. Looks like Amazon sells test kits for this. 

 

On 9/22/2022 at 3:26 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Maybe you can use meds that kill bacteria, such as Erythromycin.

Or do level 3 salt treatment on the tank.

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-salt-for-sick-fish

I just heard from a fishkeeper friend and betta breeder and she said Ecoli won’t affect fish.  I’m still nervous and will wait on using tap until it’s taken care of by the town.  Such a shame to have to take the tank apart.  I will check out the video and will come up with a plan with your advice.
 

This really is so stressful.  Thank you for all your help.  I really appreciate it.  🙏 

[Lauren A]

On 9/22/2022 at 3:42 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

In Irene's video about her quarantine tote, she disinfects it and everything in it with a 10% bleach solution.  You'd want to give everything a thorough rinse afterwards. Not to worry if you're not sure you've rinsed it all; just do your best.  Since bleach is chlorine, a dechlorinator will take care of any bleach residue.  But, of course, you'd have to restart your cycle.  You can jump start it again with a bottled bacteria.

Honestly I'm not sure if e-coli would be a big deal to fish.  Fish live in lakes/streams and bears, deer, and whatever other animals go in the lakes and poop in there.  The animal poop would contain E. Coli.

Actually, @modified lung - can you weigh in?  Modified lung is a Fish farm water quality analyst.  Probably sees this all the time.

 

 

Thank you so much for reaching out to @modified lung i’m so curious to hear what they say.  

[Flumpweesel]

We had a boil notice on our water for months a few years ago because of a bacterial contamination. It was harmless to aquatics I stuck to minimal water changes in that time to be safe (Bottled water was in great demand so impossible to bulk buy). The water authority fitted UV to the plant to resolve it. And we all got compensated. 

The thing to bare in mind that is that a positive test is enough to issue a boil notice but does not necessarily mean it is in your tap and is generally  only a trace amount that been detected.  E.coli is dangerous to certain groups (elderly, infants, immune compromised) so they have to be cautious but it is very common bacteria in nature so most things can deal with it.

I would let the tank finish cycling do a big water change when the boil notice is lifted and then add the  fish. 

[modified lung]

E.coli only affects warm-blooded animals, so your fish won't be hurt. I'd be more worried about you getting exposed through your tank. I don't know how much it would take to get you sick.

UV will kill any E.coli in the water column. But I think more E.coli is found settled at the bottom or on suspended particles that might not get sucked through the UV filter. You can pretreat your water in a separate container with hydrogen peroxide and let it sit for a few days. Pre-treating with hydrogen peroxide + UV will definitely kill it all. Then do a good gravel vaccuming and a big water change. If you're interested in that route, I can look up the dosage for you.

You can add hydrogen peroxide directly to your tank too but that could be very risky. I don't know how much snails or a Betta can handle and your cycle could reset. 

[Lauren A]

On 9/22/2022 at 6:04 PM, Flumpweesel said:

We had a boil notice on our water for months a few years ago because of a bacterial contamination. It was harmless to aquatics I stuck to minimal water changes in that time to be safe (Bottled water was in great demand so impossible to bulk buy). The water authority fitted UV to the plant to resolve it. And we all got compensated. 

The thing to bare in mind that is that a positive test is enough to issue a boil notice but does not necessarily mean it is in your tap and is generally  only a trace amount that been detected.  E.coli is dangerous to certain groups (elderly, infants, immune compromised) so they have to be cautious but it is very common bacteria in nature so most things can deal with it.

I would let the tank finish cycling do a big water change when the boil notice is lifted and then add the  fish. 

Awesome, thank you so much.  I didn’t realize this, but It makes sense that even the smallest amount warrants a warning,  

Thank you for sharing your experience too.  I will do what you suggest.  I’m hoping it clears quickly.  A town nearby just experienced an outbreak and it was back to normal in 3 days.  In the meantime, I stocked up on Poland Spring right away since I know it’s in high demand.  The town provided us with some R/O DI water too. 

Thank you for your help!  I really appreciate it.  

[Lauren A]

On 9/22/2022 at 6:15 PM, modified lung said:

E.coli only affects warm-blooded animals, so your fish won't be hurt. I'd be more worried about you getting exposed through your tank. I don't know how much it would take to get you sick.

UV will kill any E.coli in the water column. But I think more E.coli is found settled at the bottom or on suspended particles that might not get sucked through the UV filter. You can pretreat your water in a separate container with hydrogen peroxide and let it sit for a few days. Pre-treating with hydrogen peroxide + UV will definitely kill it all. Then do a good gravel vaccuming and a big water change. If you're interested in that route, I can look up the dosage for you.

You can add hydrogen peroxide directly to your tank too but that could be very risky. I don't know how much snails or a Betta can handle and your cycle could reset. 

Hi, thank you very much.  I will definitely take that dose if I do pre-treat.  It may be good to go ahead and do this with a big water change and thorough vacuum.  I have soil and sand - I’m not sure if that makes a difference.
 

 I don’t want to add it directly to the tank and take that risk.  
 

 Hydroviv, the filtration company, did say it would probably take care of removing it, but I’m sure they just can’t say for certain in case someone did get sick and without studies to back it up.  So, I’m hoping that at least provides some protection.  

Does using pre-treated water with hydrogen peroxide do the same as would boiling it before using?  

I could use Poland Spring, but it has no Kh and I’m also trying to push that up before I add my betta.  I’m  using crushed coral to see what happens.

I really appreciate your help.  I use gloves in the tank so I should be fine but just in case.  Thank you!

 

 

[modified lung]

On 9/22/2022 at 3:26 PM, Lauren A said:

 I will definitely take that dose if I do pre-treat

Here's a calculator:

https://www.indigoinstruments.com/sanitizer-dilution-calculator.php

It's in metric but you can use Google to convert.

For 'Starting Solution" enter the % on the back of the peroxide bottle.

For "Desired ppm", 100 ppm will kill most bacteria in 1 hour, 50 ppm in 8 hours, 5 ppm in 2 or 3 days.

For "Desired Final Volume" enter your water volume.

There might be some residual peroxide left so I'd through some snails in the water before adding it to the tank to make sure it's safe just in case. An air stone would get rid of that really fast though.