What to use to disinfect a contaminated tank?

[Joe L]

I recently lost all of my goldfish in my turtle tank to a mystery disease while I was sick and unable to take care of the tank. I'm planning to disinfect everything with regard to the tank -- the tank itself, the turtle topper, the Aquaclear 110, the buckets, and I've also ordered the Quarantine Med Trio to quarantine the turtles as well. What can I use to disinfect everything? Bleach is out of the question because it would be too costly for a 55G, and I generally associate bleach with death in fish and negative connotation. That being said, I do have some 3% hydrogen peroxide and 70% isopropyl alcohol around but I don't know which to use. Please let me know what I should do and if I have any other options BESIDES bleach.

[CJs Aquatics]

Not a professional opinion but I’ve had some success with white vinegar personally. It does wonders on glass, is cheap, and in my non-scientific opinion strong enough to eliminate most strains of yuckies. I’ve heard of people boiling things for cleaning as well as bleach being safe to use if recommended dosage and instructions are utilized. To answer your question out of the 2 you have listed however I would think the 3% hydrogen peroxide would probably be your best bet. People use it in tanks to battle all sorts of things such as stubborn algae so It should also work to disinfect. I would make sure med trio is turtle safe if you haven’t already I’ve never personally seen anyone use it on turtles, and make sure you rinse whatever solution you use off thoroughly and let dry before redoing the tank, but all in all I think anything you listed would work if applied properly, my vote out of what your comfortable with is the peroxide however, hope this helps 

[Odd Duck]

Just as an FYI, bleach is very cheap since you would only need 1/4 cup per gallon of water and you would only need to spray it onto the surfaces to be disinfected.  You would not need to fill the tank with bleach water.  You can also fully neutralize bleach by rinsing well, then soaking in water with a heavy dose of dechlorinator which everybody keeps on hand for aquariums anyway.  I clean my large tanks outdoors using the hose for rinsing.

That said, I don’t think you need to use bleach in this situation.  You could probably use the vinegar very successfully and that will also soak loose mineral deposits, too.  It will cost more to use vinegar since it needs to be nearly full strength to effectively disinfect and it costs more to buy in quantity.  It would also need to be rinsed copiously but would not need to be neutralized if rinsed effectively. 

Peroxide is another good option that needs minimal rinsing since it degrades to water and oxygen.  It would also need to be close to full strength to disinfect effectively.  Alcohol also needs to be near full strength and it works by drying out the organism so it would need to be sprayed on, then left to dry completely, then be rinsed well since rubbing alcohol contains other ingredients that would not dry off and would need to be removed by rinsing after disinfection was done.

Any option would obviously need all tank inhabitants removed during cleaning (just to state the obvious).

What makes you think you need to disinfect vs. just cleaning/scrubbing the tank and equipment?

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Bleach = chlorine.

Dechlorinator removes chlorine.

I do 1/10 bleach solution to disinfect. Let soak 10 minutes (including nets and decor - whatever touched the water), then I use a cloth to wipe all the surfaces down.  After that I rinse well and let dry.  The drying plus the dechlorinated water going back in prevents toxicity when using bleach to clean fish tanks and equipment.  

Video here.  The disinfection process is toward the end of the video.

[gardenman]

The cheapest solution is to just dry everything out and put it in the sun for a few hours completely dry. Sunlight is a great disinfectant. A dry tank and supplies in full sun for a few hours will be pretty safe to reuse. Not much in the way of microbial aquatic life can survive being dried out and fried under the sun.  

[TOtrees]

It might run a big higher on the effort side, but how about this: use bleach, at 5% by volume, but only use enough to cover the bottom of the tank with say 1/4" of the mix. You'd need a very flat surface. Bleach only needs 10-20 mins to do it's job (and that's being generous). After that time, tip the tank onto its back so the back pane and seams are soaking. Then the front. Then the sides. Or rather, as I'm thinking about it, do the two ends first (since the panes are smallest and they need the least amount of solution), then the bottom, then lastly the back and front. Add solution if needed to get the coverage as you move from the end panes to the bottom to the front/back. 

[Colu]

I use 3% hydrogen peroxide solution you add it directly to your tank leave the fliter running it will break over 24hr into H20 and oxygen