How to best clean an infected tank?

Question

All but two of my fish died in my 100 gal tank. I started out with like 7 or 8 of varying fresh water fish but they died from some sickness, they had like nasty ulcers on their mouths and bums. I want to know how and with what to clean the tank completely so that i can bring new fish and enjoy my tank... oh and what type of fish do you recommend for a fresh water tank, I'm tired of gold fish.

Answer 1

Ok I assume you want to start from scratch??? If you do the best way to steralize an old tank is with bleach. Yes I said Bleach.
Since you have a large tank i suggest putting it on the back porch and working outside. also make sure you will be able to siphon out the water.
Ok to do this the easy way Put all of your filter parts, plants, decorations and any other WASHABLE PLASTIC PARTS in the tank and fill with enough water to cover them. Add REGULAR UNSCENTED LIQUID BLEACH. for aprox 30 gals of water use 4 cups of bleach. scrub the parts in the tank and the inside walls to kill off any thing that is gtrowing on them. empty the bleach water and rinse everything with copious ammounts of clean water. set everything out on a clean towel or sheet and allow to air dry for a few days. You shouldnt be able to smell bleach after everything is dry.
When you get ready to restart your tank, make sure to get a water conditioner that removes chlorine and use double the recomended dose (at least 24 hours before you add fish) just to be on the safe side.
P.S. It sounds like you had a parasite infection. once you have your tank up and running add fish SLOWLY one or two at a time and get a small hospital tank, quarentine any new fish for a week to make sure that they are not ill. and when you have a sick fish get it out of the big tank and into the small one to be treated as soon as possible.

Answer 2

There is a liquid product called "MELAFIX" that works fantastic. You TREAT your tank for 7 days,then do a 25% water change. It's even available at Wal Mart. If you don't have any remaining fish, I would take the opportunity to drain it and do a good cleaning job first, and wait a week or so before adding any new fish, and maybe go ahead and treat the tank before adding the new ones, just to be on the safe side:) (You also remove any charcoal filtering you may have while using the Melafix.) Goldfish will yeck up a tank faster than any, because they have a slime coating or something. Try a variety of fish available at your local petstore. You can ask the people there what is compatible with what. I have angel fish, some gourami's, barbs, and some other kind of cichilids..but they are kind of territorial. I only have a 55 gallon..wish I had your 100!! Good Luck & I hope this helps.

Answer 3

go on line and research pictures of hole in the head disease, ulcers, lesions, fish pox, and herpes. Compare it to pictures of mouth rot. It sounds to me like it was either viral or mouth rot. Knowing what it is is the first step to proper treatment. Follow the treatment guidelines to the appropriate disease. This will eradicate the disease from the tank without killing your well established biological filter.

If you want to keep your goldfish at all, then remain with goldfish. Or, PetSmart has a great deal on a 60 gallon tank/light/hood combo for 269.99 right now. You could set up a separate tank for your remaining golds. Keep them in the 100 gallon until the new tank is cycled, then move the golds over. If during this time you do not see any diseases, you are fine.

Once the golds are out of your tank, then you can dose with melafix for three days. Then add your fish. I prefer Semi-aggressive, and silver dollars are a great, hardy fish to start with. Slowly add your new fish, just a few a week. If you want a lot of fish, avoid south American cichlids. If you want colorful fish, go with African cichlids. If you want big fish that don't eat live, go with semi-aggressive, and if you want huge schools of fish, go with tropical.

Good Luck!

Answer 4

Take the remaining 2 fish and put them in a "quarantine" tank until they either get better or die. Then empty your tank completely. Take everything out and soak in a very dilute solution of water and bleach (about 10:1), and wipe/scrub everything with that solution. Then rinse everything thoroughly. When you're sure its all clean fo ahead and reassemble your tank, and fill. As you know, it will take a few weeks before the tank is conditioned enough for new fish.

I highly recommend cichlids. They are really colorfull and have lots of personality. For the most part they only get along with other cichlids since they are very aggressive.

Good luck.

Answer 5

infected with what? Try melafix