What is the best way to clean out a goldfish tank to kill algae and a white cotton infection?

Question

We had a tank for several weeks, then the fish started dying, with what looked like a cotton wool around them, we also had a large case of brown algae.
Now all the fish are gone, we want to properly clean it out and start again, would bleech or washing up liquid work, of course throughly rinsing after. Then put water and fake plants back in and give the tank a week to settle before introducing new fish, also what would stop the algae coming back. Its a cold water tank and we hae a filter for it, we bought a algae eating fish but that did not help.

Answer 1

You've got a cuple of things going on in your tank from the sounds of things.

You mention that the tank was only set up for a couple of weeks. You probably didn't have the tank cycled before you added the fish. Goldfish are very messy and produce a lot of waste, including ammonia. Unless you only had a few very small fish in a pretty large tank and were doing lots of water changes during the time you had them, I'd suspect that ammonia buildup was the probably cause of death.

The cotton you saw as most likely an aquarium "fungus". This is rarely a cause of death, unless the fish is already stressed or injured - it won't attack a healthy fish. It's present in all water, so you won't ever remove it from the tank - don't bother to even try.

If you've got a lot of algae, look a the sources for the two things it needs to survive - light and nutrients. Keep your tank out of direct sunlight and turn the lights on for only around 8-12 hours a day at most. If you start seeing algae, you can turn them on for even less time, or keep them off entirely. If you do regular partial water changes (I suggest 25% weekly) with a gravel vacuum and don't overfeed the fish (only feed what they can eat in 2-3 minutes twice a day), the algae won't have enough food to grow and take over the tank. The fact that you've got an algae problem is another reason I suspect ammonia poisoning in the tank.

You can clean the tank, gravel, and equipment with a dilute bleach solution (1 part bleach to 19 of water is enough, but rinse very well before using with fish). But you also need to address the potenial overstocking/overfeeding/improper cleaning, or you may run into the same problem again. You don't mention the tank size, but as adults, goldfish need about 10 gallons of water each. You can keep more in a tank when they're small, but know that they DON'T stop growing because they're in a small tank - instead the growth is stunted, which shortens their lives. Start with just one (or to a fishless cycle) to prepare the tank for the amount of ammonia the fish will produce. Once the tank is cycled, then add others, one at a time and slowly.

Answer 2

I like to soak everything in a 15-20% bleach solution overnight, then rinse real well. If possible, let everything dry in the sun. Put everything back, fill the tank, use new filter media and let it run for at least a week before adding fish. Test your water quality before adding fish - most pet stores will do it for free. If you can get some gravel from an already established tank it will help to condition your tank. The brown algae is a pain and there's not much help out there for it, keep your water quality and water changes up. I've found that my aquariums with lots of live plants have less brown algae. Good filters help too.

Answer 3

well I have a tank also and have ran across the same problems and what worked for me was changing my filter at least 1-2 times in a two week period and a heater and moving tank from direct sun light it makes the algae grow even more so that helped and just treating the water and treating the fish with ich it's these blue stuff whenever i change the water i put about 2-3 drops of that in the fresh water or when the fish looks like it might start getting the white stuff around the head! hopes this helps ! good luck

Answer 4

First get a field (no longer small) internet the fish in the field which has a similar water that became into interior the bowl, sparkling the bowl and the decor too, upload water too ur fish bowl, and if its a faucet water placed the dechlorinater and stir it, enable the bowl sit down there for 30 minutes so the temp will become a similar because of the fact the temp it became into earlier And Wolaaa finishes internet the fish returned in U shouldnt realy save a goldfish in med length bowl they should atleast get a 10 gallon tank for them to stay.

Answer 5

I bought this stuff from a company called API and the product is called Acu-Clear. It has cleared up our tank in hours. I haven't had to scrub it clean in weeks. Also buy a suckerfish, unless thats what you already bought and it didn't help. Another thing is to go to a local fish store (try to steer away from Pet Supermarket or something because not all of them know about fish so much, Petsmart is good sometimes) to get the water tested. Then they can recommend a product for you.

Answer 6

I don't have specific advice but I do have a "don't": Don't use soap in the process! My mother worked in a lot of aquariums when she was younger and has always said that this could potentially kill the fish afterwards. I'm not sure if it was just a precaution, but I would just advise against it.