my aquarium was treated for velvet disease, all the fish are now dead. how do i easily sterilze the tank??

Question

my fish tank has been treated for velvet with tetracycline, but my only two fish have died. now my aquarium is yellow from the medicine and have yellow deposits all over. i have live plants, fake plants, one house decoration and gravel. i want to know how can i sterilize the tank so that my next fish will not get anything. (i initially got velvet when i purchased fish from a local retail pet store grrr)

keep in mind i would like something that will not take much time, but will also do the job well.

Answer 1

are you worried about velvet and new fish? if you wash it in hot water and leave it in the sun to dry nothing will be living on it anymore. most plants can take chlorinated water -- so just soak them in tap water for a while.

the only other thing i would recommend is leave it running for a month with no fish -- the parasites can't live without a host so you would successfully get rid of anything that way too.

Answer 2

Just one thing for you to keep in mind is, if you take everything out and wash it, you will need to start a cycle all over again, and wouldn't be able to get fish for a while

I assume that you had to take out the carbon cartridge in order to treat
The best thing to do right now is doing a 50% partial waterchange, fill it up with conditioned tapwater and put the carbon cartridge back in

Keep up with daily or every other day partial waterchanges of 25% until your tank is completely clear again. Shouldn't take more then a week

Also check your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels, usually these aggressive meds destroy a well established tank

When your readings on ammonia and nitrite are at "0" and you have some nitrate readings you can introduce new fish again


hope that helps
good luck


EB

Answer 3

If it's possible, remove everything and bring out the clorox. Then rinse, rinse, rinse and rinse a bit more. Also bleach the gravel and the wipe down the fake plants gently (also with bleach), and the house decoration. Don't forget rubber gloves, please don't burn your fingers off! I would quarantine the live plants for a while as well, just in case. Then put everything back and there you go.

If not, I can't help you. Good luck though, and sorry about your fishies.