How To Disinfect a QT

[leebca]

The cleaning process goes like this:

1. Rinse it all off with tap water;
2. Wash out with a sponge soaked in vinegar (use gloves) or rinse out equipment with straight vinegar (see below);
3. Rinse with a lot of tap water to remove vinegar;
4. Repeat 2. but using a mild soap (see below);
5. Rinse with a lot of tap water to remove all traces of soap;
6. Rinse with store bought bleach (see below) diluted 1:10;
7. Rinse with a lot of tap water;
8. Repeat 7 two more times!
9. Rinse with RO/DI or distilled water;
10. Let go dry.

The vinegar is the least expensive you can buy. Usually apple-cider vinegar. You want to use a vinegar without additives -- a pure vinegar.

The mild soap to use is one that has the least perfume, no ammonia, and is a liquid. Some dish soaps don't fit this category, so I can't tell you to use dish soap. But there are some soaps that do meet these requirements. I usually use Ivory liquid hand soap, but there are others.

The bleach is a household bleach without additives or scents added. Take a cup of that and add 9 cups of tap water to that to make the 1:10 dilution.

I can't over emphasize the need to rinse a lot.

Good luck!

[Woodstock]

(info copied into its own thread)

Great to know Leebca!! Thanks!

[goldenmean]

I have already used that info!
It was most helpful.
Thanks Lee.

[DaveK]

This is perhaps a bit late to be posting to this thread, but here I go.

While the method posted by leebca will certainly work, I would consider this over kill for most applications.

Over the years, I have used those various methods to clean and/or disinfect an aquarium. Generally, it's not necessary to take such drastic action all the time.

I prefer vinegar when I want to remove calcium build up. It also helps if you want to remove coraline algae. Usually the least expensive are the bottles of the store brand white vinegar. Look on the lower shelves, it usually comes in bottles as large as 1 gal.

A mild soap is best when you want to remove a buildup of slime. If you have filter cartridges that just will not come clean, a mild soap can sometimes clean them up very well. However, because it's somewhat difficult to find just the right soap, and because you really need to rinse the things you used it on, it's usually best to use it only as a last resort.

BTW, soap by itself usually doesn't do much in the way of disinfection. It works because it breaks down the slime and allows the bacteria and so on to be washed away. If you ever tried cleaning filter cartridges with only soap, and soak them in the soapy water a couple of days, you will have some very foul smelling water.

Bleach is just about the best aquarium disinfectant there is. Used in the right strength, it will kill just about anything that could be left alive in the tank. The big advantage is that it breaks down easily and a few water changes will remove it. You don't even need to dechlorinate the water with anything. The water changes will take care of that.

Bleach has a lot of other uses around the aquarium.

My initial choice would be to use bleach alone. Unless you have those other specific problems I mentioned, there is usually no need for vinegar or soap treatments.

One last thought. Never ever mix bleach with other cleaners. If you mix the wrong stuff with bleach. You may form chlorine gas, and this can cause you a lot of problems, including death.

[AQTCJAK]

Originally Posted by leebca

The cleaning process goes like this:

1. Rinse it all off with tap water;
2. Wash out with a sponge soaked in vinegar (use gloves) or rinse out equipment with straight vinegar (see below);
3. Rinse with a lot of tap water to remove vinegar;
4. Repeat 2. but using a mild soap (see below);
5. Rinse with a lot of tap water to remove all traces of soap;
6. Rinse with store bought bleach (see below) diluted 1:10;
7. Rinse with a lot of tap water;
8. Repeat 7 two more times!
9. Rinse with RO/DI or distilled water;
10. Let go dry.

The vinegar is the least expensive you can buy. Usually apple-cider vinegar. You want to use a vinegar without additives -- a pure vinegar.

The mild soap to use is one that has the least perfume, no ammonia, and is a liquid. Some dish soaps don't fit this category, so I can't tell you to use dish soap. But there are some soaps that do meet these requirements. I usually use Ivory liquid hand soap, but there are others.

The bleach is a household bleach without additives or scents added. Take a cup of that and add 9 cups of tap water to that to make the 1:10 dilution.

I can't over emphasize the need to rinse a lot.

Good luck!

That is a good thought however I would NEVER recommend soap of any kind Vinegar & Bleach do the trick by themselves. However with the bleach I would suggest a DeChlorinator to kill the bleach this is the process Wholesalers use to kill bacteria fungus etc in their tanks. JMO

[leebca]

The original post was actually taken out of context. It was a post to remove copper from a tank that was used to treat fish with a copper treatment. The procedure is one that most advanced aquarists use to rid a tank of residual copper.

I agree it's totally overkill for just a cleaning procedure. I actually recommend three different cleaning procedures depending upon what it is that is or was in the tank. The full recommended three procedures were given here: Tank Cleanup Procedures