Tank Cleanup Procedures

[Woodstock]

Originally Posted by Leebca

I am asked many times how to clean a tank after a disease or treatment. I should put it all into one post so I can just point to it, rather than repeating myself. So this is the post!

CLEAN UP

Routine QT Clean Up -- Healthy Fish

After a QT use where the fish turned out healthy, the clean up really doesn't have to be that extensive. In fact, if the fish turned out to be totally healthy before it went to the display, the QT isn't contaminated. A simple tap water rinse of the tank and equipment followed by multiple RO/DI or distilled water rinses is good enough (or not needed at all if the QT will be kept up and running). The bio filter can be returned to the display system to keep it active/alive.


QT Clean Up After Medication Was Used
If a fish was successfully treated in the QT, then the QT is free of the disease, right? This clean up procedure is only used when there is no disease in the QT.

Toss the bio filter and put a new one in the display system. Or, if you were ahead of yourself and you had to begin the use of medication in the QT, then you put a new QT bio filter into the display to get it ready.

Most medications are water soluble and don't attach themselves to the surfaces of a 'normal' QT. If there is more things in the QT that aren't plastic or glass, then there may be remnants of medication. Assuming no copper medications (see below) were used, this is a fine process to use to clean the QT:
1. Rinse in tap water
2. Wash with vinegar, diluted about 1:10 in tap water
3. Rinse a few times with fresh tap water
4. Rinse a few times with RO/DI or distilled water
5. Let aquarium/equipment go bone dry.


QT Clean Up With Disease
If the QT was used and the fish died during the cure or treatment, there is a very real chance that the disease is present in the QT. In this situation, the QT must be cleaned before its next use. So this situation is a disease in the QT, but no copper was used.

It is best to dispose of as much equipment as you can. The original setup for the QT is so inexpensive, and I have recommended that no sophisticated equipment be used (see: A Quarantine Procedure) so its loss should not be a financial burden. For sure, dispose of the bio filter. However, for the tank itself, nets and some equipment that can handle the chemicals:
1. As above
2. As above
3. As above
4. Wash with bleach, diluted about 1:10 of household bleach
5. Rinse several times in fresh tap water
6. Rinse a few times with RO/DI or distilled water
7. Let aquarium/equipment go bone dry.


QT/Hospital Tank Clean Up With Copper
About the most frequently used medication that presents a cleaning problem to the aquarist is the use of copper to treat a disease. Copper will attach itself to plastics and glass. Even though the copper is so little that it can't be detected by a regular copper test kit, it is in high enough concentration to kill invertebrates that the aquarist may attempt to quarantine. Thus a quarantine tank turns into a hospital tank for copper treatments. The hospital tank can't be used for a QT for invertebrates, until it has been cleaned enough to remove the copper 'stuck' in the system.

If the copper treatment was successful and the fish is disease-free AND the tank will only be used to quarantine fish, then like the first case, there is no need to do any cleaning. The bio filter should be kept in the hospital tank or replaced, but NOT returned to the display tank.

If the hospital tank needs to be copper-free then there is a complex cleaning process to follow. However after experiments with snails, crabs, and Xenia, the following cleaning is good enough to put the copper in low enough concentration in the water to support these marine lifeforms. The bio filter must be thrown away. Toss away equipment including tubing, and anything that can't handle the cleaning process or is too difficult to make sure is properly cleaned.

1. A few hot tap water rinses (as hot as can be stood by the tank/equipment, and aquarist!)
2. Let tank/equipment cool off
3. Wash with Vinegar; 1:10 dilution of household/salad vinegar
4. Several tap water rinses
5. Wash with a mild liquid soap solution
6. Several tap water rinses
7. Wash with bleach; 1:10 dilution of household bleach
8. Several tap water rinses
9. Several RO/DI or distilled water rinses
10. Let go bone dry for a few days before use


Hope this helps and is clear. If you have any questions, please post.

__________________
LEE

[JoJo]

nice thread, thanks for the write up LEE & posting it Doni

[kathywithbirds]

Thanks Doni!!

Q: If you have a tank that did NOT have copper or meds and has been bone dry for months, is it enough to rinse or is there still the possibility of disease present?

I'm guessing the answer is better safe than sorry but I'm wondering how long diseases can survive without water.

[leebca]

Looks like Doni caught up to us. . .

kathywithbirds,

If the QT didn't get 'shut down' with disease in it, then it should be okay. There are very few (but a couple) of diseases that can withstand drying out. Some, like fungi, bacteria, and viruses can hang around without water, waiting for water to 'reactivate' themselves. Not all fungi, bacteria, and viruses are harmful to marine fishes, but there are some in each group that are.

The drying out specifically kills off obligate parasites, flukes, and other pathogens that are very 'susceptible' to unfavorable conditions.

If you have a doubt about what was last in the QT, but you know it was used as a marine fish QT, then I'd suggest at least cleaning according to QT Clean Up with Disease.

As a microbiologist I am fascinated by the 'tenaciousness' of life. How long can bacteria live, dried out? Did you know that bacteria have been found in ancient Egyptian tombs that were dried out more than 3500 years ago, but when water was added, they resumed their life? Some yeast and other organisms used by the ancient Egyptians buried in the tombs in beer and food containers, were still viable when water was later added, thousands of years after they dried out.

[squiers007]

I know this is a super old thread, but I had a question about cleaning up a tank that had been used for copper treatments. If I follow the procedure outlined above is the tank then safe to use as a fuge/sump for my DT? Thanks.

[leebca]

If you follow the cleaning procedure for when the tank is used with a copper medication, then the tank is suitable for invertebrates, or use with any marine life form. So your answer is, 'Yes' assuming the cleaning is done properly.

[squiers007]

Ok, Thanks. I'll let you know how it goes.

[FragFarmer]

Dragging this one up out of the depths again. Better than starting a new thread on the same subject though.

How can you tell if the tank has already been exposed to copper treatments?

I have a 29g tank that I was going to convert to a frag tank with a new 20L sump. I've heard somebody say once that the silicone would turn blue if it was used for copper. My tank looks pretty normal, but I am a little paranoid because the silicone does look like it might have the faintest tinge of blue stain. It's still very plainly clear silicone and you can see through it very easily. But my eye tells me there is just a hint of blue in that silicone.

So the 64 dollar question is:
How dark of a blue stain are we talking about? I'm probably going to go through the procedure anyway, but would still like to know just how stained we are talking about. Would be nice information for myself and other newbs trying to work with free equipment. I'm poor as a church mouse.

Edit:
I went back and read the directions again for copper tank clean-up. It keeps using the word "wash" So does that mean we simply wash the tank and rinse? Or does that mean we fill it to the top and let it soak?
How long should I leave the bleach solution in the tank? 10 minute wash? Overnight? 30 minutes? Couple hours?

And the vinegar clean-up? 10 minute wash? overnight? Couple hours?

Thanks

[leebca]

There is basically no way to determine if a tank has been exposed to a copper medication/treatment without performing an analysis. This would require a micro analytical procedure, as far as I know. I don't know of any 'home test' method for this.

There may be some clues. Sometimes, if it is an all glass aquarium, the sealent may be discolored. But this can be from a variety of different reasons, so it isn't a guarantee. If the sealant is blue in your tank, I'd first suspect the use of Methylene Blue rather than copper. If the sealant is green, I would suspect copper. But as I wrote already, there is no guarantee to this method AND there is no way of telling by how dark the color may be.

If in doubt and you still need or want to use it, then clean it as if it had been exposed to copper meds. On the other hand, if you don't plan on putting invertebrates or live rock in the tank, then it should be good to go for a FO marine tank.

To your edit questions:
"Wash" is meant to convey more than just a 'rinse.' Use a clean/virgin sponge or clean/virgin rag to rub the walls where 'wash' is mentioned.

No more time is needed then just the wiping with the sponge or rag. All surface areas must be wiped-rubbed with the sponge or rag.

[FragFarmer]

Thank you. I was planning to use this as a frag tank. It's going to have 1 3-stripe damsel fish and a few snails.

I guess I'll try it. The tank was free and the 10g frag tank isn't big enough anymore. I'll just cycle it and then see how a couple zoa frags do for a month. If they are still alive, I'll stock it with a few more corals and see how they do for another month.

I've done the vinegar wash - actually it was practically a vinegar soak because I poured a little in the tank with about 1/2g of water. I'm sure it was more like a 1:5 solution instead of the recommended 1:10 solution. The vinegar bottle slipped and I sloshed a whole bunch in the tank - so the heck with it!! Washed it real good with a new sponge. got into all the corners and up under the top rim. Rinsed in hot water - a lot of hot water.

Then I did the bleach wash with 1:10 solution. Rinsed in a lot of hot water.

Filled it up and let the whole thing sit overnight with tap water up to the top rim. Pumped it out this morning with a powerhead and then started over on the vinegar wash. 1:10 solution this time because I actually measured it out. Lots of rinsing with hot water. Then I did the bleach bath again. More hot rinsing.

I dried it with a paper towels and a hair dryer. It's sitting here dry as a bone now. I guess there's nothing left to do - fill 'er up with RO water and salt.