can I use bleach to clean fish tanks?

nealio

nealio

Large Fish
#1
Aug 23, 2006
396
0
0
#1
I recently started a freshwater fish tank for my daughter. We wanted to put these river rocks we had on the bottom for decoration, but we weren't sure how to clean them. I googled how to clean the rocks and add them to my tank and almost every where I looked said to use a diluted bleach solution to clean the rocks and rinse thoroughly.

SO!

I did it, and rinsed the crap out of them. Long story short, I was in the fish store today and the guy that worked there pretty much told my my fish are going to die. That bleach is still on the rocks even though I rinsed them for about 30-40 mins in the bathtub repeatedly and will lead to poison the fish until they die.

I did about a 40% water change when I put the new rocks in and my water turned a cloudy color, and these little green dots (diatopes or something) appeared on the tank wall. All of the fish seem to be alright, but what kind of signs am I looking for? Should I just take the rocks out and start from scratch again? Or would that stress the fish out too much. I guess I'm really worried because I don’t want to come home to find my daughter crying over the fish I just killed.

Thanks for your help.
 

J

JeLeAk

Large Fish
#3
Jan 4, 2005
491
0
0
40
Alaska
#3
i have bleached tanks and rocks before... with no ill effects, and i even rinsed them for less time than you have so i dont think there will be a problem, unless you used a ton of bleach
 

nealio

nealio

Large Fish
#7
Aug 23, 2006
396
0
0
#7
wow thanks for the quick responses!!

yeah those little dots turned out to be diatom colonies that build up with over feeding and bad filtration. I have a penguin mini(for 20g tank) on a 10 gallon tank, the filter cartridge was clogged, so I removed the filter cartridge for a day (until the same fish store could restock the filters). Within that day the little green dots started to show up. I googled them and it seems the only way to effectively get rid of those bad boys is to use reverse osmosis water and scrape them off with a razor. The water was sparkling clean when the filter went bad. I have one molly, three tetra, and two gold fish, so I thought the filtration should be plenty.

As for the bleach, thanks for your help. I didn't think it would be so bad because EVERYONE on the net seems to talk about it in their advice columns. This guy basically made it sound like they were already dead, and or dying a slow death. I used one thread of the bleach cap, and it was regular longs drugs brand bleach. I’m guestamating it was about a 2% ratio.

This forum rocks, I think I found a new place for fish advice. I'm already trying to talk my wife into a 60g tank!

thanks again! *celebrate
 

nealio

nealio

Large Fish
#8
Aug 23, 2006
396
0
0
#8
oh and the tank has been set up for about three months, and I got the dechloranator at the store that the guy called me a fish killer :eek:
 

f8fan

f8fan

MFT Staff
#9
Nov 19, 2004
1,765
8
38
Bangor, Maine
#9
I regularly clean the algae off my artificial plants with a bleach and hot water soak. Then just use extra dechlor in the rinse and it cleans them like a charm.

Welcome to MFT! I venture to guess you'll learn a lot of other discrepancies between what the LFS says and what actually works in aquariums :)
 

nealio

nealio

Large Fish
#10
Aug 23, 2006
396
0
0
#10
f8fan said:
I regularly clean the algae off my artificial plants with a bleach and hot water soak. Then just use extra dechlor in the rinse and it cleans them like a charm.

Welcome to MFT! I venture to guess you'll learn a lot of other discrepancies between what the LFS says and what actually works in aquariums :)
Click to expand...
pardon my ignorance, but what's a LFS?
 

nealio

nealio

Large Fish
#11
Aug 23, 2006
396
0
0
#11
f8fan said:
I regularly clean the algae off my artificial plants with a bleach and hot water soak. Then just use extra dechlor in the rinse and it cleans them like a charm.

Welcome to MFT! I venture to guess you'll learn a lot of other discrepancies between what the LFS says and what actually works in aquariums :)
Click to expand...
are those puffers you have freshwater?

Those are pretty cute little guys *SUPERSMIL
 

nealio

nealio

Large Fish
#14
Aug 23, 2006
396
0
0
#14
GIS Guy said:
I use bleach as well. Just have a good declorinator on hand like PRIME.
Click to expand...

nice, I used prime when I changed the water.

does that adjust the ammonia levels as well, or should I get something to balance the ammonia as well?
 

T

tessalion

Large Fish
#15
Jun 4, 2006
421
0
0
38
PA
#15
nealio said:
I have a penguin mini(for 20g tank) on a 10 gallon tank,the filter cartridge was clogged, so I removed the filter cartridge for a day (until the same fish store could restock the filters). Within that day the little green dots started to show up. I googled them and it seems the only way to effectively get rid of those bad boys is to use reverse osmosis water and scrape them off with a razor. The water was sparkling clean when the filter went bad. I have one molly, three tetra, and two gold fish, so I thought the filtration should be plenty.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately your tank is overstocked. Despite their current small size, goldfish can get quite large and produce a lot of waste. It's usually recommended 20 gallons for the first goldfish and an additional 10 gallons for each additional one. http://www.myfishtank.net/reviews/showproduct.php/product/188/sort/7/cat/6/page/1
Is there anyway you could take them back?
 

T

tessalion

Large Fish
#17
Jun 4, 2006
421
0
0
38
PA
#17
nealio said:
nice, I used prime when I changed the water.

does that adjust the ammonia levels as well, or should I get something to balance the ammonia as well?
Click to expand...
If you're measuring ammonia in your tank that means that your tank is still cycling. Check out all the beginner stickies to learn all about it :) The only way to get rid of ammonia is through this natural process of building up bacteria. There are some products out there such as ammo lock Aquarium Water Quality Ammonia Removers: Ammo-Lock which convert the ammonia into a non toxic form for your fish.
 

nealio

nealio

Large Fish
#18
Aug 23, 2006
396
0
0
#18
tessalion said:
Unfortunately your tank is overstocked. Despite their current small size, goldfish can get quite large and produce a lot of waste. It's usually recommended 20 gallons for the first goldfish and an additional 10 gallons for each additional one. http://www.myfishtank.net/reviews/showproduct.php/product/188/sort/7/cat/6/page/1
Is there anyway you could take them back?
Click to expand...

aww crud! Well my daughter won them at the fair, and they seem to be her favorite. (Daisy & Harry). I couldn't possible take them back. The area the tank is in could fit a much larger tank. I"m looking at craigslist every once in a while and there are a ton of good deals out there. I'm just hesitant to get a used tank.

One of the goldfish (Daisy) seems like her gold is coming off from the middle of her side, and all over her face, and it looks like its getting worse. I don’t know if its a dieses, but one of the mollys died two weeks after I got her. I bought two at once, and one of the mollys seemed to attack the other one. I thought they might just be playing around, but she ended up passing.

I didnt' think the gold fish would last long knowing they had ping pong balls thrown at them all day but they are hanging on.
 

Breene

Breene

Large Fish
#19
Aug 1, 2006
297
0
0
33
Ohio
#19
Did you cycle the tank or add the fish right away? If there is ammonia then your tank probably isnt cycled... And that would be more harmful to your fish than a bit of bleach thats been cleaned off.
 

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