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How to make a fake fish tank/aquarium?

How to make sure/sterilize a used fish tank is safe/so it is safe?

  • I have my betta fish in a small 2.5 gallon... He really gets bored in there, and I will probably use it as a hospital tank. Yes, My betta is going into a 5 gallon :D I'm also buying a heater and I wouldn't want to waste my money a 10watt for the 2.5 gallon. I'd rather just use the 5 gallon and buy a new filter + a new 25watt heater. And a whole lot of live aquatic plants for him! Since my betta really is not that aggressive, i'll even toss in some friends. He doesn't flare at my friend's fish (which was FLARING at my fish like CRAAAZZY)! (I was taking care of her fish for 2 months) I even tossed in a toy fish (FISH SAFE OF COURSE!) and he just ignored it. So, I doubt he'd attack any fish. The reason I want to make sure/sterilize my used 5 gallon is safe/so it is safe because, I had goldfish in there, and yes, I know that that's not right but i was planning to only keep them in there until i could save up enough for a 50 gallon kit. They died off of a parasite because I got the medication too late... They were recovering and the parasite was almost gone, but they died before they were recovered 100 percent. It looked like ick but i'm not 100% sure it was. I just got a medication that cures all parasites. I'm not sure how to make sure/sterilize the tank, so could you help? I would also like to know how to quarantine fish and aquatic plants. Thanks so much :)

  • Answer:

    Wash the tank out with boiling water ONLY know detergents as they are harm full to fish! You could sterilize the tank with aquarium salts, dissolved in the hot water, or fish sterilizing liquid which is used to clean tank ornaments when they get dirty with algae. Its safe for the tank as it's a mild form of bleach, then rinse it out with cold water.

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You wouldn't have experienced your goldfish get sick from the parasite if you didn't keep them in such a small tank - just saying. It's fine to keep fish in a smaller tank before you upgrade to a larger one, but for goldfish, it needs to be well over 20g. I would recommend simply rinsing out the tank with hot water. Scrub any algae/calcium/lime buildup on the sides of the tank, and rinse out the substrate. Any decorations that were used should be rinsed. You can use white vinegar mixed with hot water if you like, but it's not that necessary. A 5g tank is large enough for only one betta and a group of 4-5 ghost shrimp. Don't get anymore fish - the tank is too small. Edit: "But i'm scared that the parasite may still be lurking somewhere in there... Could I just buy new substrate, decorations etc? Also, thanks for telling me about not putting any more fish in. :)" - You could buy all new decorations, but I wouldn't recommend changing the substrate. You don't even need to buy new decorations - just soak them in a bowl of hot water mixed with a little bit (1/4 cup) of white vinegar for a few hours, then rinse them off. If you were to take out the current substrate and replace it with new substrate, that wouldn't be too healthy for your tank because most of the beneficial bacteria is living beneath the substrate. If you want to change the substrate, you'll have to do it over a period of days (take 25% of it out one day, 25% the next day, etc.), otherwise the tank will become very dirty with the waste particles floating everywhere, and it may interrupt the cycle. Without any water in the tank for a few days, weeks, months, etc., the parasite will have died. Soak the tank in hot water and vinegar, you should be good.

Sarah

Take household bleach and dilute it with 9 parts of water. Wash the tank with that, then rinse, rinse, and rinse again before putting any fish in. Waiting a day or two wouldn't hurt either. Household bleach (sodium hypochlorite) breaks down to table salt and water. If you live in an area with dairy farms, you might be able to get iodophor, which also works. Before sanitizing the tank, be sure that it is scrupulously clean. That means scrubbing with either detergent or a cleaning solution such as B-Brite. Then rinse thoroughly before adding the bleach.

oikoσ

1. you don't need to "sterilize" it, just rinse, and reuse, don't make up things to be worried about, just research and you'll find out that most parasites don't survive if there's no fish or snail to infect, and rinsing with hot water and soaking the gravel and rinsing will clear the tank of most anything you could have had. 2. if you do rinse it, or if the filter has been turned off for a while, then you do have to cycle the tank, and that takes 6 weeks, with or without fish. "live" bacterial products make a lot of claims that don't turn out to be true

Pytr Pytr

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