Bleach??
 

On another post I had read that someone had used bleach to clean thier tank. Just out of curiosity exactly how does this process go down and are the rewards worth the risk?

Bleach is dangerous because if you don't get it all out, then the chlorine will kill off your fish & inverts & LR & corals. The best advantages of using bleach are that it is effective & can be neutralized with lots of chlorine remover (ie. Aquasafe or similar product).

Anthony

I used it and I took all the live stock out of the tank first, ran 2 gal of bleach in new fresh water for 3 days, nutralized it and did 5 water changes. then ran 5 gal vinager for almost 2 weeks.

Steve

I've used bleach as well in our 120g before restocking it.

The process we did:

- removed all livestock
- scraped off all the coralline algae from the sides and bottom (BB tank), siphoned out all the coralline and detritus and removed all saltwater
- filled the tank with untreated tapwater, scraped any areas of coralline missed during the first scraping, put in the original powerheads and heaters
- added about 1.5g of bleach, turned on powerheads (but did not turn on heaters) and let them run for 3-4 days
- drain bleach water from tank, making sure to siphon out all particulate matter
- filled up tank again with tapwater, tossed in an overload of dechlorinator (maybe 5 oz) to make sure all the bleach was neutralized and let the powerheads run another 1-2 days
- drained tank again, making sure to siphon out all particulate matter
- soaked and cleaned powerheads and heaters in vinegar to remove all coralline, sponges, etc. before using in the tank again
- began adding pre-made saltwater to tank as well as water from the tanks our livestock had been in, and set up the 120g again

HTH :)

Just use some dechlorinator (remember that stuff you used in your pre-RO days?) and rinse well and you should be good to go.

Bleach = chlorine. Dechlorinator neutralizes chlorine. Ergo, dechlorinator will neutralize bleach.

I've used bleach numerous times to disinfect various items. Just be sure to use plain bleach and any old dechlorinator will do - it's all the same stuff anyway (sodium thiosulfate).

reply
 

Does it help to get rid of thick coraline though? I would have thought vinegar would be best for that.

Danny,

Bleach will kill your coralline, for sure, but it won't remove it from the tank surfaces. Dilute vinegar in water will not remove the coralline either. That's why scraping off the coralline before adding the bleach is important.

reply
 

Bummer, I thought it might be the easy way to get rid of it.

Muriatic acid will take out coralline algae very quickly. I use it all the time for cleaning PH's, Pumps, etc. Just use all the standard precautions of working with acids.

Bill

Hey Bill,

How does the caulking handle the acid?:question: