How would I disinfect a 20 gallon tank after the death of its two inhabitants from dropsy. I would also like to disinfect the water pump I use to make partial water changes.

My pet shop has advised using biodegradable soap, washing the soap away carefully and leaving the tank in the sun to dry.

Is this advisable?

Thanks

Cygold

Hi Cygold

Sorry to hear about your poor fish.

I personally would use bleach to disinfect the tank and equipment. Bleach is an excellent disinfectant and to get rid of it all you have to do is rinse with diluted dechlorinator (bleach is concentrated chlorine so your dechlor will instantly neutralise it). This would be better than the soap because no matter how much you rinse there will always be a soap residue left which could harm the next inhabitants. Rinse with water and dechlor until you can't smell the bleach anymore and leave everything to dry naturally.

Hope this helps.

One other option is to use potassium permanganate. I just fill the tank with it till it turns dark purple and let it run throguh the filters and everything overnight. When it starts to turn from purple to brown then it is deactivated and has killed off all the nasty bugs. This is my personal favorite method of disinfection just because I dont like bleach! Thats just me though. nnnnnn sells a diluted form of potassium permanganate called Clear Water by Jungle. I would dump the whole bottle in.

Thank you.