[metageologist]

well my fish have lost the battle against body fugues the last 6 die today while i was at work.

so now i need to tear down the tank can i reuse any of my drift wood plants or substrate. once i get every thing out of the tank I'm gonna use a dilute bleach mixture to clean it and throw out all my filters, is there any thing I'm missing.

 

[waterdog1]

well my fish have lost the battle against body fugues the last 6 die today while i was at work.

so now i need to tear down the tank can i reuse any of my drift wood plants or substrate. once i get every thing out of the tank I'm gonna use a dilute bleach mixture to clean it and throw out all my filters, is there any thing I'm missing.

You could place the items out in the winter cold(its going to get cold up here in upsate NY) that would probably kill any fungal spores. some of the nitrifying bacteria might survive. If its cheap substrate Id toss it. Can you trim you plants off at the root and let them grow back. Id sanitize your filters. Honestly if you start up the aquarium again and follow good practice you should be fine in regards to the fungus. That sucks man, Ive never had disease in my tanks but it must be disheartening. You can look at it as a chance to correct things that you didnt like the first time. Maybe try something new?

 

[fishbguy1]

It would be easier to just boil the substrate (if it's gravel) and the driftwood. This would kill everything, and you wouldn't have the chance of bleaching your tank accidentally.

The filters you can bleach. Put them over the edge of a bucket filled with bleach water, and let it run. After a day or so, get freshwater and a fresh bucket, and put a bunch of prime in it to dechlorinate it.

For the plants, I've heard you can bleach them in a 1:20 mixture of bleach to water. 1 part bleach to 20 parts water. Don't let them sit in it for more than a minute though.

Hope that helps.

 

[Phoenix-cry]

I agree, boil the driftwood, chuck the sub.


That's a major bummer.

 

[imeridian]

I've not really been following along, but all of this talk of throwing away substrate and completely tearing down the tank for bleaching seems absurdly extreme to me. Is it known that the tank harbors a highly virulent and persistent strain of something that would make all that necessary?

 

[mistergreen]

I would figure out why the fish got sick with fungus in the first place. Over-crowding? Neglect on water changes? Introduced something to the tank that wasn't sterilized or quarantine?
This is so you won't make the same mistakes.

A good rinse and let things dry will do.

 

[sewingalot]

Why not just leave the tank running and treat it with medicine a couple times? This could solve your problem of having to tear it down. I did this a few months back when I had a bad outbreak of ich. The new fish are fine and healthy. Although I did learn a valuable lesson to quarantine.

 

[airborne_r6]

You could place the items out in the winter cold(its going to get cold up here in upsate NY) that would probably kill any fungal spores. some of the nitrifying bacteria might survive.

That kind of cold is not even going to begin to kill fungal spores. Anything that could possible leave some of the bacteria alive wont even phase the spores. Boiling or a chemical designed to kill them are your best bets. Freezing is one of the things that spores are specifically designed to resist.

 

[metageologist]

thanks for all the input.

but here is what i did
i boiled my rock since they are scoria and full of pores,
i tossed the 20# of eco-complete and gravel.
disposed of all plants.
boiled the drift wood.
through out all filter material. will make new.
ran 5 gallons of boiling water through the python
boiled net.

as for a cause of the out break i am at a loose the tank has been running for 2 years with no changes.

fish consisted of 6 (all 6 months old so still very Small) fire mouths and 3 sword tails the sword were breeding and producing seemingly healthy fry until the cichlids found them.

previous occupants of this tank had been moved to larger tank. additional weekly 50% water changes were conducted.

so if any one has any insight as to what could have gone wrong input is welcome

 

[Hoppy]

The first thing that always comes to my mind is overfeeding. Excess food that rots on the substrate can cause lots of problems. Then there is insufficient surface water movement, leading to low oxygen in the water, or insufficient or unhealthy plants in the tank unable to keep the nitrate level from rising much too high. It is hard to guess what the problem was without actually seeing the setup or having a lot more details.