communtiy wipe out, advice

[stirfry]

Hi worst weekend if my life, thank god its Monday.
This weekend I had to euthanasia 4 fish & I dropoed dead in front of me.

Dont get it started out as dropsy, went on the eye bulge, then death.
Water condition were correct, I don't know what happened but I'm devasted.

I moved the 6 out of their tank to a hosoital tank the other 20, yes you read write 20 I have put in another tank, as I don't think these can be saved.

So striped the big tank bare, boiled all the bogwood again, taken the gravel out will get new stuff.
Drained the water out, then take apart the external filter washed the hole filter in red hot water, thrown the filter sponge out & replace it with new stuff.

Can i tell me if its safe to use all this bogwood & live plants for a salamander.
Of course I will cycle the tank & start from fresh, is this okay.

Thanks

[Diana]

Rotten weekend.

Yes, the items should be safe for a salamander after boiling.

Gravel can be boiled or baked, too.

For equipment that cannot be treated with heat:
Bleach will kill most fish diseases. (Lots of rinsing, soak in double strength dechlor, rinse again until there is no smell of chlorine. Sunshine will also help it evaporate)
Rubbing alcohol will kill Mycobacteriosis. (Lots of rinsing, but I do know if something helps to deactivate it)
Hydrogen Peroxide (Lots of rinsing, expose to sunlight)
Potassium permanganate (Hydrogen peroxide helps to deactivate it, and lots of rinsing)
Salt: Scrub everything down with dry salt and a wet cloth soaked in strong salt water. (Salt is an abrasive, do not use dry on acrylic tanks) You can run all the equipment with strong salt water, too, such as twice a salty as ocean water.

What I would do:

Treatment #1: Scrub everything down with salt. This gets rid of any algae and biofilm on the glass or equipment so microorganisms are not trapped.
Treatment #2: Rubbing Alcohol. Dropsy and dropsy-like symptoms are very common with Mycobacteriosis. (Lots of rinsing)
Treatment #3: Bleach. Wipe it all down with straight bleach, then run everything with lots of bleach in the tank. Kills most of other fish diseases.
Treatment #4: LOTS of rinsing, followed by running everything with a double dose of dechlor.
Treatment #5: Dry exposure to the sun. Ultra violet in the sun can kill things, too. Several days, turning things over to expose all sides.

Follow the sterilizing with the Fishless Cycle. Takes about 3 weeks. This extra time without ANY fish will likely starve out most other possible problems. Most diseases and parasites cannot live for long without a host.

[stirfry]

hi Diane thanks, had boiled & baked bogwood. Washed filter in in hot water, thrown sponge media.
Will got back over the tank again.
Down in london, england its a crapy day no sun, have left the light on inside the tank, just to depress me some more!
Throwing the gravel not good with axolotl so I read
Will get some large pebbles instead.

Is it saveto usethe tons of live plants I have?

Thanks

[Diana]

Unfortunately any disease organisms that might survive in the water may survive with the plants. The plants are not actually hosts for any of the diseases, but are rather delicate when it comes to disinfecting them. Could easily kill the plants. There are some ways of treating the plants, do a little research. Each of the products I listed above can be used for disinfecting certain plants, but at such a low dose and short duration I do not know if you want to risk it.

A long time in a tank with no host might increase the odds in your favor.