Loaches Online Forum

How do you disinfect aquarium equipment after ich outbreak?
i have a 55 gallon drum which is also 1 of my tanks filter, but currently its not used, except when i drain water from my tank, i just open a valve connected to the drum and it drains my tanks water, but recently having problem with ich in my tank. after my fish are all well, i'm planning to reactivate the 55 gallon drum filter, how do i disinfect it from ich?
will rubbing salt inside the drum work?
or will drying the drum kill off any ich?

thanks.

If you let all the equipment dry out, preferably 12-24hrs to make sure every little gap/crack is dried out then it will be fine to use again from what I have read before.

Best to wait for someone else to back that up just to be 100% sure though


Ashleigh

i concur with Asleigh, to speed the process up a little, use the wifes hairdryer to make sure you get in all the nooks and crannies.

mick

When you wash it out, add a gallon of bleach. Then rinse it out. Make sure it's totally dry before you add water too it again though.

Totally drying is supposed to work, and I know that strong salt solution will work. I would thoroughly scrub everything with hot water and salt, then rinse really well. Then dry it all. The hair drier trick sounds good, and standing it out in the sun for a day or two (turning it upside down, angling it so the sun gets down inside...)
Running strong salt solution through a gravel vac and any other tubing, soaking the net in strong salt water...

How to make strong salt solution: Use hot water from the tap or even on the stove and pour in as much salt as will dissolve, and keep stirring, and adding more salt. When it cools to the point that you can handle it (it will be warm, not too hot) Soak and scrub everything.
On things you will be scrubbing I would use a scrub brush, get it wet in the salt water, then dip it in dry salt, then scrub. The dry salt acts as an abrasive, until it dissolves.

Jonas wrote:When you wash it out, add a gallon of bleach.

I reckon I wouldn't.

Certainly not on that scale. Maybe a 1:20 solution, followed by thorough rinsing together with a couple of doses of dechlorinator.

But leaving it to dry out for a few days will be fine.

thanks to be sure, i'll use salt to srub the insides of the drum, and also sun dry it