CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

In one of my first posts I mentioned how I had a catostrophic failure with a 56gal tank. It was a contamination problem that I believe came from a rock that went from my 95 gal tank to my screened porch in the back for a few days then into my 56. The problem was a pesticide that I spray every spring. I spray a heavy concentrate and I'm guessing the rock was cross contaminated from the carpet getting wet from heavy rain.(yeah, that needle wasn't hard to find at all,,, it was a small hay stack)
I broke the tank down, got rid of the rock and replaced the gravel, kept the plants, filters ,heater, same results,,, O became spooked, lazy, disorented followed by erratic swimming ultimately death....
I corrected the problem by replacing everything but the light and background and all is fine.
However,,,, I now have a two month old, complete, absolutely useless (at the moment) 56 gal set up that I'd like to salvage if possible....
Heres what I'm considering....and I'm not going to do it in the next five minutes so if anyone can see a reason to yell 'Hault!' please do so...
We have a 25,000 gal swimming pool, and I was thinking about mixing a pretty heavy dose but not like pool dose of chlorine shock, letting that soak in the tank with plants, gravel, filters, heater... let it soak for a few hours tops.... then rinse well,,,, then, hit it with another form of shock which is oxidizer... again rinse well,,, then hit it with a good dechlorinator.... then try for results...
This is the best idea I could come up with since rinsing with vinigar failed.
If anyone can help on this one,,, we're talking a couple of hundred dollars between the tank, lid, two AC 300's, heater, not to mention about 150#s of gravel... I know the gravel is garbage since its stone, but I'd sure like to salvage the other stuff and set up as "wife's O tank"
I really hope to lick this thing and very well understand it may take some patience and serious 'Trial and error'
I'm open to suggestions....

I think you mightbe going a little over board. Most pestacides break down in sunlight, similar to many medications. I dont think you need to go quite so hard core on that tank. I would definately use a bleach mixture to sanitize the tank, but after that I would just replace all the filter pads and stuff like that and run it heavily with carbon for about 2 weeks. Then try something like feeder fish in it to make sure it is stable and safe. The carbon should draw out any toxins in the water as it does with medications. If you run 2-3x's the recommended amount of carbon per gallon you should be quite safe after a few weeks. That is my suggestion... I think doing what you were talking about might cause more problems then good... silicon does break down and I would worry with all those powerful chems you might damage your seals or weaken them.

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Save the animals, eat a PETA member!

Adam

Thanks Adam,
That makes sense. I'm guessing the seals are holding the pesticide,,, It was Diazonon.
What kind of ratio of bleach to water do you recomend,,, well, I'm going to be filling the tank since I want to get the top seals,,, but how much bleach do you recomend,
I'm thinking when I do this I'm going to let it run through the filters without any media, I'll let it run about 24 hrs,,, by then the bleach should be pretty spent. then fill it and run it with a few carbon packs each filter for a couple of weeks......

Well I think that would be dependent on what type of bleach you have, but I would follow the recipe on the back for standard house hold use... my bleach says 2/3 cup bleach to 1 gallon of water... I think that would be totally sufficient.

Are you planing on running the tank and filters with the bleach water? If so I would worry about the bleach weakening parts in the filter, like the impellor, or gaskets and seals... I dont know if this fear is founded or not but I personally dont think I would run bleach through my filters for more then a few hours just in case. I havent yet had to sanitize one of my tanks they have all be up and running since I set them up.

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Save the animals, eat a PETA member!

Adam

Thank you Adam,

Thats a good point about the filters. But I do want to get some bleach in them since I suspect that the pesticide penetrated the soft silicone seals of the tank and any that might be located within the filters. Any rubber parts for that matter.
I think I'm going to try, using the recommended dosage, and pull the filters after a couple of hours..
I do have a question regarding a product that was recommended.
Have you ever heard of a 'Poly Pad '. one of the lfs's in town, before I knew what was causing the problem suggested I try it, but I never did.. any knowledge of this product is appreicated... It is suppose to remove contaminants... Whether or not it can remove Kriptonite from an aquarium....??

Hey look!,, I'm a member now...

[This message has been edited by Jimco1822 (edited 12-19-2001).]

Sorry to hear your having so mucj trouble with that tank. I havent heard of that poly pad and cant think of anything offhand other than the bleach.
I do the following but only on glass tanks not acrylic ones
I have personaly used clorine on my tanks when I have wanted to totaly clean them out but only for a few hours. I then rinsed them off over and over and over and over(probably too well ) untill I feel satisfied that they are free of any traces. I then leave them in the sun for a week then once again rinse them time and time again. ( Some of you are probably thinking I have an Obsesion compulsive disorder with ensuring a clean tank )
With the filters I wouldnt reccomend chlorine or too stong of a bleach concentration or it might damage parts as I think Adam advised.A good clean in some gravel or general purpose disinfection and rinsing well a few times would do.

I would also advise once you have the tank setup and cycled etc to put some healthy cheap fish in it for a week or two just to make sure everything is right.

The worst case seniario would be that if all this effort doesant work would be to strip off the silicon,dismantle the tank and reseal using an aquarium safe silicon. As I said this would be the last resort as the old silicon is most likely still holding in the pesticide. I doubt it would be that bad though since the tank is fairly new as you say. I have stripped and resealed whole tanks but only on old ones where the silicon starts to look too old and you dont want it suddenly leaking.

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TONY
Australian and proud of it!!
Duboisi.com Home of the Oscar Cichlid Fan Club



My Cichlidfish.com Home page

Thanks Tony,
I'm in total agreement with everything you've said. Adam also,, you guys are very helpful..
As far as the tanks age,,,, its brand new...
What I"m going to do after I bleach it is to rinse as you mentioned, then overdose it with some dechlorinator....
One of the things I did while I was just about giving up on trouble shooting the problem was to contact the mfg of the tank,,, they suggested geting silicone and simply going over the existing seals..... but I"m not sure I"m ready for that or resealing...... If thats the case,, will store it for a later project,,,, but I"m not willing to think that far ahead..... I have all intentions on decontaminating this tank and dont give up easily.
Thanks again guys,,,,
Also,,, I definitely plan on using expendable fish when testing things out.... I"ve already given up all that I"m going to, to that tank.
It may be a whlie before I can asses any success rate, but I will keep you guys posted.

I agree. I would say you should go ahead with your chlorination plans, use high concentration if you want, use this opportunity to clean your tank/tubes etc...make em nice and clean. After rinsing everything out well, take everything apart and let it dry out completely in sunlight. Then if you really want to make sure you got all that high-conc. chlorine out just rinse one more time and dry out again. Then just add your usual dose of chlorine/ammonia neutralizer or more than usual and you should be fine. As Adam said, sunlight is good at breaking down chemical bonds, good ol' UV light.(When you rinse you could use "hot" or warm water, heat also denatures bonds)

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Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

Ok,,, What I've done so far is,,,
Got home about 3:30 and filled the tank with water and about four gal's of bleach... thats a little stronger then recommended dosage, but not nearly as strong as the shock I was going to use.... Plan was to run it with the filters running for about 3 hrs but I fell asleep and they ran for about 7..
I took them off and rinsed thoroughly...I"ve just set them aside for now,,,, the tank is still soaking in the bleach solution and I'll let it go until I get home tomorrow afternoon..... at that time the bleach should be pretty spent.... then I'll rinse thoroughly, let sit in sun..(wrong time of year for all of this) (what do you think it would cost to ship the tank to tony and let it sit in his backyard for a day or so...??)
There is a positive side to all of this.... I need a stand and theres a cabinet that I built for my wife but never quite completed....well,,, Lets just say she's getting her cabinet... I looked it over and while it was never intended to hold a tank, its made of solid oak, and I tend to over do things..... you can park a car on it..
I really appreciate all the kind suggestions....
I'll post back on my progress...

Jim.

Hahha, pretty funny Jim, shipping it to Tony to dry good to hear you got a stand, maybe you can make me one for my 65gallon mine is a gonner since it was one of those pathetic particle-board stands which really deteriorates fast especially outside on the patio getting rained on once in while....will be giving that tank away though anyway good luck with the tank cleaning.

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Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

Thanks,,,

You should see the one I built for my 95 gal.... it weighs close to 300 pounds...but it has room for a 3' wide tank underneith.
You could park a tank on that one.!

Jim.

I guess you better hope you have a strong foundation I have a 200g on patio and I think one end of it sank down the cement slab a little...after the rains, guess soil underneath was softened etc....

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Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

Hey Joe, How do you keep the water hot enough do you keep only cold water fish in it? Or do you have like 4 heaters to regualte the temp? I have been concidering putting a large tank outside but I think the winters here are too cold.

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Adam

Save the animals, eat a PETA member!
Email me: Adam@cichlidfish.com
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Heheh, let's just say whereas my neighbors donate under $50/month to Edison, I bless them with $150/month!

O yea, check your email, you've got www.cichlidfish.com/Adam/
more info in email etc...

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Joe
www.cichlidfish.com