best way to clean something that will be reused?

[Doc4PC2]

I was wondering what the best thing is to use to clean like a decoration, that you are going to

maybe  reuse another time.

 

Would it best to clean it in some water and peroxide, and then rinse it really good, then store

it in a baggie, so that it can be reused at another point, or in another tank?

[Pika]

Is bleach an option? Rinse well and soak in extra dechlor afterwards, and then let it sit?

[ctaylor3737]

I actually use potassium permangenate to sterilize tanks and equipment. It is very caustic and kills everything. Best thing is after 4 hours it no longer works and is not harmful like bleach is. I use it to treat Discus for external parasites. Be careful if you use it because it stains everything and DO NOT use it with any livestock in the tank. It will kill them lol. But it works great for cleaning things in my experience. I do not like bleach because it can still linger..

[metageologist]

I actually use potassium permangenate to sterilize tanks and equipment. It is very caustic and kills everything. Best thing is after 4 hours it no longer works and is not harmful like bleach is. I use it to treat Discus for external parasites. Be careful if you use it because it stains everything and DO NOT use it with any livestock in the tank. It will kill them lol. But it works great for cleaning things in my experience. I do not like bleach because it can still linger..

I use potassium permangenate at work as well but not to sterilize tanks. We use it to clean up chemical spills in the ground. If you need to clean some up that stained some thing spray it with vinegar this will neutralize it they spray it with a 50/50 mix of hydrogen peroxide and water to dilute and remove the staining.

Have a gniess day. -Scott

[ctaylor3737]

I use potassium permangenate at work as well but not to sterilize tanks. We use it to clean up chemical spills in the ground. If you need to clean some up that stained some thing spray it with vinegar this will neutralize it they spray it with a 50/50 mix of hydrogen peroxide and water to dilute and remove the staining.

Have a gniess day. -Scott

Yea when I treat discus you can instantly neutralize it with HP. They use it in Koi ponds as well for flukes. It removes the slime coat and kills anything in the water table. Jungle water clear the cheap stuff from wal Mart is potassium permanganate it is just not marketed as a medicine because of all the other uses for it. They did release that it can be used in aquariums. I'll see if I can find the article.

-Chris

[Soothing Shrimp]

I'm lost.  You say don't use it with living things and then you say you use it with discus.  Am I missing something here?

[featherblue]

I clean all my tank gear (fw and sw) in 50/50 vinegar water, rinse in clean water, and air dry. Clean ready for re-use or storage

[ctaylor3737]

I'm lost. You say don't use it with living things and then you say you use it with discus. Am I missing something here?

No your tracking, right. I advise not to use it unless your highly knowledgeable with it. I'll find a good article on it,

-Chris

[Doc4PC2]

I did clean it with some light bleach water, rinsed it really well, then let it soak in prime, and let it air dry.

 

How about, how would you get algae off a piece of Malaysia Drift Wood. It seem to spread on this piece

of drift wood. Use some prime and clean it with a toothbrush? or some Excel, or soak it in some Excel?

or maybe clean it with a toothbrush and some peroxide water? Then soak it in prime and put in back

in the tank? 

 

Also I don't want to necessarily kill all the good bacteria on it?

 

Thanks for the help.  Doc

[ctaylor3737]

I did clean it with some light bleach water, rinsed it really well, then let it soak in prime, and let it air dry.

How about, how would you get algae off a piece of Malaysia Drift Wood. It seem to spread on this piece

of drift wood. Use some prime and clean it with a toothbrush? or some Excel, or soak it in some Excel?

or maybe clean it with a toothbrush and some peroxide water? Then soak it in prime and put in back

in the tank?

Also I don't want to necessarily kill all the good bacteria on it?

Thanks for the help. Doc

What kind of algae is it? May just be better to leave it be. You want things to be natural sometime. If you do any cleaning to the driftwood yo u 'll lose some BB. Just manually remove stuff you don't like in the tank. If it's not harmful don't mess with it, less your in the tank the better

-Chris

[Doc4PC2]

Yeah, I am not sure what kind it is, I will have to take a photo of it.

[Subtletanks91]

Even if I'm putting something back in the tank I always use peroxide and water baths. I try to manually remove all the algae I can and then get a 5gallom bucket. Fill it with 1/2water and like 2 cups of peroxide, let it kill everything for two hours come back use a tooth brush and remove some more algae, and then let it soak until the next day and clean with a tooth bruch again. Rinse it off and then let it air dry. This has always worked best for me,

[Pika]

I liked peroxide for algae, and better for something going right back in a tank. I pulled a piece of driftwood that seemed to be harboring BBA in the grooves and, over a bowl of water, poured undiluted peroxide on the affected part. I let the whole thing sit in the mixture for half an hour or so, scrubbed a bit, then rinsed well in dechlor water and put it back. Worked well.

[Doc4PC2]

Thanks everyone, great info!

 

I am redoing a 10 gallon tank completely. I used white distilled vinegar and water to clean the glass inside and out, and

rinsed it really well, with RO water, and let it dry. The tank looks new.

 

I think I will try the peroxide and RO water to clean the Malaysia drift wood.

[wicca32]

depending on the item i say just pull it and let it air dry and store. i have done all my tank stuff like this when i moved and no probs. be it drift wood, resin tank decor, rocks, bambo, filter pads. all of it let it air dry and in a box it went. once i was ready to set the tank up i just put it back in. even with my tb tank i just put the drift wood and filters in strait out of the box into the tank and away i went. most aquatic bacteria will die when it dries out. algae if your really worried dip in preoxide and let air dry. peroxide degrades when its in sunlight and turns to water. that is why i use it in tank for algae issues. no need to go over board with stuff. now if its something you get off say craigs list or a garage sale then yeah i would go ahead and bleach it before use cause there is no telling what might have been in the tank.

 

on a side note, even the filter pads i put away after they dried still had some good bacteria in them. i used a filter pad and sponge filter i had running last june after they were dried out and started using them in january and cycled my tb tank with amazonia in 3 weeks. normally it takes almost twice that long to make it though all the ammonia leaching. did the same with a couple other small tanks. used dry sponge fitlers i never rinsed just air dried and cycled tanks in a couple weeks. food for thought

[ctaylor3737]

Yea my ada soil only took 2 weeks to cycle. Of course I cycled it for 2 months. But after 2 weeks established filter no longer seen off the chart ammonia reading.

-Chris