Hello, I used my Python to water change a qt tank with an unknown injury/illness. Problem is I need to do water changes on my other qt tanks that house healthy fish. What do you sanitize with?
Python after use in a sock quarantine tank?
- Thread starter jandb
- Start date
Use different hoses and make your own siphon tube out of a coke bottle. Cut the bottom part out and attach the hose from the bottle cap portion.
You can sanitize with pure 100% bleach (non detergent.)
Hot water, soap, peroxide, ammonia, lysol, or simply waiting for it to dry out will certainly kill some---maybe even a lot of bacteria---but they are going to leave other bacteria around and none are as effective as bleach. After you use it, rinse the hose thoroughly, then be sure to use a triple dose of dechlorinator when you do the next water change, as that will neutralize any bleach that might be left in the hose.
Assuming you have a plastic hose, I'd probably plug up one end or create U-shape with the ends at the highest point, then fill it with a 50% bleach solution and let it sit for as long as I could, preferably 24 hours, to sterilize the whole thing. (Non plastic hoses might be an issue with bleach.)
Buying a new hose would work if you can find one that matches the existing one, and that would be my first choice for convenience and given my personal value on fish versus plastic tubing.
Hot water, soap, peroxide, ammonia, lysol, or simply waiting for it to dry out will certainly kill some---maybe even a lot of bacteria---but they are going to leave other bacteria around and none are as effective as bleach. After you use it, rinse the hose thoroughly, then be sure to use a triple dose of dechlorinator when you do the next water change, as that will neutralize any bleach that might be left in the hose.
Assuming you have a plastic hose, I'd probably plug up one end or create U-shape with the ends at the highest point, then fill it with a 50% bleach solution and let it sit for as long as I could, preferably 24 hours, to sterilize the whole thing. (Non plastic hoses might be an issue with bleach.)
Buying a new hose would work if you can find one that matches the existing one, and that would be my first choice for convenience and given my personal value on fish versus plastic tubing.
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To sanitize my hoses I hook my Python hose to a pump and set the pump in a 5 gallon bucket of 50/50 bleach and water, with the return end of the python going back to the bucket. I run this overnight.
To dechlorinate I run the same setup with a half a bottle of prime and water.
I have 2 gravel vacuums depending on which tank im working on... A large one for my 265G and a smaller one for my QT tank.
To dechlorinate I run the same setup with a half a bottle of prime and water.
I have 2 gravel vacuums depending on which tank im working on... A large one for my 265G and a smaller one for my QT tank.
