Do you bother disinfecting second hand filters and media?
- Thread starter Lollum96
- Start date
Mycobacterium. Fish TB seems to be to them what cancer is to us. If something else doesn't kill you first that ultimately will.
It's systemic and presents itself in whatever part of the fish it hit hardest. So fish get treated for what symptoms they show incorrectly when it was actually tb all along
It's systemic and presents itself in whatever part of the fish it hit hardest. So fish get treated for what symptoms they show incorrectly when it was actually tb all along
I'm not sure which is more disturbing; that news regarding the amazing durability of some strains of Mycobacteria...or the almost certain knowledge that there is someone, somewhere out there, who will actually start going through gallons of alcohol to sterilize everything in sight, just in case.
Life is a risk; it cannot and will not ever be entirely safe, neither for our fish nor ourselves. We all have to accept a certain level of risk, whether we like it or not, just to get through each day.
I knew a lady in Ontario who sterilized everything by boiling; wood, rocks, substrate, hardware, new or used, didn't matter. When she learned that some rocks can apparently explode when boiled due to trapped water within them...I don't know if that's really a thing, but it's supposedly a well-known "fact" in some circles...her response was to get a dedicated pressure cooker for use strictly as a sterilizer.
I always felt bad for her dog; I leave it to your imagination what an un-dog-like life it lived.
Life is a risk; it cannot and will not ever be entirely safe, neither for our fish nor ourselves. We all have to accept a certain level of risk, whether we like it or not, just to get through each day.
I knew a lady in Ontario who sterilized everything by boiling; wood, rocks, substrate, hardware, new or used, didn't matter. When she learned that some rocks can apparently explode when boiled due to trapped water within them...I don't know if that's really a thing, but it's supposedly a well-known "fact" in some circles...her response was to get a dedicated pressure cooker for use strictly as a sterilizer.
I always felt bad for her dog; I leave it to your imagination what an un-dog-like life it lived.
Boiling, should kill it, but as normal temps rise above 82'F it gets more virulent, even up into the 90s"F .
YUP. That's when columnaris goes rampant. Usually when someone cranks the heat to treat ick. The slower strain bacteria are probably already in your tank just not in pathogen mode until you inadvertently ask it to exponentially divide
Soak it in bourbon; cheap bourbon.
I think a lot of people let fear control their actions when they hear such and such survives bleach or alcohol or peroxide. What they don't take into account is the LC50 or 90 that such and such survey did. People read, this won't kill that and that may have been true at the normal dose for a specified short duration. Take New Zealand Mud Snails for example. One study proclaims that bleach won't kill them. That information parrots on and on but people don't include the fact that the bleach concentration needed to kill them damages fishing and hunting wading gear. The study was done to find ways to contain invasive species, to keep fisherman from spreading them to other water ways. Bleach will absolutely kill them. So will potassium permanganate, but another study had evidence that they survive it. Read a little further on and you see that normal doses that are safe for salmon fry won't kill the snails. But up the dosage a tiny bit or increase the exposure time and the snails bite the bullet along with the baby salmon. So technically it's true that PP won't kill them if you are purposely trying not to kill something else.
HYDROGEN PEROXIDE, CHLORINE BLEACH, and POTASSIUM PERMANGANATE are very powerful oxidizers not medication. You apply the correct dosage and exposure time and nothing will survive. Of course it might damage equipment in the process. Alcohol and bleach trash some plastics. Peroxide and PP will eat metal. Peroxide will destroy most filter sponge. So pick your poison depending on what you are treating.
I've recently stumbled upon probably the safest and most reliable way to treat new plants. Reverse Respiration really does seem to lay waste to hitchhikers on sensitive living plants without harming the plant itself. As you might have already guessed I'm not a "let's hope this works" kinda person so I one two punch plants with PP then Peroxide before they get that 13 hour long high pressure co2 treatment.
Sorry that's long winded even for me but hopefully that helps people understand that there is no one answer for treating new things we bring into our closed environment and that even with all the options available to you that QT is your best friend.
HYDROGEN PEROXIDE, CHLORINE BLEACH, and POTASSIUM PERMANGANATE are very powerful oxidizers not medication. You apply the correct dosage and exposure time and nothing will survive. Of course it might damage equipment in the process. Alcohol and bleach trash some plastics. Peroxide and PP will eat metal. Peroxide will destroy most filter sponge. So pick your poison depending on what you are treating.
I've recently stumbled upon probably the safest and most reliable way to treat new plants. Reverse Respiration really does seem to lay waste to hitchhikers on sensitive living plants without harming the plant itself. As you might have already guessed I'm not a "let's hope this works" kinda person so I one two punch plants with PP then Peroxide before they get that 13 hour long high pressure co2 treatment.
Sorry that's long winded even for me but hopefully that helps people understand that there is no one answer for treating new things we bring into our closed environment and that even with all the options available to you that QT is your best friend.
I agree completely regarding quarantine; I would wager that 75% or more of the mysterious ailments and diseases and conditions that pop up in most folks' aquariums could have been avoided if quarantine was strictly adhered to. Sadly, when quarantine comes up as a topic for discussion, we always get those who pipe up with "Well, I have never quarantined my fish, just throw them in, and I haven't had any problems!"
The short answer to that is "...yet!"
But everybody has their own interpretation of what is or is not safe. The day that I feel the need to disinfect plants with peroxide...and potassium permanganate...and finally a 12-hour-high-pressure-CO2-treatment!...is the day that I get rid of my fishtanks and take up macrame.
And yet, I have no qualms about a quarantine period of several months, so...tomato, tamahto...
The short answer to that is "...yet!"
But everybody has their own interpretation of what is or is not safe. The day that I feel the need to disinfect plants with peroxide...and potassium permanganate...and finally a 12-hour-high-pressure-CO2-treatment!...is the day that I get rid of my fishtanks and take up macrame.
And yet, I have no qualms about a quarantine period of several months, so...tomato, tamahto...
