Boiled Cichlids !!

[diverrk]

Well came home today and noticed a cloudy tank, and dead fish.  The water was cooking !  Of course the old heater cracked after I had it for a few years.  guess I should have replaced it.  Anyway I was contemplating converting it to a FOWLR, so heres my chance.


Should I use bleach to clean out the tank or just soap .  Not sure if the bleach will hurt the silicone ???

 

[panmanmatt]

Sorry for your loss.

Do NOT use soap to clean the tank, bleach is just fine. After washing with bleach, fill it up and add a good amount of dechlorinator such as SeaChem's Prime, Kordon's Amquel Plus or Hikari's Ultimate. Then rinse again with fresh water and let sit for 24-48 hours to dry. Bleach will not harm the silicone at all.

 

[mfisher2112]

Ouch. Sorry for your loss. I replace heaters every year or so, regardless, because I had a similar incident a few years ago and cooked a beautiful pair of cobalt discus...

 

[reefsandrotts]

Should I use bleach to clean out the tank or just soap . Not sure if the bleach will hurt the silicone /
Make sure you dilute the bleach with water
I bleached a tank without doing so and the silicone melted.

 

[diverrk]

Thanks guys . I called Tropiquarium, before I read the repsonses, he also said NO SOAP. He told me to use White Vinegar. So I did, it smelled like fish salad while cleaning it ;D

Thanks
Rich K

 

[chaoscat]

I nearly had my Cichlid tank go that way, with a brand new heater no less. Thing stuck on and I came downstairs to find my tank at 90 degrees. I was lucky that I went with a minimum wattage heater or I would have had fish soup too. The residents came through OK.

 

[diverrk]

Well, even though it sicks to lose them that way, I was planning on converting to a FOWLR. So this helped me along to that path and now it's up and running after the weekend.