evil old tank of death!!

[rsz]

I was just wondering, can tanks be 'diseased', or pass on diseases that old fish had? ok, i'll try to explain better!!

I have a little tank (i think it's about a 3-4 gall, but i don't know). Anyway, because i'd just got my 20 gal, i let my brother use the lil one. we cycled it and he put in a pair of goldfishes.

unfortunately it was during that 'heatwave' we had here in the uk, in the summer holidays. we went away during that weekend, and when we returned, they had the worst case of ick i have ever seen (in pictures and on my fish)!! we put in treatment but next morning they were dead.

that really put my brother off, but i persuaded him to get some more fish. we cleaned the tank, put de-chlorinated water in and after cycling the tank we got him some more fish. but after a few days, these died of ick too, for no obvious reason. my brother then declared that he hated fish so... i got the tank and completely washed it out. i boiled the gravel at least 6 times. i hosed down the tank, i scrubbed the tank, i soaked the tank, i scrubbed it again!! then i added water, but in the de-chlorine stuff and even added some ick treatment before i put the fish in, just to be on the safe side.

But... the new goldfish died . since then, the tank has been packed away, because i didn't know loads about fish and decided to concentrate on my freshwater tank

but now i want to put a betta in there. and i would set it up, but i don't want to send a betta to its death. so i figured someone here could tell me how to totally cleanse it. (btw, i'm not asking - i'm begging!! )

 

[CFC]

From the sounds of things you cleaned the tank pretty well, only exposing it to a nuclear blast could do more

I believe the problem lies in the size of the tank, 4 gallons just isnt enough for one goldfish let alone 2.

The tank will be fine for a single betta, just make sure the tank is cycled (as im sure you will) before adding the fish.

 

[Inchworm]

From the sounds of things you cleaned the tank pretty well, only exposing it to a nuclear blast could do more

I wouldn't even bother cycling the little tank, rsz

You heard right! I would just take some of the uncleaned gravel from your big tank (replace it with new or the gravel that was in the little one), and fill it with water from that tank, too. If you can put some of the filter material from that tank into the filter of the little tank, do that as well. And you do not have to worry; no harm will come to you big tank at all.

Presto! You have just made a clone of your big tank which is already cycled and which you know is healthy. You can put your fish in immediately.

 

[rsz]

sounds good to me i'm gonna set it up this weekend B)

 

[Inchworm]

Good luck, rsz I'm sure you will have success with it this time!