Sterilising questions, before removing medication for worms

[rebe]

Around 20 hours ago, I treated my tanks with eSHa ndx. Levamisoli hydrochloridum is the active ingredient.
I'm assuming that I should now sterilise all of my equipment before using it to water change out the medication to avoid reintroducing what I just treated for?

I can't get my hands on any bleach that doesn't have additives within the next few days, so I'll need to go with an alternative method of sterilisation. My preference would be something nontoxic in small amounts just in case my rinsing is not thorough enough.
My favourite option would be hydrogen peroxide as it breaks down into just water and oxygen after 24h, but I need someone to make sense of this for me :

If these bottles are both "6%" then are they already 94% water? So if I needed to sterilise with a 6% solution then I'd need to buy enough bottles to fill a container?

 

[rebe]

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

@Essjay @Seisage @gwand @GaryE @Colin_T @TwoTankAmin

Hoping any of you guys might be able to help!

I was the one who mentioned to @rebe before about steralising shared tank equipment when I was treating for worms, because worm eggs do transfer from tank to tank easily via shared tank items like buckets and syphons, and @rebe has shared equipment between tanks, but only one tank is being treated for worms as a precaution.

We talked through the basics about using thick original (no additives) diluted bleach solution, then rinsing, soaking in declorinator, rinsing again then allowing to airdry thoroughly - but we can't do that in this case, and I'm also wondering whether any of it is even necessary, or if there's another, safer and easier way to make sure no eggs get transferred to her other tanks, or reintroduced to the tank before it's finished being wormed, like if the inside of a gravel vac or a bucket is still wet, could there still be viable worm eggs in it? Or if equipment like nets and buckets are fully dried out, will the worm eggs also die? I don't know how long they could remain viable on certain equipment, so want to enlist brainer people's thoughts and ideas!

@rebe could you list all the equipment you plan to steralise, please? Because regarding the peroxide, bleach, or any other things used on it, it might depend on what material you're trying to steralise. Like I don't know whether peroxide might damage anything.

Also it might be cheaper just to buy a new bucket, net and gravel vac to use until your other stuff is steralised, then keep one set solely for use in the QT tank, rather than buying bucketfuls of peroxide, when it might not even be needed, you know?

So any other advice about if it's even needed, other ways to make sure equipment is egg/disease free, appreciated!

 

[rebe]

Thank you so much for replying, but I actually ended up medicating all three of the tanks! I think I still need to sterilise my equipment unless I'm mistaken.

 

[rebe]

As for the equipment I need to sterilise, then I imagine it's everything I've used with the tanks?
So syringes, buckets, siphons, a pump with a 10 meter hose, nets, containers, baster, pipettes, fake plants I used a while ago, probably my BBS hatchery.

 

[MaloK]

Normally I use 2 tubes. one is for the incoming water and one for drain, separate tube,s always in that manner. So nothing can enter any tanks. The flow of water is enough to prevent any cross contamination with them. And you don't have to worry too much about the sanity of the "drain tube" as it goes right there and the new water always comes from a "sane" place with a sane tube.

Letting other gears like nets, sponges and such dry up on a clothesline is enough to keep it neat. If you have to use it before it dries completely. A quick swirl in 20 x 1 bleach solution before handling, cuts it for me. You can use the bleach solution a couple days before it depletes.

But at this point your starting to move some fish in a day.

 

[Essjay]

I have 2 tanks and I use different water change equipment for removing old water from each tank. The only things I use for both tanks is the bucket and jug for refilling with new water as those never come into contact with tank water.
Things like nets do get shared, but they are allowed to dry after use.

 

[Colin_T]

If you want to clean buckets, nets, etc, just wash them 3 times with hot soapy water and rinse them off (wash rinse, wash rinse, wash rinse) and let them dry in the sun for a day.

A brineshrimp hatcher should not need to be treated unless it was in the aquarium. Hot soapy water will clean that too.

If you want to be the crazy cleaning lady about it, pour some straight peroxide on a cloth and wipe everything down with that after you washed and dried it. Let the peroxide evaporate.
*NB* Try to wear rubber gloves when handling peroxide because it can damage the skin.

Anything plastic can be bleached. Just get a couple of bottles of household bleach and put all the plastic items in a bucket, add some bleach and water and leave it for an hour. Then rinse it all off with tap water and you're good to go.
*NB* Use bleach outside so you don't inhale the fumes, which can damage your lungs, sinuses and eyes.

I don't recall disinfecting my gravel cleaners when I dewormed my fish. I just hosed everything off after water changes and left it out in the sun to dry.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Anything plastic can be bleached. Just get a couple of bottles of household bleach and put all the plastic items in a bucket, add some bleach and water and leave it for an hour. Then rinse it all off with tap water and you're good to go.
*NB* Use bleach outside so you don't inhale the fumes, which can damage your lungs, sinuses and eyes.

The trouble @rebe was having, was getting hold of straight, unperfumed/unthinned, plain old thick original bleach. Not sure why, perhaps just her area in Ireland, it's usually the cheapest bleach and easily available in most every UK supermarket, I'd just warned her about not using ones that are lemon or pine scented, or thinned, because of the potential for chemical residue with those altered bleach products.

So without being able to use bleach, we were wondering about other alternatives - like I'd be tempted to use either pouring some boiling water over stuff (not glass themometers of course, since they'd shatter) or steam cleaning, since I have a little steam cleaner device with attachments that's useful for all kinds of household stuff, from windows to soft furnishings, etc.

Milton's baby steralising fluid has been suggested before too, but if I remember rightly, after some debate and @Essjay confirmed, turns out that stuff isn't safe for use when it comes to aquatic items either.

I don't recall disinfecting my gravel cleaners when I dewormed my fish. I just hosed everything off after water changes and left it out in the sun to dry.

I've used a diluted bleach solution to clean gravel vacs - and planning to do it again actually, a couple are getting mouldy inside again, since they rarely fully dry inside. I just submerge them in the bucket of diluted bleach to soak for a while, along with whatever else I'm bleaching out, rinse thoroughly, push water through it using the hose as well (and I know I'm fortunate to have an outdoor space with hosepipe, not all have, but it's handy if you do) then soak everything in triple-dosed declorinator for a while, before rinsing again.

Then once everything thoroughly rinsed and declorinated, I have the bucket of clean water on a higher surface, start suction using the old fashioned "suck the other end" and run fresh water through the gravel vac hose for a while, to be extra sure there's no traces of bleach solution within the hosing, and allow all to air dry fully before putting away or using again.

 

[MaloK]

If you can find potassium metabisulfite... It's actually a very good choice for its effectiveness and ease of rinsing.

You can get it at every home brewing supply store, and the effectiveness of the solution lasts a lot longer than chlorine.

 

[Colin_T]

if you cant find household bleach, get granulated swimming pool chlorine.

 

[Essjay]

Milton is just hypochlorite, perfectly safe for aquariums, just rinse with dechlorinated water after use. The reason I don't use Miltons is because it is expensive. I use cheaper versions of baby bottle cleaning liquid, the same things as Miltons but cheaper as a generic product instead of a brand.

Mediguard Sterilising Fluid 1L

Sterlise your baby's bottles and dummies with ease using this Sterilising Fluid from Mediguard. Allows you to sterilise in just 15 minutes - B&M Stores.

www.bmstores.co.uk

 

[rebe]

Thank you for your ideas and suggestions, they're appreciated!

 

[rebe]

Troclosene sodium, is it safe to use for sterilising aquarium equipment?

@Essjay Maybe you might know, as I remember you saying you studied chemistry?

I still haven't been able to find unscented bleach or bleach without soaps in it. At the moment I only have access to what I can order online, and even sterilisation tablets for baby bottles and chlorine for pools is hard to find, typically available only in large amounts and expensive.

 

[Essjay]

Do supermarkets/pharmacies not sell bottles of Milton baby bottle sterilising liquid where you are? Or some cheap non-branded alternative? I always keep a bottle of non-branded (it's cheaper) for use on things we use for our food.

I suppose you could use some other chemical, though I'd be wary of buying something like that on-line.