Best way to sterilize a QT?

Oldsalt01 · Sep 24, 2015

I lost both my new captive-bred Ocellaris this week after battling some sort of infection. Not sure what it was. I had assumed flukes, because they both stopped eating about 4 days after I bought them, started hanging out near the water's surface, breathing rapidly and gradually losing their color. I did 2 FW dips, 2 days apart and treated with Prazi, but once they stopped eating it was pretty much a wash. Other than a slowly rotting pectoral fin on one of them neither one showed any signs of infection, besides the ones described above. My lfs suggested an ammonia spike, but none of the test kits (including lfs') I used suggested even a hint of an ammonia spike (it was 4 weeks old cycled with a shrimp and seed rock from mt DT. My QT is a 5g Marineland Eclipse Portrait and now I need to sterilize it before I can start the process all over again. I'm thinking dump the saltwater, fill with RODI, and run it with a 5% bleach solution for a day. Pull the small hunk of seed rock, boil it to ensure sterility and drive off the bleach, scrub the AIO section and start over. Any other suggestions?

miyags · Sep 24, 2015

Never boil live rock!!!. Rinsing your tank and rock in fresh water should kill everything.

DeniseAndy · Sep 24, 2015

Yep, fill it with fresh water (not ro/di as not needed). Let it sit for 24 hours minimum. Drain it. If you have rocks, let them dry out now (after soak in fresh). Refill with salt and you are ready to go.

Humblefish · Sep 24, 2015

Since it's just a 5 gal; I would take it outside, soak everything in a mild vinegar/water solution, rinse thoroughly and then let everything air dry for a few days. That process should eliminate any leftover pathogens.

lyrical · Sep 24, 2015

Good info.

mfinn · Sep 24, 2015

Tap water and bleach.
For a biological filter for you qt tank, I would find a small air driven sponge filter and put it in the sump of you display tank for 2-3 weeks, let it populate with bacteria.
Works very well. Cheap.

DeniseAndy · Sep 24, 2015

mfinn said:
Tap water and bleach.
For a biological filter for you qt tank, I would find a small air driven sponge filter and put it in the sump of you display tank for 2-3 weeks, let it populate with bacteria.
Works very well. Cheap.

I do this also. Good way to get bacteria in the system immediately.

Kworker · Sep 24, 2015

What some suggest is too much unnecessary work IMO.

Drain the tank. Get paper towel and cover it with white vinegar and wipe down the entire inside of the tank with vinegar, then let the tank air dry for 48+ hours for assurance. Just letting the tank dry for 48+ hours should be sufficient in itself.

Thats always been my procedure for my QT's. I find draining a tank, filling it with fresh water than draining it again is completely unnecessary.

I've always like the sponge in your display tank sump and using that as your biofilter in QT. Just don't reuse the same sponge, toss it when you are done with the QT process.

Toss out the rock you had in there before.

Humblefish · Sep 24, 2015

^^All of the above should work fine. I just caution when using bleach to make sure you rinse thoroughly afterwards, and then let air dry thoroughly to ensure any chlorine residue has evaporated. Whatever is left should break down chemically into salt.

Oldsalt01 · Sep 24, 2015

Relax. The "live" rock started as "dry" rock, no zoas, palys, etc to worry about. I've boiled lb's of the stuff and never had an issue. It's THE certain way to completely sterilize it and if you know what's up, completely safe. but I DO like the idea of the vinegar bath followed by air drying, so I think I'll take that road. The chloromine and phosphate loads here in Florida are pretty high pretty and that's why I thought RODI might be the best way to go. But I'd rather save my RODI for top-off. A 5% solution of bleach/water is sufficient to kill just about anything it comes up against, except for some pretty radical virus's but is dilute enough to disappear with sun exposure. Still I like the vinegar idea better. Less toxic and easier to work with. I already have a sponge and some more small live rock cooking in my DT, so when I'm ready I'll just pop them in. Been "cooking" them since I started the QT cycling, just in case what happened, did. Comes from my days as a boy scout - 7 "P" rule: Prior Preparation Prevents tick Poor Performance, Period!" Thanks for the suggestions.

abecker · Sep 24, 2015

Has anyone used anything like Star San to sterilize the QT tank after use? It is usually used in brewing but wasn't sure if it would work well in this application instead of bleach.