Cleaning fish tank–anchor worms?
28 February 2010
6 Comments
Hello, my fish has acaquired those nasty little anchor worms. I have removed the anchor worms with a tweezer, and am doing a 100% tank clean. I'm washing the foliage and gravel with warm water and salt, etc.
How do i clean this tank?? It's 10 g, and i'm wondering what i should do? Salt? Vinegar? Soap and warm water?
How should i clean it to disinfect from the anchor worms and get all the algae off?
Suggestions much appreicated. Thanks so much!
Hi. I deffently wouldent wash your tank with soap and water heheh.to many chemicals for the fish. when I clean my tank I always use hot water like as hot as I can possibly stand to touch this seams to get rid of the algae really well. i just get hot water and a new sos pad or something simular. and since you have those nasty little anchor worms it’d be best if you could wash the filter and heater air hose and any plants and decorations if possible. id also try to keep a little bit of the exsisting water to put back in the tank if possible to help build up the proper bacterias that they need so your tank dont get too much amonia.
The very first thing I do is move the tank outside. It is possible to do a good cleaning indoors, but I find the task to be a lot less stressful if you can do it in the back yard. Once outside, I first like to give the tank a good rinse down with a regular garden hose and get any large debris, dirt, etc out of the tank. I then fill the tank up with water as if I were going to set it up. I will let the tank stand, filled for at least an hour or two. After the short wait, I will go to work cleaning. This is not an essential step, but it will help to loosen a lot of that stubborn stuck-on algae. I find this does a great job on tanks that have had algal growth and then sat dry for a long period of time. While keeping the water in the tank, I use an old rag or fairly hard sponge (make sure whatever you use has not come into contact with any kind of detergent) and wipe down all the glass and the seams. I will then drain out 80% of the water and continue scrubbing. I do not use any cleaners for this. If there is any particularly stubborn algae stuck on, a good razor blade can do wonders. Note: be careful with razor blades, they can easily cut up your silicone seals or scrape up the surface of an acrylic tank.
Once you have removed the stuck on mess, rinse the tank once or twice and make sure the water standing in the tank is clear. If it is still dingy, keep scrubbing and keep rinsing. After rinsing comes time to disinfect. For this, there are lots of methods which employ the use of chemicals that are expensive and sometimes difficult to obtain for the aquarist. I prefer to simply use bleach. Make sure you use regular, pure, unscented bleach though. What I do is fill the tank to the top again. I will then add bleach, slowly, stirring often, until the water has the smell of a fairly strongly chlorinated swimming pool. I will then let the chlorine water stand in the tanks for anywhere from 3-24 hours depending on how much time I have (the more the better in my opinion). Once they have sat, dump the water and rinse religiously. I will usually rinse each tank for a good 15 minutes. After this, I let them air dry.
When you put the tanks back into use, it is important to treat the tanks with a chlorine removing water conditioner. Even if you are one of the purists who does not believe in the use of chemicals, doing so will insure that any traces of chlorine have been removed. As I mentioned, this is not the only way to get the job done. But I have been doing this for years on my many tanks and have yet to find a better, quicker, cheaper way to do it.
Happy fish keeping!
use specal chemicals that will clean it
Use any antiparasitic medication to kill the eggs and larvae of the anchorworms in the water. I’ve used coppersafe/copper sulfate in the past, but anything that works against crustaceans or monogenetic flukes will work on the parasites. If you use any copper-based meds this will be harder on your plants, so you might want to look for something with ingredients other than copper.
As to algae, this needs light and nutrients to survive. Clean any larger objects by soaking them in a dilute bleach solution (1 part bleach to 19 of water) for 15 minutes, then rinse well before putting them back in the tank. For the glass, just scrape it well before you do a water change, and siphon out as much of the scrapings as possible (maybe do a little more than a 25% water change each week to get it all). I don’t recommend trying to "clean" your gravel, as this is where your beneficial bacteria reside, and if you remove them, your tank will cycle over again, leaving your fish vunerable to possible ammonia and nitrite poisoning.
Extra, or somewhat larger, water changes will also help with nutrient control. Be sure to vacuum any fish feces and food out of the gravel, as these decompose to eventually form nitrate, which is a plant and algae fertilizer. If you use any fertilizers for your aquatic plants, temporarily stop using them until you get the algae under control.
You can leave the lights off in the tank for a few days without harming your plants, but eventually, they’ll need to have some light unless you can set them up in a separate container for a while. Be sure no direct or bright indirect light is reaching your tank – if it is, you may need to move the tank, or at least use a tank background or something to block the light. Once you’ve done a few water changes to remove nutrients, siphoned out most of the scraped algae, and had the light off for a few days, turn it back on, but leave it on for an extra hour or two (no more than 14 hrs per day). While light causes algae to grow, it also makes your plants grow, and plants are better at removing the nutrients from the water, so they compete with the algae for food, slowly starving them.
If the problem still persits, you might want to add a phosphate absorbing pad (available at pet stores) to your filter, or use reverse osmosis water to reduce nitrate and phosphate is either is found in your tap water.
As for cleaning your tank, I recommend washing everything out with a solution of potassium permanganate. It will kill everything so make sure you rinse well afterward.
Please know that a massive cleaning like this will completely kill off your beneficial bacteria. You will need to fully cycle the tank again before returning your fish. In its weakened condition exposure to high levels of ammonia and nitrite will most likely be fatal. I recommend moving your fish to a hospital tank for about a month while the tank completes its cycle.
Not really the answer to your question – but I wanted to give you the heads up that your fish is very susceptible to bacterial infection at this point. Anchor worms bury deep into the muscle of a fish. Removing them without killing them first can cause severe injuries to your fish. You’ll want to quarantine this fish until you are sure he’s in the clear. If he does end up getting a bacterial infection you will know, it will be very easy to spot.
first what sort of fish do you have,,,,,,if they are goldfish or cold water fish,,,,,,take the fish out and leave in a buckett for a couple of days with the air on,,,,,now take the tank out and clean it with water only,,,clean the gravel and plants,,,,re- set up your tank and put a heater in it ,turn the heater up to about 85 deg with all plants in,,,,now add some condys cystals,,,,about half a teaspoon,,,,this will turn the water brown,,,it might burn your plants back a bit ,but its ok,,,,,leave all filters runing for about 2 days,,,,,,,,,now remove the heater or turn it down to normal temp,,,leave for 1 day and add your fish as normal,,,,after 2/3 days remove half the water and replace with fresh water,,,,,,keep your filters clean,,,,,this should sovle the problem,,,,i have been breeding fish for over 25 years and this is what i do,,,,,i hope this helps
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