How to Sterilize Equipment ?

[1nvad3r]

Hello all

I was wondering if anybody can recommend me a good product to sterilize all my equipment. Been trying to eliminate parasites on my fish they seem to just come back after awhile.Been Trying to treat with mild case of fluke i think, Fish are headshaking and flicking on the heater. I have seperate Qt tank to treat for diseases aswell.I feel like my main tank set-up is harboring the flukes. I have followed the Prazi Pro treatment but seems like they keep getting it. Fish are eating but i occasionally see flicking and headshaking.Med costs are getting expensive and its killing me to think that i could get another Discus with all the meds i spent buying :D Anyways thanks in Advance. Oh can anybody also reccomend me a good Carbon block :) my water has too much crap on it for discus.

thanks

Harv

[Eddie]

Excellent Fluke eliminator and very cheap. Bottle will last you ages. One thing I will point out, this product will kick your bio-filter pretty good so a good bacteria in a bottle will help after the treatments are done.

http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/240519/product.web

Decent bacteria in a bottle IMO, had success using it.

http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/241333/product.web


Eddie

[majik]

Hi there to sterilize equipment i have always used plain household bleach i just tip a bit in bucket and fill with water let it soak then rince really really well.
I have used pp (potassium permangate sp?) in the past and it works out really cheap to make a stock solution .Do a search on pp fot the flukes hope that helps some:)

Tanya

[SriAngel]

Harv,

Sorry about the issues my friend, the only advice i can offer you is the following. As Al calls flukes, the gift that keeps on giving, they are very resistant to short term treatments. Even if you steralize all your equipment you still have flukes being harbored by the discus themselves and they will eventually repopulate your tank. The only thing youve accomplished is to destroy your bio filter. Without the bio filter and without repeated daily water changes, the fish will be vulnerable to other things as a result of the stress from increased levels of ammonia and nitrites in the water. If you truly suspect flukes, preferentially by confirming the presence of flukes by doing a skin & gill scrape and observing under a microscope. The best treatment for flukes is daily treatments of praziquintel for 30 days. Sure fire way to kill them off. Prazi is safe for the biofilter, the only thing is i would buy the pure powder that treats 100 gallons per 1 gram, instead of the prazipro. Lastly i used to as a newbie suspect flukes because of fish flicking against the heaters and such. I did all sorts of treaments, and finally came to realize that you have to watch the bioload in my tanks. High protein content in your water from things like beefheart are breeding grounds for heterotrophic bacteria that will colonize on the slime of your discus. In my case it wasnt flukes i just had to maintain the bioload on the aquarium.

HTH,
Angel

[KDodds]

Discard all "soft" surfaces. This includes any porous materials like driftwood, silk plants, etc. The rest, clean/soak in a 4:1 water:bleach solution. This will kill flukes, ich, etc., and even the most stubbornly tenacious of bacteria.

[Don Trinko]

I also vote for bleach. After thourough rinsing you can add some declor to make sure you eliminate all the bleach. Make sure you use the cheap bleach with no addatives. Don T.