# Disaster



## FredericoAlves (Jan 5, 2013)

Hey guys, I haven't been around recently, and here are the news (not good):

My parents really are getting into this aquarium hobby, mainly because of my aquariums, they're great at the moment, and my parents are getting excited! So, as some of you know, my parents have a 10 gallon tank and it's doing great aswell, BUT, they got this new idea of setting up a new fish tank, in their bedroom, and so they did, bought another 10 gallon tank, a used one, from something like ebay. They asked me to get them a filter, heater and thermometer, when I went to their home last week. I got them a Eheim liberty 2041, and a simple heater and thermometer witch I don't even know the brand.
When I went there, we set up the tank, and I said to them to let it cycle for some weeks and then we think about fish (they wanted a little school of serpae tetras because they loved mines). The problem was that they were impacient and went to a local pet store near their home (witch in my opinion sucks in what comes to fish) and grabbed 5 serpaes because the lady at the store said they could handle a newly setup tank easily... the results were bad. Yesterday I went to their home and saw the biggest disaster i've seen yet. 4 of the serpaes had died, the other one was struggling to survive it's last minutes. The fish died of ich, the poor serpae was covered in tiny small white spots... and also, the tank was covered with some white strange stuff that I don't know what it is, it was in the glass, in the fake plants, everywhere (I think they overfed the fish, because I could still see some rests of flakes in the sand substrate). 
What I did was remove everything from the tank and let it dry in the sun (this i did with the filter parts, fake plants, heater and thermometer), but the tank is still with water and with white stuff in the glass and maybe in the substrate (can't see because it's like white sand).
My questions are: what should they do now? How to restart the tank in a healthy way? Does somebody know what the white stuff might be? NEED URGENT HELP


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## Manafel (Sep 4, 2011)

the white stuff could be any of a few things. a picture would help. regardless. I would take out all of the substrate, and wash it out. If you Just set the tank back up and do a fishless cycle, that should be long enough for the ich to die out. You will have to make sure that your parents understand that they need to be patient, and these things take time before they are ready. Teach them about the Nitrogen cycle, and how to properly feed their fish(how much to feed).


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## jamnigh (Apr 24, 2013)

When you set the tank up, try to make it a little warmer than you normally would for the fish, this will kill the ich off.


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## FredericoAlves (Jan 5, 2013)

I see, I will ask my parents to send me some pisctures of the white stuff and then I'll put them here. Washing the substrate will be a problem, they used a fine white sand that can go through almost everything, so washing it will not be easy... how high does the temperature need to go to kill the ich?


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

86 degrees will speed up the life cycle of ich but may not kill it alone.Like Manafel said if hey take the time to through fishless cycle the ich should die(without a host).If they get fish quickly again I'll bet the ich lives and finds new host.


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## Manafel (Sep 4, 2011)

normally Ich starts to die off in the 85-ish range. But, without any hosts, the parasites will die off. To wash the sand, dump it in a bucket with chlorinated water and swish it around a bit. It's about the best you can do with sand...


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## Donald Hansen (Jan 21, 2011)

Manafel said:


> normally Ich starts to die off in the 85-ish range. But, without any hosts, the parasites will die off. To wash the sand, dump it in a bucket with chlorinated water and swish it around a bit. It's about the best you can do with sand...


This brings up a question. Why can't you put the sand or gravel in a big pot of water and heat it up to 185 degrees for an hour or so. You could give the sand a good stir once in awhile. Or would it hurt the sand or gravel.

DLH


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## FredericoAlves (Jan 5, 2013)

Hmmm good point, I might try it out! Or has somebody tried it out with bad results?


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

I would think boiling to be safe ,but if you're going to go all that way then you need to drain and clean tank thoroughly.


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## FredericoAlves (Jan 5, 2013)

Yeah, maybe boiling would be enough!


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## Donald Hansen (Jan 21, 2011)

FredericoAlves said:


> Yeah, maybe boiling would be enough!


I didn't mention boiling because I thought that might be too harsh. They tell you to cook your food to 165 degrees to kill all the bugs so I thought that 185 degree would really do the trick.

DLH


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## Manafel (Sep 4, 2011)

For me boiling isn't really a viable option, and too much of a pain. I do not have a giant pot in which to boil all of my sand, and it seems like a waste of time and energy when the parasites will eventually die off anyway from the fishless cycle... If it was something serious enough to warrant me to boil it, I would rather soak it in a bleach and water solution. 
If if makes you feel better though, by all means, boil it lol


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