Clean tank?

[sierrawest]

Hi,
so we had sick fish in one of our tanks and eventully they all died off but what i am tring to figure out is what do i need to do to the tank before putting new fish in it? anything? we use bio balls also for filtering and i suppose those need to be replaced... but not really sure... any help greatly appreciated. the fish were sick with some sort of thing that caused the mouth to get deformed and they couldent eat and also they got blood spots on them...

[luke frisbee]

get all the sludge off of everything, let it dry out, and then whatever you can coat/cover with a solution of 9:1 water:good ol household bleach can be used again (even the bioballs)...i'd make sure the "stuff stayed coated in the solution for an hour...that should be overkill

[Terri]

Hello sierrawest, !welcome to the board.
Please take a moment and tell us about your tank(s)/filter(s) and what fish you keep..?

Luke's advice for the tank cleaning is pretty much what I would do.

Sounds like you had a case of mouth rot and ulcers. This is caused by bacteria. Typically ulcers(the red spots) begin with a parasite infection... but if the mouth rot came first then the bacterial infection spread to the main body(sepsis). Parasites may have been in effect but not necessarily,.. Mouth rot can be difficult to treat even under exceptional water conditions. What got your fish to that point..? Most likely poor water quality and/or over stocking.

[Jackie Ramo]

!welcome I agree with Terri, mouth rot can be a terrible problem to treat. I'd follow Lukes advice and bleach the tank before adding more fish. I am sorry that you had these problems.

Tell us about the tank set up. Maybe we can bounce some ideas around to help make it better.