What killed my fish??

La Reina

There is not a high enough concentration of chlorine in most tap water to kill broad spectrum bacteria. Do as jeaninel says. But, your cycling would have to begin right from scratch.

amazon21

so I looked at regular old bleach with no fragrances or anything. Just the regular stuff they sell at K-Mart. The ingredients say 5.4% chlorine, and 94.6% "other ingredients." Should I just go ahead and use the bleach?

PrettyKitty187

bleach it dude
just remember that however long you soak with the bleach solution you have to soak equally long with clean water to remove all bleach bits

and heat doesn't kill bacteria...well it does...but not heat in the ranges that will come out of a faucet...anything hot enough to kill the bacteria would probably also damage the tank imo

amazon21

okay. How much bleach should I mix in for a 29 gallon tank?

PrettyKitty187

normal ratio is 1 part bleach to 9 parts water per gallon

amazon21

3 gallons of bleach??

amazon21

So 3 gallons of the regular Clorox bleach that you can get in KMart, mixed with water, in my Aquarium for a couple of days should do the job, right.

PrettyKitty187

A few days might be overkill...soak for about four to six hours...that's how long it takes to kill staphlococci, streptococci, all other run of the mill cocci, bacilli, spirilla, etc. granted those are human bacterial infections but if four to six hours will take out mycobacterium fortuitum furunculosis then it should be enough to handle fish bacteria...just soak with fresh water as long as you soaked with bleach water afterwards to get all bleach out...so bleach four to six hours, fresh water four to six hours...

PrettyKitty187

oh yeah and don't forget your filter...have your filter attached and running to get the bleach through it because makes no sense to just kill off the aquarium ickies then use the same filter setup and hoses and whatnot and have it pump hidden bacteria right back into the water...

CaliforniaFishkeeper

I would be more careful and double the time I soak with fresh water...but that's just me.