What To Clean A Vacated Fish Tank With?

Hi guys,
I just noticed this morning that my goldfish which I had for 5 years got stuck in the filter last night and died. I'm actually sad because when you have a living thing in your house for 5 years, you get attached to it, even if it is a goldfish. Anyway , I'm not going to buy another fish for a while and I'm going to put the tank away. Do you guys know what I could clean and disinfect the tank with before I pack it up and put it away? I don't want it to become a haven for bacteria while it's being stored in my closet.

You do not need to disinfect the tank unless the fish was died of some kind of contagious disease or parasites. It unlikely the cause unless you have brought in a source for disease or parasites lately.

The fish itself was also dead for only a short amount of time. There wouldn't be any bacteria. You can just clean it with tap water before you put it away.

If your reason for not getting a fish any time soon is all because the concern for harmful bacteria, you might as well get a new fish right away before nitrogen cycle crush. In that case, you shouldn't even wash the tank with untreated tap water because chlorine will kill the good bacteria in the filter which keeps the nitrogen cycle going. If you have changed your mind on getting new fish, might as well just do two to three partial water change in a row before head out to get a new fish.

Thank you for all the information. You definitely know a lot about fish. My reason for not getting a fish any time soon is that my kid is extremely upset about the fish dying. We got that fish when she was 9 years old, and 5 years is a significant amount of time in a kid's life.
Even I'm upset because it feels weird to see the empty tank without our little guy swimming around. I'm too bummed out to buy another fish. We were already having a run of bad luck as a family, and this is just one more thing that went wrong. Thank you, though. I appreciate the advice. I guess I'll just use plain tap water to clean the tank.

The best way to cease the pain of losing a pet fish is to get another pet fish. Soon your kid will get attached to the new fish if you get one same specie with similar appearance to the old one.

How big was the tank by the way?
While 5 years might be ok for some fish, goldfish are known to have natural life span of decades. Find out the cause of the fish's death might help to get the next fish last longer.

I agree with both of the above to a certain extent. Whatever you do, don't clean it with bleach or anything. As said, there was no disease, so it'll be fine to just clean it out with plain water.

And as for being attached, I completely know the feeling. Been there, had fish for a really long time and then when they're gone.... it's a terrible loss. At the same time, getting fish again is okay, too. Instead of taking the tank down completely, maybe you should give it a little time and then explore a pet shop for some new fish. Instead of a gold fish, get something different so it's not like you're trying to replace the fish. Treat it like moving someone into a new home. It's part of life, ya know? And while you don't need to do it immediately, it would probably be nice to have some new companions for some time.

I was told by a friends that it's not a good idea to store an aquarium dry. Is that true? My friend said that if the aquarium was left dry for too long, the silicon seal would become dry too and crack which would make the aquarium leak.

I think it's a good idea to get another fish as soon as possible. That's the best way to get over the grief of the lost one. If you don't want another goldfish, how about an oscar? I had some before and they were very interesting.

(09-01-2012 09:26 AM)Ram Wrote:  The best way to cease the pain of losing a pet fish is to get another pet fish. Soon your kid will get attached to the new fish if you get one same specie with similar appearance to the old one.

How big was the tank by the way?
While 5 years might be ok for some fish, goldfish are known to have natural life span of decades. Find out the cause of the fish's death might help to get the next fish last longer.

We had a 20 gallon tank and the reason we had one goldfish in there is that I compulsively Google everything and I read that one goldfish needs a big tank because they get stunted if the tank is too small. In 5 years, our guy grew pretty big. Now I'm going to be wondering what I did wrong. We are having a brutally hot summer in Florida so I wonder if the temperature in his tank was too high. I never did anything special to control the water temperature, I always just left it up to the weather.

Hot summer alone isn't enough to kill the fish unless the tank was placed near a window where it can receive direct sunlight. On the other hand, the fish might die to sudden change of temperature if the water temperature was changed too sudden. Since fish are cold blood animals, they can't regulate their body temperature. Sudden change of temperature can shock them. One of the most common causes of fish deaths is when the fish owner change the water in the tank with too cold or too hot temperature. From my own observation on tropical fish, if the new water has a 6F or great difference compare to the tank water, the fish can get into shock. Goldfish might have a higher tolerance than tropical fish, but it can't be too different.

If the summer is hot there, then the tank water might be quite warm too. The tap water might not be as warm since the pipes often run underground where it is much cooler in the summer.

Have you done anything recently before the fish was dead?
Such as a change of water, or cleaning of the tank, or cleaning of the filter?