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Clearing plants of a baterial infection

billy boy

Member
Joined
22 Sep 2008
Messages
272
Location
wick. scotland
Having almost lost all my crs to some form of bacterial disease, How would i go about making the tank,filter and plants safe to use again?

I have read on a few sites to leave the tank and filter to dry out or to boil what you can but clearly cant do either to plants and would hate to lose them as well.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Cheers
 
Some bacteria are incredibly resistant.
2 hours in a bleach solution should do it.
It might need to be so strong that it damages plants though.
 
Hi all,
Having almost lost all my crs to some form of bacterial disease, How would i go about making the tank,filter and plants safe to use again?
I'd just leave the tank running without any shrimps in it. Whatever your bacteria was it is unlikely to persist without any shrimps. If you have other crustaceans in the tank (Asellus, Ostracods, Daphnia etc), I'd remove them, otherwise I'd just leave it set up and running for ~3 months.

cheers Darrel
 
Hi all, I'd just leave the tank running without any shrimps in it. Whatever your bacteria was it is unlikely to persist without any shrimps. If you have other crustaceans in the tank (Asellus, Ostracods, Daphnia etc), I'd remove them, otherwise I'd just leave it set up and running for ~3 months.

cheers Darrel
Was hoping to get going faster than 3 months but it's one way of saving the plants. Will just completely strip the tank and filter and wash the plants and wood under hot water and leave it running.

Is there not a broad spectrum bacterial killer lol thats safe for plants that i could leave running in the tank?

Cheers
 
I
how did you diagnose this?

Shrimp forums suggest
Seachem ParaGuard - dose daily for 7 days (preferably with water changes ... )
Sera antibacterial product (sorry don't recall which)
Furanol
I tried two 10 day doses of paragaurd with no success, Then spotted the black spots on the shells of the dead shrimp so after some searching came up with Chitinolytic bacterial disease which on some sites people get rid of it by using Levamisole which as a last resort i just dosed the tank tonight, So fingers crossed. Probably have lost over 100+ taiwan bees now :(
 
Hi all,
Sorry to hear that, it is a really difficult situation, and I don't know what the best approach is.
Was hoping to get going faster than 3 months but it's one way of saving the plants. Will just completely strip the tank and filter and wash the plants and wood under hot water and leave it running. Is there not a broad spectrum bacterial killer lol thats safe for plants that i could leave running in the tank?
Personally I wouldn't treat the tank with anything, or attempt to sterilize the filter or wood etc, if you are going to keep the plants. If it is a pathogenic bacteria it is unlikely to survive without a host. Unfortunately your surviving Bee shrimps are by the far most likely source of any renewed infection.

Sterilization is really an "all or nothing" approach, because bacteria are incredibly difficult to get rid off. If you don't mind losing the plants, you could use a biocide (domestic <"sodium hypochlorite> bleach" is a good one) to clean up all your substrate, filter material, tank, hard-scape etc.

A solution of 20% bleach will kill absolutely everything, and after rinsing you can neutralise any residual chlorine with a <"sodium thiosulphate based water conditioner">.

If you don't want to use bleach, a "pressure cooker" will get hot enough to steam sterilize your hard-scape (labs. use an <"autoclave">).

The problem for me is that by the time you've got the new plants established, and the filter functioning etc you will have spent the three months you would have waited anyway, with no guarantee of success.

cheers Darrel
 
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