Should I clean my main fish tank completely?

Question

I just spent 5 days treating my main tank for body fungus. It didn't work on the 5th day the last two sick fish died. I still have four healthy fish in the quarntine tank that also was being treated just in case. Do I clean out the gravel and ornaments and empty all the water? Can I boil the gravel? First time fish owner please specific on what I should do.

Answer 1

I don't think that is necessary. First of all, there is always I REPEAT ALWAYS FUNGUS in dechlorinated fish water present.  It is a natural organism in dechlorinated water , its main job is to consume dead fish,rotting organisms so forth. The main question to ask yourself is this--Why is the fungus penetrating my fish??? Any time your fish looses its slime coat, this fungus bacteria will come into play as well as other diseases that take advantage of this lack of slime coat condition.

Where your fish lacking scales(injuries)

Was your ph to acidic?(Acidic water will burn your fishes slime coat-Some species tolerate low ph easy).

Is your dechlorinator working???

Some water resources add more chlorine during the summer or rainy months to drinking water---Higher temps-more bacteria in water. During the summer months I have to add twice as much dechlor to neutralize the chlorine and chloramines.

The redlines in your fishes tail could be from internal bacterial infections(septicemia) or from ammonia from the water supply.

Answer 2

maybe you should by new gravel they shouldn't just die like that

Answer 3

dont boil the gravel unless you want to go thru the "filter your tank for a week" stage.  let me ask you this.. did you remove the carbon out of the filter while treating the tank? if not the carbon neutralized the chemicals you treated with

Answer 4

No I wouldn't do that because you will destroy the bio filtration and have to start all over. Keep a close eye on you healthy fish because you treated the tank. Maybe the sick fish were just too far gone for help.  What kind of fish do you have, if tropical I would slowly raise the temp of the tank to at least 80 and add salt to kill off anything diseases.

Answer 5

scoop out the fish and clean the tank completely then use conditioner get the filter going for about an hour then put the fish back in and about the gravel just clean it