What are some really good cleaning methods?

[cliffordsmom]

I recently lost one of my males to a rapidly spreading mystery disease. He was quarantined for about a week before he died this morning, but I'm a little concerned that there might be undetected contagions in the water that could harm the male that was sharing the tank beforehand. I'm going to remove the divider in the tank shortly and give Cato access to the whole tank. I want to get rid of every trace of my other fish.

Are there any really good, effective ways to clean things?
In the past, I've just been rinsing and wiping down with hot water.

[shellieca]

Sorry about your loss. If the two were sharing a divided tank then your remaining Betta has most likely already been exposed if it had been something contagious. You can empty the tank & clean everything with a bleach solution, not sure of the ratio but I believe its 20:1 water:bleach, there's a thread about it on here somewhere. The only bad thing is if your tank is cycled it won't be after this because if you believe what your Betta had could infect the remaining one you'll also want to get rid of any filter media. That's my thinking, someone else may think differently.

[cliffordsmom]

Good thinking. I really should have done this awhile ago, but I didn't know how serious things were getting until yesterday. My assumption is that it was dropsy. He had the swollen eyes, grayness, and pineconing- but no other symptoms. It was pretty hard to diagnose.

He's been out of the tank for a week, and Cato hasn't been exhibiting any signs of illness.

Unfortunately, I'm stranded on a college campus and am without bleach. Are there any other common household items that may work?

[shellieca]

I'm not sure how well it would santize but people use Vinegar to clean tanks & stuff with. What do you have at the dorm?

[cliffordsmom]

Basically nothing...I could ask around though.

I have Clorox disinfecting wipes, but that has more than just bleach...so who knows.
Some vodka, but I can't imagine that would be helpful.
I guess that's about it.

I'm more worried about the ornaments and silk plants that he rested on so often. Should I possibly boil those?

[cliffordsmom]

Oh, also! I have a moss ball that was in his side of the tank. Is there a chance that it could have absorbed something yucky?