It's cheaper, durable and less space to store. The crystals can be easily dissolved in a jar of hot water and added to a tank of cooler water or a receptical.
Some people would prefer using the much safer potassium permanganate solutions. They do stain
though and may not be as irrevocable in cleaning germs and algae from equipment.
Please note that any bleaching is done outside over a cement floor. The car port is well ventilated. If something spills, a little dirt is oxidized. Nothing in the house (unless some unbelievably thoughtless person tracks something in) will get hurt. The odds of personal injury (both from the bleach and/or one's spouse) are considerably reduced.
Probably cementing my reputation with the neighbors as a gonzo aquarist has been the establishment of two trash cans in the car port, just outside a fishroom door. Having seen leaks open couple of regular plastic 32 gallon trash cans, I broke down and bought an industrial strength can, "the Brute" by Rubbermaid or who-ever owns them now.
My bride was stunned by the price of that trash can. I observed that it was so durable that it would probably outlive me. She agreed with the likelyhood that there was an increasingly good chance that it would out live me. ;)
That can is filled 3/4s via the hose. Three gallons of generic, on sale, non-scented bleach are then carefully poured in (while the pourer wears old tattered blue jeans, ragged tennis shoes and a white t-shirt). The bleach cans are rinsed, the rinse water is poured into the "bleach vat" and the cans are recycled.
A laundry sink and a vinegar container are just inside a nearby door in case some bleach splashes
into one's face or something vital. I've never had to dive under the faucet to irrigate my eyes or splash vinegar (a mind acid to neutralize the much stronger base) on the face. The worse that has happened is having to put vinegar on a suddenly discovered cut and proceeding to smell like a dill pickle until showering.
The other can, a 32 gallon "Roughneck", is filled with the hose. A small quantity (maybe 2-3 cm squared) of sodium thiosulphate is dissolved by swirling it in a jar of hot water and adding it to the water in the can. It should last the summer.
Both containers must be covered when not in immediate use. The sun and weather will dissipate
those solutions otherwise.
A ten gallon tank, often filled with glass and plastic items in need of cleaning, is carefully lowered in. The can's top is replaced. The tank and contents are left for at least a few hours, better a day.
Don't leave something soft like a sponge filter in there for more than a few minutes. They can be
left until their color changes, then immediately squeezed out, rinsed in the laundry sink and soaked in a vinegar or chlorine removing solution.
Almost inevitably, while waiting for a sponge filter to cleanse, the phone will ring. Part way through the conversation, memory of the poor sponge will return and the other party on the phone will marvel at the muttered phrase,
"elephant snot!"
The next day (usually) after everything was dumped into the bleach, it is carefully pulled out and left to drain onto the inverted trash can top. The collection is then reassembled and lowered into the s.t. solution and left from an hour to a day and removed for rinsing and sun drying.
If you don't need to try all that, setting a tank on cement blocks or the floor in the garage or in a shaded area ourside and filling it with a 10 parts water, 1 part bleach will do fine. (That ratio is good, safe overkill by the way.) After a day so, empty the bleach into a bucket and dispose down the laundry sink (it cleans toilets nicely too). Neutralize with one of the items mentioned above.
Perhaps those things could be left in the sun too. Don't leave plastics out too many days. They get brittle and break more easily.
Yesterday was fine (70 degrees F, water 60 degrees) for removing a pile of "stuff" and sliding a ten gallon tank, et al, into the bleach.
It was ok for rinsing off the items from the dechlorinating can, hosing down and letting them air dry out side. Today the temperature is approaching freezing. It is brutal removing a very slippery tank from the bleach water.
By the way, if one's grasp is lost, let go. A tank is cheaper to replace than payment for treatment at an emergency room or risking a life threatening slash on the arm.
That may seem silly to bring that up. But I know a person who reflexively reached for a sliding tank in a situation which had nothing to do with tank cleaning. She was gravely cut in a life threatening situation. Months of healing and physical therapy followed.
Meanwhile, I'm re-asserting that reputation as an eccentric with the neighbors. Following this blurb, more aquarium equipment will get cleaned today while some idiot is scrambling around in a t-shirt. But with November winds bearing down, the operation will have to be broken down for the winter quite soon.
If something remains to be sterilized, one will recall the classic rallying cry of the Chicago Cubs fans.
"Wait until next year!"
Immediate Help
