Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So, I had a fish die overnight in isolation. I net her out and consign her to the compost bin.

Now what?

I used the smallest net appropriate to make it easier to disinfect it. The Ice chest I was using for Isolation is also pretty easy to disinfect along with the air stone. I let the salty water that was in the isolation container run to waste and I moved the container away from the system a bit to wash it, the net, and the air stone/tubing with some bleach water.

I hate using bleach but I don't know what else to do disinfection with unless I use hydrogen peroxide.

Are there any suggestions out there about good housekeeping practices around systems that we generally don't want to sterilize. Like net dip practices? If you have to net out a really sick fish, how do you clean the nets and buckets used in treating or disposing of that fish?

Pretty much as you suggested TCL... bleach and/or Hydrogen Peroxide... or at least hot soapy water.....

Soak everything twice... then let sun dry.....

bleach works well.

no need to have dip buckets unless you have multiple seperate tanks and then it is probably a good idea.

Bleach / Pool chlorine (liquid hypochlorite) is fine!

Dilute it, maybe 100 mL per Litre!

Rinse the nets REALLY well afterwards (several times!) and maybe hang them somewhere for a time (rotate a few nets) before reintroducing them into another tank.

Metho (Methylated spirit) is very effective and probably easier to rinse off.

But may attack some types of plastic. (I use metho when cleasning glass aquariums and winemaking!)

Another option is Campden tablets (Sodium metabisulfite) that release Sulphur dioxide gas which is a (bleach). These are used in the food industry to stop fermentation, sterilize fruit juices. sterilization of baby bottles etc. etc.

Rinse well after!

I hope that this helps.

bleaching is a term that covers many chemicals
so is bleach

all chlorine products are bad for nature (except maybe salt)

hydrogen peroxide dissolves into water and oxygen
that makes it nature friendly

but don't spray it on your hair unless you want to become a blonde
which proves that hydrogen peroxide is a bleach

bleaching bedlinnen used to be done by thoroughly drying in the sun
I guess that would be quite efficient too

heat is another nature friendly way of disinfecting: use hot water or steam

frank

Mixing up some chlorine bleach in a bucket of water is easy for cleaning small nets.

What about big nets that won't fit in a handy bucket? I have a couple nets (for catching the big catfish and such) that are pretty big and I don't really have a good container to dip them in.

All of my nets ( and Gnash's ) live out in the sunlight - I would assume the all fish born bacteria / disease would require :

A - a fish
B - water

Remove both A + B, dry in the sun - problem gone?

The nets suffer from UV, but they are not really expensive when Gnash buys them for you

In that case I won't worry too much about the big nets unless I need to use it on a really diseased looking fish, in which case I'll spray it, rinse it and leave out in the sun. Most of my nets are hanging out by the system and therefor get a certain amount of sun each day anyway.

Had a brain moment

Homebrew shops sell a No-Rinse sterilizer. Add to spray bottle of water, voila, bacteria free nets.