Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i want to soak my king snake and sand boa cage in water with bleach but there are heater on the cages is it ok to take them them off and them put them back on.

thanx
jjd

There's no real need to submerge the tank. Filling a tank and then trying to dump it can break the aquarium.

I'm picturing stick on glass under tank heaters. Is this correct? In most instances you don't want tank heaters to be permanently stuck INSIDE the tank because it makes it impossible to really clean it.

Bleach isn't the best cleaner. It's great at killing stuff, but bleach residue can kill your pet too. My vet is more worried about the direct effects of bleach related deaths than he is an incompletely sanitized cage.

If you do use bleach, make sure you use a diluted solution and get it on every surface. Let it soak there for about 10 minutes to kill anything. IF you have junk stuck to the tank, the bleach can't kill what's under it. So, I always use a soaped up scrubby pad first. Once you're done with the bleach cleaning, rinse that tank many many times. If you can smell bleach on the tank, it may not be good enough. It wouldn't hurt to put some aquarium dechlorinator in the water and really swish it around too.

Now, you can greatly reduce the risk of bleach cleaning by properly using chlorhexadine (generic version of nolvasan). This stuff should kill just as well as bleach and it rinses out way easier. If you look for the generic version, it shouldn't cost you much, even shipped. I accidentally bought actual Nolvasan for I think ~$25/gallon shipped. Chlorhex is about half that price. That bottle lasted me ~4 years and it finally hit the expiration date. Use chlorhex the same way you would clean with bleach (described above).