Cleaning used equipment

[drew1092]

Hello everyone. Had a quick question about proper care of used equipment. I recently bought a UV sterilizer off a guy and he gave a bunch of shells for my hermits. I don't really know this guy or trust his cleaning methods. How would you go about cleaning the sterilizer and shells? Is it safe to use diluted bleach and then thoroughly rinse or vinegar? Thanks

[Seaweed88]

I use vinegar to clean the crud off of my equipment. I also use bleach to kill anything off of my equipment.

[Loverotties]

Vinegar and water should be enough for shells.

[mcashflash]

Originally Posted by drew1092

Hello everyone. Had a quick question about proper care of used equipment. I recently bought a UV sterilizer off a guy and he gave a bunch of shells for my hermits. I don't really know this guy or trust his cleaning methods. How would you go about cleaning the sterilizer and shells? Is it safe to use diluted bleach and then thoroughly rinse or vinegar? Thanks

I've always just used tap water when cleaning anything from my tank. I've been told that I should be cleaning things with pre-made saltwater, but, I don't bother to, and have been fine.

[crvz]

I use hose water and vinegar. Leave it over night in a bucket and any gunk will just wipe off. I wish I had taken pictures of my skimmer before I did this, but it went from completely purple to looking brand new in about 20 hours of running it in a vinegar solution. An easy 1 part vinegar to 10 parts water is fine, or even less if you have time to leave it soaking for longer. For the shells, I'd just dump them in the vinegar solution overnight as well.