Bleach, F10, Chlorahexadine

What are the safety concerns with regular bleach (5% solution)? Personally I hate bleach, the smell the toxicity etc, but never tried the dilute for my tank - is there a compelling reason to use the more expensive stuff?

I use chlorhexidine for routine tub maintenance and other surfaces, even use it on my animals when needed.

Bleach is used when animals transitioned to a new tub, each time a snake changes tub (upgrade or female getting a new tub after she lays) it goes in a tub that has been bleached.

I also bleach water bowls once a month, in between for regular maintenance I use chlorhexidine.

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Originally Posted by Deborah

I use chlorhexidine for routine tub maintenance and other surfaces, even use it on my animals when needed.

Bleach is used when animals transitioned to a new tub, each time a snake changes tub (upgrade or female getting a new tub after she lays) it goes in a tub that has been bleached.

I also bleach water bowls once a month, in between for regular maintenance I use chlorhexidine.

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Thank you for the thorough explanation. May I ask why you use the two products differently in the way that you do? If the beach is sufficient for tank changes, then why not for regular maintenance as well? Of course I suspect it's because the bleach is a harsher chemical, although I have never tried the 5% diluted form, but even at that level is there is safety risk for the animals that relegates it to be used only when a tank is being completely emptied?

Even when diluted, disinfectants like bleach and ammonia (which is the only disinfectant that will kill crypto BTW, bleach does not) require a lot of rinsing and airing out before I'd consider the enclosure safe for use again. F10 and chlorhexidine, diluted appropriately, won't hurt your critter even if not completely rinsed away so they're appropriate for daily use and spot cleaning.

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Originally Posted by dkatz4

Thank you for the thorough explanation. May I ask why you use the two products differently in the way that you do? If the beach is sufficient for tank changes, then why not for regular maintenance as well? Of course I suspect it's because the bleach is a harsher chemical, although I have never tried the 5% diluted form, but even at that level is there is safety risk for the animals that relegates it to be used only when a tank is being completely emptied?

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Because during routine clean up water dish and tubs are associated to the same snake at all time, any time a new/other tub is assigned to a new/other snake, I want to make sure everything has been bleached completely.

It is a harsher chemical so I would not use bleach on a regular basis however in the cases I mentioned above I always do.

The key with bleach is to rinse well and let whatever you bleach dry out properly.