You can spray the tank with a permethrin solution like PAM. The mites will die as they try to cross it. Personally I wouldn't wait for the PAM, I would go to a drug or grocery store and get NIX so I could start treating today.
This document details how long each stage of the mite can survive without a blood meal.
http://denardo.lab.asu.edu/publicati...snakemites.pdf