Everything Died

[sptfyre51]

I have a 30 gallon FOWLR tank. Recently my son found some large lava rock he wanted to add to the tank. He decided it would be a good idea to soak them in bleach over night (when talking (once i cooled off) with him later he said he thought if he just washed them off a whole bunch of times all the bleach would be washed off and it would be fine). Then what do you know all my fish died within a week and I am not very happy about it. At this point what do I need to do to make it so I can add fish again? Is it simply changing out all of the water or are the lava rocks forever going to put off bleach residue and kill all future fish so I should get rid of them?

 

[trigger40]

well if i wher you i would take the rocks out to start with.

 

[sptfyre51]

Nothing is alive in my tank at this point so whether the rocks remain in there right now or not wouldn't matter much. I'm wondering what I need to do before adding more fish. Are those rocks now going to kill any fish I ever put in there or will a water change be sufficient?

 

[trigger40]

i used to do the same hing to clean my rocks for my cichlid tanks and they wher fine. what is your ph, nitrate, and all that good stuff. or it might just be ther is something in the rock

 

[sptfyre51]

What could be on the rock that could kill all the fish that bleach would not have killed? I checked the water levels a couple days before the first fish died and everything was fine. I didn't notice one fish had died for a couple days so there was a little bit of an ammonia spike, but I was doing 30% water changes daily and water testing daily until it remained at 0.

 

[jay0705]

Yes bleach prob soaked so far in the rock rinsing wouldnt get it out. Take the rocks out. Take all the water out refill. Toss any filter media

 

[sptfyre51]

That's what I was worried about. Will those rocks forever cause problems or now that they've been in my tank for a bit now the bleach would wash out?

 

[jay0705]

I wouldnt trust them to go back

 

[geridoc]

The rocks can be fixed, literally. Go to a photography store and purchase some hypo neutralizer, Make it according to the directions, and soak the rocks in it for an hour or so, then rinse liberally. Hypo neutralizer will inactivate any bleach residue that rinsing did not remove. You could also try dechlorinator, but I have always used hypo neutralizer since the days when I ran my own photo lab. Depending on how much bleach was introduced into the tank you might have to re-cycle the tank since you might have lost the bacteria.

 

[sptfyre51]

Thank you. I didn't even think about the bacteria in the tank and needed to recycle the tank. I will probably do that just to be safe.

 

[sptfyre51]

Also I have more of the lava rock that was found, but was never soaked in bleach. What would I need to do before they would be ok to go into the tank?

 

[jay0705]

Define lava rock? Not to be a wet blanket but generally there only a few good types of rock for sw

 

[sptfyre51]

It is typical lava rock. There are a lot of pores in the rocks. Some of them do not have a lot of pores, but I do not plan on using those rocks because I've heard rocks need to be porous to be used in a salt water aquarium

 

[2quills]

You could pick up a chlorine/bleach test kit from the pool store or local home depot and test your water to see how high it is.
It might be best to pull everything out and let it soak outside in the sun for a couple of weeks while doing a couple of water changes.

 

[jay0705]

Yea generally I believe lime stone is popular. Alot of lr is lime stone

 

[pegasus]

IF I was planning to use those rocks again, I would pressure wash them and then let them dry in the sun for a week. THEN, I would soak them in de-chlorinated fresh water for a week. After a week, I'd test the Chlorine level of the water. If Chlorine is present, add a few drops of de-chlorinator. Wait another week, and check level. Most bleaches are made from Chlorine, and it may take a long time for the Chlorine to leech out of the rocks, so it will take patience. Once Chlorine levels have remained zero for a week, then you can begin the saltwater "curing" process. If your tank has already cycled by the time the lava rocks are ready to begin curing in saltwater, you should cure the rocks in a separate container using water from your tank's last water change (so you don't waste salt). You can do it in the tank with no fish, but it may cause a mini-cycle in the tank. Not likely... but possible. Personally, I would rather use limestone than lava rock, as limestone (a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate (CaCO[sub]3[/sub]). Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera) leeches trace amounts of calcium into the water and also helps stabilize Ph. Jut my 2c worth...

 

[flower]

Just jumping in...but if I had a rock kill off everything in my tank...I would never use it in any of my tanks again. I wouldn't even like the looks of the rock because of all the bad memories. I just don't get why in the world you want to salvage it...JMO

 

[sptfyre51]

If it is salvageable why not? But after reading how lava rocks can sometimes have high iron levels, which can kill off everything in my tank I'm not going to consider keeping them in the tank just to be safe. I'll have to look into limestone thanks for the help and suggestions from everyone!

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by sptfyre51 http:///t/397460/everything-died#post_3542900
If it is salvageable why not? But after reading how lava rocks can sometimes have high iron levels, which can kill off everything in my tank I'm not going to consider keeping them in the tank just to be safe. I'll have to look into limestone thanks for the help and suggestions from everyone!


LOL...Because of the bad memories, salvageable or not, I wouldn't want to look at the cause of my tank crash everyday.