HELP! Accidentally added chlorine to tank!

midas man

midas man

New Member
My son accidentally added some chlorine water to our tank. I rotate between 2 freshwater refill bottles that we fill from our filtered/RO system. I clean the bottles, every other time, with a 'splash" of bleach and tap water. Then rinse A BUNCH and leave out in the sun to dry completely. One of these bottles found there way into our 90 gallon saltwater tank. I found out after 10 minutes and proceeded to add 8 cap fulls of Prime to the water. An hour later we bought 40 gallons of distilled water, added salt and did a water swap. We have a fish only tank. We lost 3 Damsels within the first hour. What is left is one Engineer Goby (8" long), 2 False Perculas (2" ea.), one Vlamingi Tang (5") , Chocolate Chip starfish and a few hermit crabs. One False Percula is hanging out on the bottom and breathing real fast. The Vlamingi Tang is wedged behind a rock, upside down, motionless but breathing. The other critters seem to be OK so far. What can I expect and is there anything else that can be done???
 
midas man

midas man

New Member
Thanx for the responses so far...I had carbon in the sump area before the incident. I let it go for about an hour and then swapped it out with a cup of new stuff.
 
midas man

midas man

New Member
I added about 4x the recommended amount of Prime to the system immediately. I think that should be enough. There wasn't that much chlorine in the water that was added.
 
S

siptang

Guest
you should be fine. I will keep my fingers crossed for ya.
 
midas man

midas man

New Member
Thanks for all the support! I was wide awake at 4:30 this morning so I decided to drive to work to check on the tank. I think the healthy looking Goby, one False Percula and the starfish are doing the best. The other Percula and the Tang look stressed and immobile. I also started another 40gal water swap that I will do on Monday. Crossing fingers!! Question though??? How should I proceed with getting the tank ready for more fish? Should I be worried about the bio balls and good bacteria? I'm thinking that I should treat it as if I am cycling a new tank. Get the chemicals right, put some Damsels in and monitor the tank for about a month. Suggestions!?
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member

Welcome to to the site..sorry it's for such a nightmare reason. I have no advice..LOL... unless it's don't replace the damsels and get some nicer fish becuse they grow up to be so mean. The ones who responded gave you good advice already for what to do. Me..I would have put all the fish into a tub with fresh SW and then ask for what I could do to get the tank up to usable. I'm so paranoid of bleach that I don't use it for anything even near my tanks.
Anyway, I have used 5g jugs for many years and I have never rinsed the jug with bleach or anything else, the only thing in the jugs are RO water. So I guess I'm asking why you clean them with bleach to begin with?
 
S

siptang

Guest
How big is your tank again?
too much water change might stress out fish even more.
 
midas man

midas man

New Member
The tank is 90 gallons. The only fish that I have left is one False Percula and the Engineer Goby. The Starfish and hermit crabs seem to be doing well also. Our fish have never gotten stressed during any water swaps. Most of them would eat out of our hands. If ya fed them, they were happy. That being said, we just did another 40 gallon swap today. Everything is eating really well except the Goby. He has always been skittish and usually feeds at night. I think I will just monitor the tank chemicals for the next few days. Then maybe get in some inexpensive damsels and see how things go.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Midas Man http:///forum/thread/385805/help-accidentally-added-chlorine-to-tank#post_3385698
The tank is 90 gallons. The only fish that I have left is one False Percula and the Engineer Goby. The Starfish and hermit crabs seem to be doing well also. Our fish have never gotten stressed during any water swaps. Most of them would eat out of our hands. If ya fed them, they were happy. That being said, we just did another 40 gallon swap today. Everything is eating really well except the Goby. He has always been skittish and usually feeds at night. I think I will just monitor the tank chemicals for the next few days. Then maybe get in some inexpensive damsels and see how things go.
There ya go..tank chemicals...what are the test results or have you even done any? I'm starting to think you may be playing around...what is your ammonia reading? at this point it doesn't sound like you ever even bothered. On top of it all you just dump stuff in the tank...4Xs the right amount of prime saying that should be enough.... Now your talking about getting some more damsels to see how things go...say what????
You never answered my question...why put bleach in a bottle that only held pure RO water every other time you use it? You say you splash some bleach and rinse a bunch then leave it out to dry in the sun. If you used such a bottle no way would it poison your fish like you said.
 
clown-keeper99

clown-keeper99

Member
You will have to do 40gal. water changes at lest 6 times before you will get anywere close back to normal
That's how many water changes I did before I removed enough Red Slime remove to get my tank back in line
I would change the water at lest 6 more times and then let the system sit for at least 2 months before adding anything
 
old hickory

old hickory

Member
Flower,
Ease up. When people are asking for help, you don't need to kick them while they're down with an air-of-superiority attitude. You must remember the knowledge of the posters on here range from the expert to the novice. Treating the novices poorly only hurts the site, since they won't come back and others are too intimidated to ever post. If you want to be a big fish in a small pond--then fine.
Off my soapbox.
~Old Hickory
 
S

siptang

Guest
40g change in 90 g??? 6 times in a row??? for chlorine???
I do hope that I'm wrong...
I mean this is salt water tank is it not??
I just never heard of that big of water change and so frequently.
I mean, replacing carbon and prime and small water change. (15~20%) Should do the trick.
I was told by my marine biology professor that huge changes are not good for confined space and the eco system that is within.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Siptang http:///forum/thread/385805/help-accidentally-added-chlorine-to-tank#post_3385906
40g change in 90 g??? 6 times in a row??? for chlorine???
I do hope that I'm wrong...
I mean this is salt water tank is it not??
I just never heard of that big of water change and so frequently.
I mean, replacing carbon and prime and small water change. (15~20%) Should do the trick.
I was told by my marine biology professor that huge changes are not good for confined space and the eco system that is within.
I'm with you Siptang,
To be honest I don't believe OP is anything but a troll. Who puts a splash of bleach in a clean RO bottle every other time they fill the jug? Also the guy says he splashes bleach them rinses a bunch and puts the bottle out to dry in the sun. He didn't say he soaked the bottle in bleach, just splashed it in there and right away rinsed it...so how did using such a bottle do any real harm if it was rinsed a bunch of times? Then instead of taking an ammonia test for spikes which is what happens if things are dying, he dumps 4Xs the amount needed of prime and does a 40% water change, then says he is going to get a couple of damsels to see how it goes. No mention of changing out the carbon as instructed or even bothering to test.
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
I'm a little confused as to how the chlorine (bleach) actually got into the tank as well. Maybe there is a part of the story that I'm missing. Flower, he's not a troll, he's been a member for almost 3 years, but also did not post until recently.
Anyways ....
IMO, you added WAY too much Prime, and this probably did more damage than the small amount of chlorine that may have been added if I'm following your story correctly. Prime, although it is a great dechlorinator, also greatly decreases the oxygen exchange in the water and adding that much could have made things worse. It would be in your best interest to do daily water changes and change out carbon daily for the next week to ten days, or until readings are back to normal. I actually agree with Flower here on removing the remaining critters, I would definitely get them into a bucket/rubbermaid bin of some sort until the tank is stable.
Please don't use damsels as your test to make sure the tank is stable again. Chemical tests should be able to tell you this on their own. If you're that concerned about the biofiltration being effected, remove all your critters, do as large of a water change as you can and throw a raw cocktail shrimp in and cycle the tank that way. There are threads here as well as all over the internet in how to cycle a tank using a cocktail shrimp.
 
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