rnanfito
New Member
I have been setting up a marine aquarium for the first time (all new equipment), and I have a problem that I need advice on. I was cycling the tank, everything was going great, looking reall cool, then I made a rookie mistake. I grabbed an available pitcher and was adding some salt water to top off the tank, and was horrified to find out that there was some residual soap in the pitcher I used! The water bubbled slightly at the filter - and there were bubbles on the new bio-wheels. Thank goodness there were no fish involved (yet). If soap kills fish, as I have see in many forums, how drastically do I have to dismantle and clean my new setup before it is ready for fish? I'm not looking forward to the re-work, but maybe that'll teach me to check for soap contamination next time. Now that the soap is in the tank, is there any way to neutralize it, or skim it off the top of the water? Do I need to get a new bio-wheel and filters, or can I just wash off the soap? Do I need to replace all the water, clean out the gravel, etc.? How far do I have to strip down this tank to get back to "clean tank" status??? Help!