Any way to Counteract Vodka Dosing?

[jccaclimber]

I’ve seen this sort of thing when a house was painted. The painters used some sort of alcohol based solvent either in prep or in the paint. The house smelled awful, and the tank despite being covered got cloudy and unhappy fast.

1) You have said you are dosing a lot of nitrate and phosphate, but that’s relative. What is it in PPM of each? I had a system that I dose on average 1 PPM for over a year without carbon dosing. The system simply consumed it. KNO3 and Mg(NO3)2 are both cheap in powder form.
2) Running the skimmer to distant/outside (preferred) or very heavily carbon filtered air prevents introducing alcohol via the skimmer, but it won’t take it out very efficiently (neither will changing water really). You’d like it to not get in via other routes either. Cover the sump and display with lids. Then plumb the air outlet vents from the skimmer lid to whichever has more area*concentration. This will run clean air through the skimmer, then the still pretty clean air through the space at the water surface. It’ll put that area at slight positive pressure which will keep the fumes out of the water.

 

[Dan_P]

Thanks. Might be worth trying Carbon.

Its mainly storage of cleaning equipment containing alcohol. The vapor is seemingly getting better and hopefully its not permanent but the location of the reef tanks are at a storage location so we do not control what is being stored there.

What else is being stored with the reef tanks? Particulates in the air would deliver more carbon to the system than alcohol vapor.

 

[Dan_P]

I’ve seen this sort of thing when a house was painted. The painters used some sort of alcohol based solvent either in prep or in the paint. The house smelled awful, and the tank despite being covered got cloudy and unhappy fast.

1) You have said you are dosing a lot of nitrate and phosphate, but that’s relative. What is it in PPM of each? I had a system that I dose on average 1 PPM for over a year without carbon dosing. The system simply consumed it. KNO3 and Mg(NO3)2 are both cheap in powder form.
2) Running the skimmer to distant/outside (preferred) or very heavily carbon filtered air prevents introducing alcohol via the skimmer, but it won’t take it out very efficiently (neither will changing water really). You’d like it to not get in via other routes either. Cover the sump and display with lids. Then plumb the air outlet vents from the skimmer lid to whichever has more area*concentration. This will run clean air through the skimmer, then the still pretty clean air through the space at the water surface. It’ll put that area at slight positive pressure which will keep the fumes out of the water.

What was the oxygen level in the aquarium while it was covered? Unless you pumped in outside air into the covered system, it could have dropped, and the dying and dead organism fed the bacteria bloom.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I do not believe there is any reason to think you can remove ethanol from the water (not with GAC, for example) and even if you could somehow, I expect organisms will get most of it first anyway.

I would just feed more or dose nutrients if low nutrients are an issue, and make sure aeration is always good.

 

[khiyasu]

What else is being stored with the reef tanks? Particulates in the air would deliver more carbon to the system than alcohol vapor.

Only cleaning supplies that are alcohol based right now, lots of them

 

[khiyasu]

Thanks all

 

[jccaclimber]

What was the oxygen level in the aquarium while it was covered? Unless you pumped in outside air into the covered system, it could have dropped, and the dying and dead organism fed the bacteria bloom.

The fish showed signs of low oxygen. I suspect this was from bacteria processing the alcohol, not from the aquarium cabinet being covered. It was a general cover, much as you would with a blackout, except with a clear material, not a tight seal.
From what I understand they were covering it daily while working, and it wasn’t until the day they put the alcohol into the air that it was an issue.
Outside air would have been a better solution, but it wasn’t involved until right after things clouded up. I did a large water change, aired out the house, and things recovered.