big oops please help

[Fishthoughts]

Hey there fellow fish people!!! I have recently gotten a decent sized tank ( can't think of the gallon right now but ill let y'all know when I do ) and everything was going great! it was cycling fine! we have a sump for it and it was fine and dandy !! we even had 4 fish in there loving their life ....

the bummer is.... a massive rock from our old tank was put into the new big tank last night around 7pm... that was recently in bleach... and woke up to all fish and living corals dead this morning...
my question is.. how long will it take for me to cycle this bleach out.. what are the steps that need to be done. I want to take all the rock out of the tank and have it sit in de-chlorinator stuff for like a week... and during that time should I do massive consistent water changes??
im going to get a bleach testing kit for the tank to be on top of it.

HELP

 

[jsker]

#reefsquad some help please.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hey there fellow fish people!!! I have recently gotten a decent sized tank ( can't think of the gallon right now but ill let y'all know when I do ) and everything was going great! it was cycling fine! we have a sump for it and it was fine and dandy !! we even had 4 fish in there loving their life ....

the bummer is.... a massive rock from our old tank was put into the new big tank last night around 7pm... that was recently in bleach... and woke up to all fish and living corals dead this morning...
my question is.. how long will it take for me to cycle this bleach out.. what are the steps that need to be done. I want to take all the rock out of the tank and have it sit in de-chlorinator stuff for like a week... and during that time should I do massive consistent water changes??
im going to get a chlorine testing kit for the tank to be on top of it.

HELP

Bummer.
Pull rock out and cold water rinse and allow to sun dry
Do a major water change and reset tank and add a high grade lab carbon to tank for 7 days and Test water prior to considering any livestock

 

[DeniseAndy]

Ouch. I am sorry to here of your losses. Bleach is a nasty thing to have around aquariums. Trust me. I have been through a situation of sabotage with bleach, it was ugly.

Bleach has a very quick degradation. For instance, I do wash my socks (filter socks) in bleach and rinse about 5 times, then hang to dry for a few days and they are good to go. So, it can be used safely.

I have also used bleach on rocks that I was fed up with instead of an acid bath. I rinsed well and then let them sit outside in sun for weeks.

Unfortunately, at this point, you can do a few things.
1) Let the system sit empty for a while before trying to restart it up. Let the bleach degrade to nothing. Can take a week or more to be safe.
2) Empty the system, begin again. Making sure to dry rocks completely for days in the sun if possible. Use all new saltwater and make sure all equipment has been dried out also. Rinse everything thoroughly!
3) Throw in tons of dechloronator and run it through system for a while. Restart after that.

Good luck with the restart however you go about it.

 

[Duncan62]

Hey there fellow fish people!!! I have recently gotten a decent sized tank ( can't think of the gallon right now but ill let y'all know when I do ) and everything was going great! it was cycling fine! we have a sump for it and it was fine and dandy !! we even had 4 fish in there loving their life ....

the bummer is.... a massive rock from our old tank was put into the new big tank last night around 7pm... that was recently in bleach... and woke up to all fish and living corals dead this morning...
my question is.. how long will it take for me to cycle this bleach out.. what are the steps that need to be done. I want to take all the rock out of the tank and have it sit in de-chlorinator stuff for like a week... and during that time should I do massive consistent water changes??
im going to get a chlorine testing kit for the tank to be on top of it.
.
HELP

Add declorinator . Throw that rock away. It's the chlorine and the dead things throughout the rock. Probably ammonia spike with chlorine. Test for ammonia also.good luck. That rock may have killed your cycle.

 

[jsker]

Add declorinator . Throw that rock away. It's the chlorine and the dead things throughout the rock. Probably ammonia spike with chlorine. Test for ammonia also.good luck. That rock may have killed your cycle.

I would suggest the Seachem Prime to remove chlorine. Pull the rock as suggested previously and also soak the rock with the prime.

 

[Fishthoughts]

Ouch. I am sorry to here of your losses. Bleach is a nasty thing to have around aquariums. Trust me. I have been through a situation of sabotage with bleach, it was ugly.

Bleach has a very quick degradation. For instance, I do wash my socks (filter socks) in bleach and rinse about 5 times, then hang to dry for a few days and they are good to go. So, it can be used safely.

I have also used bleach on rocks that I was fed up with instead of an acid bath. I rinsed well and then let them sit outside in sun for weeks.

Unfortunately, at this point, you can do a few things.
1) Let the system sit empty for a while before trying to restart it up. Let the bleach degrade to nothing. Can take a week or more to be safe.
2) Empty the system, begin again. Making sure to dry rocks completely for days in the sun if possible. Use all new saltwater and make sure all equipment has been dried out also. Rinse everything thoroughly!
3) Throw in tons of dechloronator and run it through system for a while. Restart after that.

Good luck with the restart however you go about it.

thank you!!! trying to use every suggestion possible haha

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Unfortunately, if you bombed the aquarium with bleach via a rock that wasn't washed and dried after, the damage is done. Chlorine has a very short life of stability and degrades very quickly. It could have either been there was actual chorine still in the rock, or so much die off that your ammonia spiked to very toxic levels. Corals should not have been affected as fast as the fish were.

Are you measuring ammonia?

Removing all of the chlorine could be as easy as a bubble stone in the water for a few days.

 

[Fishthoughts]

Add declorinator . Throw that rock away. It's the chlorine and the dead things throughout the rock. Probably ammonia spike with chlorine. Test for ammonia also.good luck. That rock may have killed your cycle.

I have a torch and a leather in there still alive do you think there's any chance there was no bleach in the rock and the tank just cycled and spiked thus killing our fish?

 

[Fishthoughts]

Unfortunately, if you bombed the aquarium with bleach via a rock that wasn't washed and dried after, the damage is done. Chlorine has a very short life of stability and degrades very quickly. It could have either been there was actual chorine still in the rock, or so much die off that your ammonia spiked to very toxic levels. Corals should not have been affected as fast as the fish were.

Are you measuring ammonia?

Removing all of the chlorine could be as easy as a bubble stone in the water for a few days.

going to do literally everything we can! defiantly going to get a bubbles stone!! the corals weren't affected we have a tech and a leather in there still alive

 

[Chrisv.]

On the bright side, if literally everything is dead, there Is much less to lose. My vote is to do a big water change, aerate heavily, add prime, give it a week or two, add some more prime, do a big water change…. All while running more carbon than anyone ever should.

 

[Fishthoughts]

So we do have 2 corals still alive and 1 hermit that we can see is still alive

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

I have a torch and a leather in there still alive do you think there's any chance there was no bleach in the rock and the tank just cycled and spiked thus killing our fish?

I though all fish and living corals died off.

Depending on how long it had been since you bleached the rock (I would like to know) yes it is possible that the bleach killed everything in and on the rock, which you put into your tank and had a fast ammonia spike killing the fish.

Have you tested for ammonia yet?

 

[Chrisv.]

So we do have 2 corals still alive and 1 hermit that we can see is still alive

Hopefully you have added prime by now. Or something else with sodium thiosulfate. If you haven’t, please do that now, then add a big air stone, and prepare for a big water change.

 

[Fishthoughts]

I though all fish and living corals died off.

Depending on how long it had been since you bleached the rock (I would like to know) yes it is possible that the bleach killed everything in and on the rock, which you put into your tank and had a fast ammonia spike killing the fish.

Have you tested for ammonia yet?

All the fish died just now seeing not all the corals died! The rock was bleached Friday night!
We havnt tested for ammonia we are out of our testing but we are getting some right now!

 

[Fishthoughts]

Hopefully you have added prime by now. Or something else with sodium thiosulfate. If you haven’t, please do that now, then add a big air stone, and prepare for a big water change.

Yes we have added prime by now! Going to get big air stone now as long as more prime and more testing kits! Going to do a big water change the second we get home!

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

All the fish died just now seeing not all the corals died! The rock was bleached Friday night!
We havnt tested for ammonia we are out of our testing but we are getting some right now!

Gotcha. So Friday night it was bleached, did it sit in the bleach overnight?

Did you rinse the rock prior to putting it in the aquarium?

When I have bombed rock in the past, I do overnight in bleach, then multiple days soaking in buckets of rodi changed every day, then a full week long dry out in the sun, then sitting in fresh salt water and test for ammonia before using it.

24 hours may mean there was still active bleach within the rock, in addition to the die off it caused.

 

[Fishthoughts]

Gotcha. So Friday night it was bleached, did it sit in the bleach overnight?

Did you rinse the rock prior to putting it in the aquarium?

When I have bombed rock in the past, I do overnight in bleach, then multiple days soaking in buckets of rodi changed every day, then a full week long dry out in the sun, then sitting in fresh salt water and test for ammonia before using it.

24 hours may mean there was still active bleach within the rock, in addition to the die off it caused.

Yes sat in bleach overnight , rock was rinsed prior( wasn’t me who put the rock in ) I told the person who put it in to sit it out to dry up for a week but they like to jump the gun a bit on fish stuff

out getting bubble rock more prime and testers now!

 

[Duncan62]

I have a torch and a leather in there still alive do you think there's any chance there was no bleach in the rock and the tank just cycled and spiked thus killing our fish?

Possible. I still think the bleach rock contributed to the issue. What kind of torch? They can be fragile. Is the leather open or shedding? The chlorine or ammonia spike can make them shed and slime things up. It's a good sign they are living. Someone suggested carbon. Agree.

 

[Fishthoughts]

Possible. I still think the bleach rock contributed to the issue. What kind of torch? They can be fragile. Is the leather open or shedding? The chlorine or ammonia spike can make them shed and slime things up. It's a good sign they are living. Someone suggested carbon. Agree.

So tested the water, very bad ammonia and chlorine so we are just going to start square 1 with crazy water changes adding carbon and prime taking the rock out to let it sit in water then add prime to just the rock water and go from there