Dosing bleach

[56longroof]

Has anyone heard of dosing bleach in a reef aquarium? There was someone on one of the Facebook groups that swore by it. Claimed 2 ml per 100 gallons would keep algea off the glass. I have never heard of this at all here. Any thoughts?

 

[Terry Le]

Why?

 

[JGT]

Has anyone heard of dosing bleach in a reef aquarium? There was someone on one of the Facebook groups that swore by it. Claimed 2 ml per 100 gallons would keep algea off the glass. I have never heard of this at all here. Any thoughts?

Yes, someone on R2R posted it a couple weeks back. Said the guy on FB said it was the key to his successful tank. Find it hard to believe.

 

[Troylee]

Jposch does it. He has a big thread about it on humble fish. He owns a online store I forget the name

 

[me & my baby]

I am pretty sure it’s called premier reef

 

[JGT]

Heres the R2R thread:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bleach-dosing.1166274/

 

[Troylee]

I am pretty sure it’s called premier reef

Yeah that’s it!

 

[56longroof]

Heres the R2R thread:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bleach-dosing.1166274/

Thanks for the link. I can't believe I missed it.

 

[Fish Fan]

Jposch does it. He has a big thread about it on humble fish. He owns a online store I forget the name

What does it supposedly do? In the other thread, RHF concluded that he would not dose bleach.

 

[56longroof]

What does it supposedly do? In the other thread, RHF concluded that he would not dose bleach.

The person on Facebook swore it kept algea and bacteria at bay. So much that they never had to clean the glass.

 

[Reef Jedi]

If it does that to algae I can’t imagine what else it’s doing. I wouldn’t risk it.

 

[EnterName]

Jposch does it. He has a big thread about it on humble fish. He owns a online store I forget the name

What does it supposedly do? In the other thread, RHF concluded that he would not dose bleach.

It increases redox/ORP. You could get the same effect with hydrogen peroxide without having chloramines accumulate in the tank. However, it's "safe" when done in small portions as chlorine is very reactive and won't ever reach a fish or coral before it has reacted.

I see three scenarios (there may be more):
1. in the tank these people report success with bleach dosing there is some reason why increasing ORP has a beneficial effect.
2. Chloramines have some unknown (or at least unbeknownst to me) effect that benefits some tank inhabitants or inhibits algae growth.
3. It's just the imagination of the dosing people and there are no benefits as we have no controls and actual study this isn't too far fetched.

 

[56longroof]

If it does that to algae I can’t imagine what else it’s doing. I wouldn’t risk it.

I have no intention of trying it.

 

[mmorrison55]

I don’t know if the bleach dosing that causes the orp to rise is the reason he no longer has to clean his glass. Or rather the high orp is the key.

I run ozone, and my orp is pretty high but I still have to clean my glass weekly.

 

[Fish Fan]

3. It's just the imagination of the dosing people and there are no benefits as we have no controls and actual study this isn't too far fetched.

^This!!

There's no other explanation that I can see. You would have to add such an insignificant amount of bleach so as to not harm anything beneficial, that it simply can't work on algae or anything else. It's entirely indiscriminate, if the concentration is high enough to affect algae, it's affecting everything else too.

I believe this is just like the people who dose hydrogen peroxide, and are adding like 1 drop to 10 gallons of tank water or something. The one drop will immediately oxidise anything organic in the water. That one drop is effectively gone a second after it hits the water, so it's essentially doing nothing. This is why it's not hurting anything, but the idea that it's helping is a placebo effect, in my opinion.

I also think that ORP as an indicator of tank health has fallen far out of fashion. In the 1990's ORP monitors were all the rage, almost all reefers had them, and today very few people are using an ORP monitor.

As always, this is just my opinion

 

[Fish Fan]

If it does that to algae I can’t imagine what else it’s doing. I wouldn’t risk it.

This exactly! If you add enough bleach so that it's actually working on the algae, it will be working on everything else organic too, good or bad. It's indiscriminate, it won't just work on only the bad stuff

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Copy and pasted from the other thread:

Here’s what it will do when added in very small amounts:

1. Reducing yellowing by oxidizing some organics

2. Kill microorganisms very locally until it mixes in

3. Convert all trace elements encountered locally, and some encountered after mixing in, to their highest oxidation state. Ferrous iron to ferric iron, for example. The high oxidation states are often lower in solubility and it may cause loss of some (such as iron). It may also strip the organic chelators from some trace elements, again reducing solubility. Iodide will become iodate, with potentially lower bioavailability.

4. It will leave a number of highly oxidizing species in the water. These are known from lots of studies of water treatment with ozone and other oxidizers. Some of these are toxic and can irritate tissue surfaces they encounter.

5 ORP will certainly rise, but that by itself is not an indication of an advantage.

6. Bleach will boost alkalinity.

I personally would not do it.

 

[Rob A]

If they are running any type of carbon it would be absorbed pretty quickly

 

[56longroof]

Copy and pasted from the other thread:

Here’s what it will do when added in very small amounts:

1. Reducing yellowing by oxidizing some organics

2. Kill microorganisms very locally until it mixes in

3. Convert all trace elements encountered locally, and some encountered after mixing in, to their highest oxidation state. Ferrous iron to ferric iron, for example. The high oxidation states are often lower in solubility and it may cause loss of some (such as iron). It may also strip the organic chelators from some trace elements, again reducing solubility. Iodide will become iodate, with potentially lower bioavailability.

4. It will leave a number of highly oxidizing species in the water. These are known from lots of studies of water treatment with ozone and other oxidizers. Some of these are toxic and can irritate tissue surfaces they encounter.

5 ORP will certainly rise, but that by itself is not an indication of an advantage.

6. Bleach will boost alkalinity.

I personally would not do it.

If it really did all this we would all be doing it. I think @FishFan pretty much summed it up in his post.