How to quickly neutralize bleach?

Lasse

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I had the same thing happen on my first tank 😕 My mom thought she was helping out by cleaning the glass. Nuked the tank.
Tell your mom that its better to use RODI water to clean glass - its a very good gass cleaner and no toxic residues. Many professional window cleaners use RODI water nowadays.

Sincerely Lasse
 

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This will solve the problem


But you can use Vitamin C instead - no NH4 as residue

C₆H₈O₆ + HClO → C₆H₆O₆ + HCl + H₂O

You can´t overdose Vitamin C as I see it - 1) may not be problem

it could serve as a labil DOC source though

Here is one calculation that say that you need around 2.5 mg/L ascorbic acid to neutralise 1mg/L active chlorine

Sincerely Lasse
I was just catching up, and I have sodium Thyroid-sulfate, (Or whatever) aka "DeClor" for doing water changes on my Koi tank. What, I didn't know that vitamin C would also remove chlorine (bleach) so I learnt a thing, thank you.

For my own way of thinking, I am not going to chase one chemical with another, especially when I have to guess the amount of solution added and then second guess the amount of chemical I need to add to remove the chlorine, in this amazing scenario!

Also, the flow rate through my sumps isn't so slow that I would feel safe strolling out to the garage to get the DeClor (or vitamin C) and then coming back to dump a random amount of that chemical into the sump where I would pray that the good and bad molecules met before they took the tube up to the DT,



"
I took the tube back out of town
Back to the Rolling Pin
"
 

jonelder68

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Tell your mom that its better to use RODI water to clean glass - its a very good gass cleaner and no toxic residues. Many professional window cleaners use RODI water nowadays.

Sincerely Lasse
Yes this was 20 plus years ago. She learned her lesson 🤣
 

Sisterlimonpot

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The 1st step is, pouring bleach in your tank, the second step is, walking away... all your troubles and worries just dissolved.

The vitamin C counter measure is brilliant, but curious if it would be a viable solution to a thriving reef tank that has suddenly recieved a dose of bleach? And how fast would one have to react to be successful?
 

Lasse

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I was just catching up, and I have sodium Thyroid-sulfate, (Or whatever) aka "DeClor" for doing water changes on my Koi tank. What, I didn't know that vitamin C would also remove chlorine (bleach) so I learnt a thing, thank you.

For my own way of thinking, I am not going to chase one chemical with another, especially when I have to guess the amount of solution added and then second guess the amount of chemical I need to add to remove the chlorine, in this amazing scenario!

Also, the flow rate through my sumps isn't so slow that I would feel safe strolling out to the garage to get the DeClor (or vitamin C) and then coming back to dump a random amount of that chemical into the sump where I would pray that the good and bad molecules met before they took the tube up to the DT,



"
I took the tube back out of town
Back to the Rolling Pin
"

And you send me back to the time I was 17 and The Who did their thing


Sincerely Lasse
 

WhatCouldGoWrong71

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Your threads man…out there
I’m so grateful that I didn’t decide to put my sump under my washer and dryer. I had contemplated digging my laundry room floor out and somehow suspending my washing machine above my sump. I thought this would be a useful idea for ease of water changes. However the wife would not allow me to do this and forced me to build a fish room to put my sump.
 

HudsonReefer2.0

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That actually happened at a public aquarium about 30 years ago.

We kept a 25# bag of sodium thiosulfate to use in case there was a runaway ozone condition on any of our larger systems. It would work for chlorine as well.
Something like this?








IMG_5792.png
 
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Something like this?








IMG_5792.png
Yes. I have the same bottle at home. That’s how I neutralize chlorine after bleach soaking my powerheads. 🙂

I use Hach test strips which accurately measures free and total chlorine, allowing me to know exactly when it’s safe to add the pumps back to the aquarium. The reaction between thiosulfate and chlorine is instantaneous.
 

AlexandraDreadlocksPanda

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Anybody that cultures Phyto will more than likely have large amounts of Sodium Thiosulphate… easiest way to sterilise then neutralise the vessel and salt water is with bleach…
 

Lasse

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Yes. I have the same bottle at home. That’s how I neutralize chlorine after bleach soaking my powerheads. 🙂

I use Hach test strips which accurately measures free and total chlorine, allowing me to know exactly when it’s safe to add the pumps back to the aquarium. The reaction between thiosulfate and chlorine is instantaneous.
Good if you could test C-vitamin as well.

Sincerely Lasse
 
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Randy Holmes-Farley

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This will solve the problem


But you can use Vitamin C instead - no NH4 as residue

C₆H₈O₆ + HClO → C₆H₆O₆ + HCl + H₂O

You can´t overdose Vitamin C as I see it - 1) may not be problem

it could serve as a labil DOC source though

Here is one calculation that say that you need around 2.5 mg/L ascorbic acid to neutralise 1mg/L active chlorine

Sincerely Lasse

FWIW, I used vitamin C on the rocks I bleached for my reef tank. :)
 

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I wish I could make gifs because I'd make one of that scene from step brothers.... "its just like cold case files... its just like cold case files..."

In all seriousness though, kinda cool having a random poo hit the fan thread that now has potential answers for rare catastrophic events....
 

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I can think that of at least one solution, but it would involve a felony conviction. 😳
Only if you're caught 🤪

But maybe let's not commit felonies 🙂
 

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