Oops! Has an unwanted item changed the chemistry in your tank?

[Peace River]

Oops! Has an unwanted item changed the chemistry in your tank?

Your chemistry can be affected by unwanted items that fall into the tank. Whether it was your lights, a power head, a toy, or some other piece that doesn’t belong in the tank that somehow finds its way into the tank, sometimes unwanted items find their way into the tank and can impact the chemistry parameters. Please tell us about what ended up in your tank that was unwanted and if it changed the water parameters.

Photo by @TinpanVA


This QOTD is sponsored by: www.topshelfaquatics.com

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[Jay Hemdal]

Years ago, my little sister dropped some pennies in my tank. Knowing she made a mistake, she used my algae scraper to cover them up. I found them after they had corroded and I lost everything in the tank.

 

[KrisReef]

This reminds me of a classic thread on here:

Build Thread - Urgh seriously.

Hello, First, please forgive me if I posted this in the wrong section, but I have never had this happen before and I am panicking. So I have a 240 gallon tank with a 75 gallon sump tank. To be nice I let my brother and his children stay in my home for this week. (Long story) I just came home...

www.reef2reef.com

@Sarah24!

 

[SlasherZ]

My kid loves to have cereal for breakfast and so decided to feed the fish cereal too and dumped some milk and fruity pebbles into it.

No one died thank goodness, the fish loved the pebbles and I just chalked the milk up to a calcium dose

 

[Minifoot77]

I lost a razor blade in my sump and didn't know it till my next icp had me looking at all my pumps and magnetic frag racks

 

[randomfishdude]

The cat almost went in the tank. He got his paws somewhat in but I cought him before he acually fell.

 

[AtlantiCat]

I did once discover a toddler halfway in one of my freshwater tanks (wanted one of the pretty tiger nerites), but thankfully he'd recently had a bath and nothing was messed up.

 

[SlasherZ]

The cat almost went in the tank. He got his paws somewhat in but I cought him before he acually fell.

I used to have a 20g with a cheap hood on it that totally buckled under my cats weight after she hopped up... To this day she avoids that whole corner of the living room.

 

[shrimpnreefdude]

I'm literally dealing with a massive phopsate issue in my 13.5 gal. On two different occasions, I completely overfed. Once with Reef Nutrition TDO pellets and the last with Reef Roids. On both occasions, I was tapping the food into the tank instead of grabbing a pinch of pellets (still too much) and pre-mixing the roids. Foolish mistakes!

 

[LandLockedJones]

I once let my 1 year old help me feed. Thinking she wouldn’t get too much in her little hands I let her grab some pellets out of the container. I then watched in horror as she plopped hundreds of pellets into my 10 gallon tank haha. Went from fun to panic pretty promptly. I got a lot out, but still think that is what caused the endless algae problems I had in that tank.

I also found a small metallic rod on one of my magnetic feeders for the 40g. It was stuck to the top of the magnet and rusting by the time I found it. Honestly no idea how long it was there. Or where the thing came from. It was absolutely tiny. Like half an inch of 18 gauge wire but more solid. I have no idea if that changed my parameters. Buuuut probably not the best additive.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

It was what I deliberately put in the Aquarium, that didn’t work out. I used that Corrugated Plastic Sign Material, much later I had a GHA outbreak. When I was going through and cleaning, discovered it suffered a serious deterioration. Don’t know if that contributed to my GHA. Now I use a Shell Mixture.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

As with many folks, I've lost razor blades into the tank. No apparent issue.

Most concerningly, I had a coralife mh bulb explode and bits and pieces got into the water, potentially getting mercury into the tank. They would only compensate me with their salt mix, which at the time had a poor reputation, and I resorted to using it on driveway ice.

 

[Gill the 3rd]

I was fighting high phosphates in my tank so I decided to use phosphate rx (lanthanum chloride) for the first time. As I was adding drops to my sump from the bottle, the entire cap blew off and immediately dumped the entire bottle in my sump. Luckily I was able to turn my return pump off pretty quickly and contain most of it in the sump. Ended up just draining the sump and filling with new saltwater so it was just a big water change.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Glass covers are my friend plus canopy - nothing getting in

 

[Mark Gray]

Back many years ago I had a cat that was always fishing and I saw her fall in more than once lol. But no effect I also had a VHO bulb break and some got in the tank but didn't hurt anything ether.

 

[Just John]

This reminds me of a classic thread on here:

Build Thread - Urgh seriously.

Hello, First, please forgive me if I posted this in the wrong section, but I have never had this happen before and I am panicking. So I have a 240 gallon tank with a 75 gallon sump tank. To be nice I let my brother and his children stay in my home for this week. (Long story) I just came home...

www.reef2reef.com

@Sarah24!

.
And that one reminds me of the one where his nephew poured Dawn in his tank last year

 

[vlangel]

None of my tanks have had any foreign objects or substances that were not intentionally put in them. However when I serviced tanks one of our customer accidently dumped her coffee into the tank instead of the frozen food. Fortunately she did not accidently drink the fish food! A large water change fixed her tank and there were not any casualties.

 

[Rusty_L_Shackleford]

None of my tanks have had any foreign objects or substances that were not intentionally put in them. However when I serviced tanks one of our customer accidently dumped her coffee into the tank instead of the frozen food. Fortunately she did not accidently drink the fish food! A large water change fixed her tank and there were not any casualties.

I have accidently drank thawing fish food...but fortunately I haven't dumped a mixed drink in the tank yet. It definitely didn't taste good but it wasn't *that* bad, at least it was fresh. I fish alot and it wasn't the the first time I've gotten "bait juice" in my mouth.

 

[Minifoot77]

I have accidently drank thawing fish food...but fortunately I haven't dumped a mixed drink in the tank yet. It definitely didn't taste good but it wasn't *that* bad, at least it was fresh. I fish alot and it wasn't the the first time I've gotten "bait juice" in my mouth.

I used to salmon fish on the west coast of California hering and anchovy juice stays on everything

 

[Rusty_L_Shackleford]

I used to salmon fish on the west coast of California hering and anchovy juice stays on everything

Mullet is my preferred bait most of the time here and that definitely has a very persistent stink that sticks to everything it touches and isn't the easiest thing in the world to wash off. It's effective tho...