Using Bleach (NaClO) in a reef tank

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edosan

edosan

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Do we take carbon reactor offline while doing this
I have try both, no diference (that I can notice), I belive Chlorine get oxidated / changed pretty fast. The effect on corals on Chlorine (slime and contraction) is like for about 5 minutes
 
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My chemistry isnt up to this. I have always regarded anything which could release Chlorine such as (Sodium Hypochlorite) sold in Aust as 12% Chlorine at time of manufacture... to be fatal to the organisms in the tank. How does the content of this discussion relate to the effort we go to to remove Chlorine from out top up water with RO/DI treatment..?. (I am sure my opening sentence is reflected in my question.)
Chlorine and Cloramines are a different story.
So Far I belive Chlorine (as NaClO) is not very harmfull in a stablished tank @ 1ml x 100lt. Chemistry on tanks changes from one to another, So I do not recommend do this, unless you have no other choice.
I do not know concentrations on tap water (it changes a lot)
 

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Update. It seamed to work at ick for a while but I've come to the conclusion it isn't an effective treatment. I'm pulling all my fish and treating them with chloroquine phosphate.
 
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Update. It seamed to work at ick for a while but I've come to the conclusion it isn't an effective treatment. I'm pulling all my fish and treating them with chloroquine phosphate.

Cabinetman, in 1 week you will have squat effect for Ich, you need to treat at least for 1 month, and for Ich, probably for 74 days in order to try to erradicate it. In 1 week nothing will happend, just kill the swimming stage of ich that have been hatched. (all this in theory). But in Fishes, NADA, it might help in the gills (breathing), but not in the body.

If you leave your tank Fallow, 74 days before add any fish on it is the recomendation if you want to erradicate ich.
 
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If you CAN take fishes out, do it!
I will if I can but I have done this before and is imposible without damaging corals, so this is my only resource for velvet. For sure it has slow down the progresion, but yesterday I took a Flame Angel out, velvet is terrible.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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these types of rogue treatments develop around what tolerates the treatment ime

the ones who get cured or not do range agreed... same was for peroxide. in time as the back alley chem threads get out beyond fifty pages the most important part becomes the tolerant and sensitive organisms list which actually do not vary much when dumping oxidizers into a reef tank. what was once predicted to be a tank wiper, becomes not that when several hundred people post what survived. Isnt it neat that bacteria keep making all the claims humble :)

there's not anything we do to reef tanks that changes our bacteria/filtration ability in a measurable way aside from medication events. we may modulate total colony counts, after all a big thorough cleaning exports massive amounts of live bacteria, but having a negative impact to filtration (free ammonia in the dt) we see doesn't occur, even in overdose events largely.


thanks to the biofilm...

Its amazing that these bacteria prove themselves time and time again. 8 ppm ammonia supposed to kill them, not. bleach, a killer! no. peroxide, claimed by many in searchable posts going back now a decade to be the worst killer= too tame for some invasions. :) back alley chem is so fun...the kind where nobody understands or can enunciate the actual mechanisms accurately and anecdotes rule the day, but by doing the experiments anyway those who want only scientific method for validity get free data (among the anecdotes) and a list of sensitives/tolerants peer reviewers wouldn't be able to debate. fun

within about a year we had the sensitives list for peroxide, stuck to this day: lysmata, hermodice, macros, xenia, and coralline. not any fish, though you'll read that in posts a lot because someone dosed and a fish died. someone dosed and lost an sps, but in the guided threads after 200 pages not one coral loss. it will be neat to see how bleach fares in another year or so.

putting bleach in a tank far surpasses anything id ever guessed was possible. Not that I had tried, but that's what the posters had been saying for over a decade. they limited us again!
 

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My Achilles gets new spots every day. Some fish that were clear are now loaded. It's not working for me.
How long have you been trying this treatment. I'm not using it to rid ich . I'm using it to battle dino
 

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I also am fighting dino and am on 3rd day of bleach 5ml in morning 5ml in evening so far so good does look to be impacting the dino a bit dino x did a good number but did not kill it off
What size tank
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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Anyone who's trying to attack dinos directly needs to have the whole tank siphoned free of them before the start of dosing. When the dilution has less mass to work on cures go up.


I think a subtle detail red flag exists when we scan nano reef websites versus full tank websites and compare the number of active ongoing dino threads.

The tanks that use full rip cleaning removal before any treatment have massive cure rates
 
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Cabinetman

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So here's an update. I took all my coral out of my display as that was the easiest route and besides the tank has only had coral for a few months. I lowered my salinity to 1.015 the first day and the second day down to 1.009 and the fish kept getting worst. So instead of ich I actually think I have velvet too. Some fish are covered in a fine white spots. I am thinking the chlorox was keeping the velvet at bay but once I started dosing smaller amounts more frequently it was less effective against it. And when I stopped dosing completely it exploded. Fish that were clean in full strength salt got covered in 1.009 so it has to be velvet. I dosed a higher than normal dose tonight to try to kill all the free swimmers and I'll continue to dose 35ml morning and night till I get some chloroquine at which point my fish will be going into a 300 gallon qt tank that I made over the weekend and then I'm going to bleach the hell outa my display and start over. I'll keep fish in the qt tank for a month doing large water changes when needed and treating with chloroquine. So far I've lost a yellow tang and the small powder blue.
 

leahfiish

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Just curious for those of you who are treating for ich, why use bleach instead of other proven methods such as copper chloroquine, fallow periods, ttm
 

Cabinetman

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Fish look way better this morning. I'm convinced dosing that last night saved my fish. I wish I had of taken pics to show how covered they were but this morning they are 80% clear.
 
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The idea is to kill the swimming stage, so they hatch and you dose, but it will take at least 1 month of consistent dosing to do any harm to the parasites.
 
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Just curious for those of you who are treating for ich, why use bleach instead of other proven methods such as copper chloroquine, fallow periods, ttm
Usually large Reef tanks with corals and no chance to take fishes out.
 
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Fish look way better this morning. I'm convinced dosing that last night saved my fish. I wish I had of taken pics to show how covered they were but this morning they are 80% clear.
Do not stop, imagine Artemis eggs, they will keep hatching and you will able to kill only the new hatch parasites
 

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I plan on it until my chloroquine shows up then I'm going to zap them and the display is getting nuked with chlorine. Hot tub levels for 3 or 4 days then a few 100% water changes then I'll add salt. I'm lucky as my well water is perfect
 

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Question. Does bleaching at 1 ml per 25 gallons kill beneficial bacteria as well?
 

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