Bleached my sand, is it okay?

[ReefGuy1234]

I’m starting up a new aquarium but before it was all moldy anyway I bleach the sand because it’s was gross and smelled like mold and stuff. Basically I put in a bucket of water with a little bit of bleach and I *rinsed it thoroughly 10 times* and the sand didn’t really smell like bleach but the aquarium has a hint of bleach smell up close so I want to make sure that it’s % safe but it doesn’t matter because there’s no fish because I’m restarting it.

 

[Projects with Sam]

You can make it smell heavily like bleach and it'll be fine. Just rinse it well and if using right away use a lot of the dechlorinator in a separate container; if it has time to dry that will get rid of the chlorine too. try to use only unscented non-spill/glug additive bleach. When I did my sand it smelled heavily like bleach and I left it in for over a week.

 

[UnderseaOddities]

No bad idea the sand is terminated buy new please do not add any volatile organic compounds to your reef
As bleach can be caustic and sand is cheap


Your fish will thank you

Put it this way try drinking a small amount of bleach every day and see if it would be detrimental to your health, chances are by the 2nd or 3rd day your health would be compromised

Same goes for your fish and coral

It's the precise same reason we dont use tap water if chloramine is caustic to fish what makes you think chlorine would be any different if this were the case you could just use tap water As a base


The only reef safe chemicals imo are muriatic acid and white vinegar which contains under 5 % hcl should be used to clean equipment then should be rinsed with freshwater

Rember a substrate is a substrate it's a living thing so it probably would have a smell... I dont really know what you were thinking tbh

If you grab a handful of soil what does it smell like musty old forest

This is the smell of fungi and bacteria

Or in your sands case years and years of death and decay as calcium carbonate is fossilized coral skeleton and dead fish as well as living algaes and bacteria

Y u smelling sand In the first place?
Yeah it smells its were all the poop and food goes to breakdown

 

[UnderseaOddities]

And if rocks and sand ever get nasty scrub as best as u can by hand then remove to sit in sun or light exposed to oxygen and heat then wait a day rescurb and re add


Only way I would remove my substrate 3 reasons
1st(micro nutrients and detritus made a nutrient sink out of your sand bed time to replace or mix with other sand to increase nutrients in less rich substrates

2nd(dinoflagellates or any pest algaes) remove and rinse


3rd cyanobacteria, sludge or turf algae(need to remove sand completely and replace, p needs to be decreased in correlation or you'll keep getting the same problem as your spiking phosphates to cause the sludge to grow as you're giving ot a food source with things like aminos and reefroids and foods and bottles aswell as every time it is agitated and sucked up or in direct flow pieces disperse and will multiply the sludge so now you have a smal patch that turned into a full outbreak the only option is to remove everything rock substrate and scrub those the walls do 35% wc daily for a week to correct and the add all the rocks and sand back and run skimmer wet double time and clean collection cup 2x daily


Some ppl might soak sand and rinse every day for the course of a week and then let it sit dry for a couple days and repeat other might buy new and replace it all on how much time you have available

 

[UnderseaOddities]

This is safer and mor efficient

 

[UnderseaOddities]

But on the bright side if u dont have fish bleach isnt completely unsafe only if fish were already present in the system

Bc bleach solution only last 24 hours when suspend and mixed with water in the water column

Basically anything with a solution yield of anything less than 5% hcl when mixed in saltwater anything more than this can be caustic



Many people used to bleach cure rocks

But we found baking in sun or under lights is just as effective

 

[UnderseaOddities]

Next time try white vinegar or buy muriatic acid 3 - 5% hcl online

 

[UnderseaOddities]

As the yield is a cleaner hcl it's like vibrant, all that stuff is just a hcl bottle reaction when poured in saltwater,but more potent yield that's y I avoid using it

 

[Tamberav]

Add some prime and it will be fine. It will gas off eventually.

Dosing bleach used to be a thing people did to their reefs years back. Yup. You can find the threads here in the search.

People were adding bleach to their tanks with fish and corals so certainly no reason to worry about an empty tank.

 

[gbroadbridge]

I’m starting up a new aquarium but before it was all moldy anyway I bleach the sand because it’s was gross and smelled like mold and stuff. Basically I put in a bucket of water with a little bit of bleach and I *rinsed it thoroughly 10 times* and the sand didn’t really smell like bleach but the aquarium has a hint of bleach smell up close so I want to make sure that it’s % safe but it doesn’t matter because there’s no fish because I’m restarting it.

If you've rinsed it well, just let it air dry and it'll be fine.

If you wish add some Prime or similar to the water..

I use bleach all the time to wash tank related stuff for over 30 years and never a problem. The chlorine gasses off in a couple of days.

Graham

 

[ReefGuy1234]

No bad idea the sand is terminated buy new please do not add any volatile organic compounds to your reef
As bleach can be caustic and sand is cheap


Your fish will thank you

Put it this way try drinking a small amount of bleach every day and see if it would be detrimental to your health, chances are by the 2nd or 3rd day your health would be compromised

Same goes for your fish and coral

It's the precise same reason we dont use tap water if chloramine is caustic to fish what makes you think chlorine would be any different if this were the case you could just use tap water As a base


The only reef safe chemicals imo are muriatic acid and white vinegar which contains under 5 % hcl should be used to clean equipment then should be rinsed with freshwater

Rember a substrate is a substrate it's a living thing so it probably would have a smell... I dont really know what you were thinking tbh

If you grab a handful of soil what does it smell like musty old forest

This is the smell of fungi and bacteria

Or in your sands case years and years of death and decay as calcium carbonate is fossilized coral skeleton and dead fish as well as living algaes and bacteria

Y u smelling sand In the first place?
Yeah it smells its were all the poop and food goes to breakdow

thanks I’m going to be honest I didn’t really have enough to buy sand that’s why I bleach it. Also I put in a fresh water tank *not a planted tank* because I would never bleach anything in my mixed reef. Im more careful about that but what I did is done, should I go ahead and by fish or not?

 

[threebuoys]

You will be fine as long as the bleach had no soap or scent in it. Rinse the sand thoroughly. If you didn't let it dry completely, add some chlorine remover to the water.

I've used bleach for years to clean objects I've added to the aquarium when I was concerned about what lurked in the dirt. Also, kills lingering parasites and cysts when used to clean the glass tank.

 

[Projects with Sam]

I’ve even seen someone comment that they accidentally used spill proof, scented bleach on their substrate and then rinsed it a few times more times then if was regular bleach and it didn’t kill his reef/fish.