Ethanol "Overdose", Bacterial Bloom, Ammonia risk?

[Shigshwa]

I don't carbon dose any more, but I inadvertently dosed my tank with ethanol. I was working with Everclear to extract oils from hops plants, and left the tray of ethanol to evaporate in my living room (containing my DT) overnight. The next day, I was wondering why my tank had a light vinegar smell, along with a slimy white film on the glass. I finally realized that the skimmer must have whisked the vapors of ethanol into the water, and incorporated a good dose of ethanol in there.

Fast forward about three days, and my water is starting to smell like dying matter, and is cloudy. Nothing seems too distressed, except for a few acro frags retracting their polyps, and my clams seem to be opening their mouths wider, perhaps to take in more oxygen? My PH has fallen from 8.2 to around 8, and I'm running tons of airstones in my sump to help drive oxygen levels up.

Is there a risk of ammonia from a bacterial bloom? Aside from oxygen supplementation and heavy skimming, do I just wait this out?

 

[SDReefer]

@Randy Holmes-Farley would be the guy to ask. Good luck!

 

[Shigshwa]

Thanks. The good thing is, I'm not getting any ammonia from my test kit.

 

[brandon429]

id predict 02 challenge not ammonia. prob wont matter long run unless it was deep enough to cause a loss cascade

water change or uv it or ride out, should take some N and P with the mass if its exported as it dies off.

 

[Shigshwa]

Looks like I'm pulling out of it. My skimmer cup is rapidly filling up with dead bacteria. Only thing I lost was a red dragon frag. I'm glad that my clams were alright, I had one that I was treating for PMD and I was afraid that the low O2 was gonna put its recovery in reverse.

 

[Shigshwa]

And I'll be darned, my nitrates went from 10 to 0 from all of that. I likely saw the distress in part because my corals stopped using as much calcium and alkalinity, and I went from 9 to 12 dkh, and 420 to 440 calcium. That's probably why I lost the red dragon.

 

[ChrisOFL]

And I'll be darned, my nitrates went from 10 to 0 from all of that. I likely saw the distress in part because my corals stopped using as much calcium and alkalinity, and I went from 9 to 12 dkh, and 420 to 440 calcium. That's probably why I lost the red dragon.

You may want to get your nitrates back up a bit as well. Going from 10-0 that quickly removes a lot of nutrients the corals were consuming as well. That's pretty crazy to hear how ethanol fumes can affect a tank like that, I'm glad it wasn't too much of an issue.

 

[Shigshwa]

You may want to get your nitrates back up a bit as well. Going from 10-0 that quickly removes a lot of nutrients the corals were consuming as well. That's pretty crazy to hear how ethanol fumes can affect a tank like that, I'm glad it wasn't too much of an issue.

Yeah, I'll be buying some sodium nitrate from the chemical supply store tomorrow. Lesson learned, don't work with Everclear in the DT room, lol.

 

[Yuki Rihwa]

That's a reason I don't dose or use any chemicals in my tank, I stick with frequent water changes, some folks might see that a lot of work to do water change or expensive routine but it's a lot more expensive if thing goes side way and ruining everything lol and I was a fish only keeper with massive WC every other day for many years so I have no problem doing daily or 2~3 times water change per week.