HELP, I've killed my tank!

[1Clown]

Hi all,

I did a 2 week bleach bath on my rock to get rid of algae and what not, following this I thoroughly power washed all the rocks. Then I let the rocks soak in RO for about 5-6 days treating the water with ATM Paradigm to get rid of any chlorine.

Yesterday I took out my final piece of live rock from my tank, put in the fresh new algae free rock and added some ATM Colony. My beautiful clownfish I've had for 3 years have both died today, somehow my pair of Bangaii Cardinals are still hanging in there. I've even noticed my mangroves leaves and curling over.

I'm assuming this is down to the bleach, if so why is it still present in my rock?

I also noticed I can still smell the scent of bleach from my rubbermaid tub which I used for bleaching and the RO soak, even though I thoroughly cleaned it multiple times and let it try the smell of bleach hasn't gone.

What do I do now with this rock if my last 2 fish die? and if they don't die and hang in there what's the plan?

Thanks.

 

[Hydrored]

So you added this rock to an already cycled tank?

 

[1Clown]

So you added this rock to an already cycled tank?

Yeh, I took out the last piece of live rock and replace it with this new clean rock since I wanted an algae free start.

I've done this in the past and have never lost any fish, corals yes over time but never fish.

 

[amps]

: (

 

[amps]

Run some carbon in there right away to hopefully soak up any chlorine and for gosh sake, take any of the bleached rock out of the tank. Do a big water change and cross your fingers. Keep using Colony as well since you've likely lost your bio filter.

 

[Dj City]

I'm sorry you went through this.
Either there was still bleach in the rocks (likely)
Or you removed all the beneficial bacteria the rocks had (also likely)

Test for ammonia spike.

You may have started your cycle again from scratch.

 

[MeMyFishandI]

Run some carbon in there right away to hopefully soak up any chlorine and for gosh sake, take any of the bleached rock out of the tank. Do a big water change and cross your fingers. Keep using Colony as well since you've likely lost your bio filter.

I’d do all of those and also add a large dose of Prime to the tank.

 

[1Clown]

Run some carbon in there right away to hopefully soak up any chlorine and for gosh sake, take any of the bleached rock out of the tank. Do a big water change and cross your fingers. Keep using Colony as well since you've likely lost your bio filter.

I've done one water change today, around 30%. I'll put my filter in and add carbon and do another water change tomorrow. All of the rock is bleached, so I won't have any in the tank if I take it all out and nothing for bacteria to settle on. Ammonia today was 0.5ppm using Salifert.

 

[amps]

In the future, let the rock sit out in the sun for a week after soaking it in RO. If you can still smell chlorine when you shove your nose into the rock, soak it again and let it sun dry a day or two longer.

 

[amps]

I've done one water change today, around 30%. I'll put my filter in and add carbon and do another water change tomorrow. All of the rock is bleached, so I won't have any in the tank if I take it all out and nothing for bacteria to settle on. Ammonia today was 0.5ppm using Salifert.

I would still pull the rock, it's likely doing more harm than good. Assuming you have sand in the tank, you'll still have a biofilter. Do you have any Seachem Prime? Might be worth doing a double dose.

 

[1Clown]

I would still pull the rock, it's likely doing more harm than good. Assuming you have sand in the tank, you'll still have a biofilter. Do you have any Seachem Prime? Might be worth doing a double dose.

No sand, in the UK the sun is extremely rare so letting it dry out will be a waiting game. Zero chlorine smell when I took it out of the RO yesterday, could smell bleach from the tub though. I don't have any Prime or Colony at hand I'm afraid and LFS aren't well stocked either.

 

[TheHarold]

Was it generic, unscented bleach? There are some weird variants out there

 

[Sebastiancrab]

I would add a dose of Seachem Stability or possibly Dr. Tim's to get some more bacteria going in your tank. Can't hurt and it would be a thing to do to be on the safe side.

 

[Sebastiancrab]

Petco has Prime and Stability. Petsmart probably does too.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Cold water rinse in running water and then sun dry
Sorry for your losses. It can be very disheartening and discouraging

 

[Cell]

Was it splashless bleach? Standard bleach did not cause this issue.

Am I understanding correctly you removed all current rock and replaced with all new, bleached rock?

 

[Thaxxx]

That plastic tub is absorbing the bleach. So when you soak your rocks in new water, the tub is leaching bleach back into the rocks. I would get a separate tub for final soak only.

 

[1Clown]

Was it splashless bleach? Standard bleach did not cause this issue.

Am I understanding correctly you removed all current rock and replaced with all new, bleached rock?

It was this stuff and yes you understood correctly about the rock.

 

[1Clown]

That plastic tub is absorbing the bleach. So when you soak your rocks in new water, the tub is leaching bleach back into the rocks. I would get a separate tub for final soak only.

I think you're right, would explain why I could still smell bleach from it despite cleaning it thorougly and letting it dry out etc

Shame none of the videos I saw on YT regarding bleaching mentioned using a different tub for soaking afterwards including BRS.

 

[1Clown]

My Bangaii Cardinals didn't make it, such a shame they were a breeding pair too.

So how do I go about ridding my rock of bleach to start over bleach free?