help please spilt coffee in 55 gallon

[navila06]

I accidently spilt a half a cup of coffee in my 55 gallon tank, it had lots of cream and lots of sugar, has anyone else done this. What can I expect in the next few hours or so, only thing I noticed immediate was my skimmer is not producing many bubble and a couple zoas closed up and a couple fish are hiding a little more than usual...any help would be appreciated.

 

[wysiwyg]

do a water change

 

[navila06]

thanks, i started to mix a batch after I cleaned up. It's been about an hour, the fish and corals are back to normal, but the water is cloudy and the skimmer is still producing less bubbles. I just added a new fish about 24 hours ago so I am a little worried about that too.

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

I moved your thread to the current forum.

The best thing to do is a good water change and keep an eye on the parameters. It could be worse. My nephew dumped almost half a bottle of bubble bath in my 16 gallon tank. That was bad.

 

[navila06]

thanks Krista, I was wondering if I put this in the right spot. it's a 55 gallon so i was thinking on a 50% water change. omg bubble bath sounds a whole lot worse. I will check water params now, thanks for your response.

 

[Young Frankenstein]

The sugar could produce a bacterial increase and lower your nitrates , don't panic the corals close with the water changes also anyway do some water change and go slow, no more than 20% every few days

 

[chort55]

The sugar could produce a bacterial increase and lower your nitrates , don't panic the corals close with the water changes also anyway do some water change and go slow, no more than 20% every few days

As long as temp, pH and salinity are the same and other #s are close bigger changes arent horrible. Also, the sugar could be more damaging then just lowering the nitrates if done improperly carbon dosing (sugar, vinegar, vodka...) can be catastrophic to a tank. I would do a decent size (20%+) wc and run carbon (actual activated carbon not the carbon dosing carbon lol) to help clean up.

Since the fish and corals are coming back around it may not be to bad, but carbon dosing doesnt always go bad quick with an overdose. With a carbon source overdose the bacteria levels increase (aiding in the nitrate lowering process), but with an overdose they can increase so much the water becomes cloudy and oxygen levels are depleted. Hopefully all will be ok, and since the op said things are starting to seem better hopefully they will but I would still do a good water change tonight and probably even the next few days wouldn't hurt to help ensure any contaminate levels are lower atleast, and I would also run some carbon even if its just in a cheap hob filter for a few days atleast.

 

[Young Frankenstein]

Agreed a large bacterial bloom will deplete oxygen, increase skimming and aeration

 

[navila06]

thanks all for the advice on this, I already vodka dose so I'm thinking I should skip a few days? The tank is clear now 4 hours later and a 25% water change. the skimmer is running normal and seams to be pulling out the creamer? I am thinking about running my skimmers air line hose outside to keep the oxygen levels up in case of a large bloom . I also have carbon running currently it was changed about 5 days ago so I believe I'm good there. Thanks again...