Randy- sulfur

Wildreefs · Sep 3, 2020

Hey randy, et all

I am currently letting my tank go fallow for ich. I shut the valve off for sulfur denitrator, but after reading humbles post, I realized having it off can allow the ich can go dormant with no oxygen.

I took it out today, outside and hoses it down. I am now letting the media sit in some bleach, maybe 10 percent bleach to water ratio to disenfect. I know air drying would work, but who knows how long it would totally take to dry.

do you see bleach negatively effecting either media, the sulphur or the calcium? (Think it’s calcium reactor type calcium, ARMS)

xxkenny90xx · Sep 3, 2020

Bump
@Randy Holmes-Farley

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 4, 2020

Bleach may slowly erode the sulfur by oxidizing the sulfur to sulfate. It won't degrade the calcium carbonate, although some may bind to it and I'd want to rinse it really well, maybe use something like Prime on it afterwards.

Wildreefs · Sep 4, 2020

Ok. I did it for 4-5 hours then rinsed. Could I have ruined the sulphur, or just wore some away?

Wildreefs · Sep 4, 2020

And I didn’t use prime, just rinses. This won’t be going back into use for another 2-3 weeks yet, just going to dry now

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 6, 2020

Wildreefs said:
Ok. I did it for 4-5 hours then rinsed. Could I have ruined the sulphur, or just wore some away?

Dissolve away the outside, not ruin any that remains as a solid.

Wildreefs · Sep 6, 2020

Ok so should be good to go then as is. Even if I lost the outer most lasted, I didn’t ruin the core etc.

And do you see any reason why sulphur (pricks) I think would not dry out completely in 2-3 weeks. Not sure how porous it is, and if moisture could be retained for 2-3 weeks out of water .

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 7, 2020

Wildreefs said:
Ok so should be good to go then as is. Even if I lost the outer most lasted, I didn’t ruin the core etc.

And do you see any reason why sulphur (pricks) I think would not dry out completely in 2-3 weeks. Not sure how porous it is, and if moisture could be retained for 2-3 weeks out of water .

Drying out is no concern.

Cory · Sep 7, 2020

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Bleach may slowly erode the sulfur by oxidizing the sulfur to sulfate. It won't degrade the calcium carbonate, although some may bind to it and I'd want to rinse it really well, maybe use something like Prime on it afterwards.

Would hydrogen peroxide do the same thing as bleach? Just curious because i dosed h202 and have a sulphur reactor.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 7, 2020

Cory said:
Would hydrogen peroxide do the same thing as bleach? Just curious because i dosed h202 and have a sulphur reactor.

In an aquarium it is highly diluted and I expect the reaction to be insignificant.

Wildreefs · Sep 7, 2020

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Drying out is no concern.

So it’s feasible to think 2-3 weeks air drying time will sufficiently get me “completely “ dry for parasite killing? I’ll add it’s in an air conditioned room, just want to make sure I have no dang areas in the sulphur to have ich survive

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 7, 2020

Wildreefs said:
So it’s feasible to think 2-3 weeks air drying time will sufficiently get me “completely “ dry for parasite killing? I’ll add it’s in an air conditioned room, just want to make sure I have no dang areas in the sulphur to have ich survive

I’m not familiar with whether it can survive drying out.

rmurken · Sep 7, 2020

Could you heat the sulfur media? It has a low melting point—a little above the boiling point of water, I believe—but perhaps you could boil it in a lot of fresh water with strong circulation (ummm, stirring), and kill off anything that way?

The other thing, and stop me if this is just reefkeeping neurosis, but I tend to think of bleach as being questionable as anything other than a surface disinfectant. So if you’ve got some exotic multicellular spore-like stage of ich hiding in your sulfur media, are you sure *bleach* would get it? Heat may not kill everything either but at least you know it penetrates.

Wildreefs · Sep 7, 2020

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I’m not familiar with whether it can survive drying out.

supposedly ich is dead when it is desiccated. So as long as all the moisture comes out of the sulphur, it will be dead.

so if the sulphur completely dries out, I’m good. That’s what I am unsure about, I know some media and material, like peat moss,
Can stay damp for months.

hoping sulphur is unlike that and it fully dries out