Sugar Bombed My Tank

[Rip3618]

Have a WB Reef 100 which had been going strong for a while. Last week I added a gallon of, what I thought (it was a gallon of sugar water we have on stand by for hummingbird feeders and my dumba$$ wasn’t paying attention when I grabbed the jug), was RO water to the ATO reservoir and the water quality had been progressively getting cloudy. I had also recently moved my circulation pumps which were stirring up some sand and thought that was contributing to the cloudiness so I let it go, hoping it would it would settle down. Came home from work yesterday to find the tank cloudy as hell, two fish and two nems dead, one fish barely hanging on and half of my corals looking like they’re on they’re way out.

My fear is the sugar has infiltrating all my biological filtration. Should I just go ahead and get rid of the live rock and sand, tear town the tank and start over or do I have any hope with a some water changes?

 

[jmichaelh7]

This can’t be good .

 

[jmichaelh7]

100% water change. Call it done deal

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

no should never get rid of the rocks and sand. Some folks smarter than me will chime in, but I imagine its similar to dosing vodka, vodka is also high in sugar, but obviously you concentrated it and dosed much more. I'm guessing a super bacteria bloom or something like that, but I don't think its that bad long term. I would do a lot of water changes, and add an airstone until it improves. But I'm just guessing out loud

 

[Doctorgori]

not my tank or risk, but if it were mine I’d do a few 33% WC’s over the next few days and see what happens…. perhaps a PITA but salt is cheap enuff and sugar isn’t that toxic per se…

 

[00W]

Large water changes. Provide plenty of aeration. Tank is starving for oxygen currently. Move livestock over if water changes aren't cutting it.
Everything should come back on line. Large Large accidental carbon dose.
Skimmer should go bananas soon.
No professional just opinion.
Hope that helps.
Joel

 

[Joe31415]

vodka is also high in sugar

No, it's not.
Sugar is used in the making of it, but there's a very little of it, if any at all, remaining in the final product.

 

[elysics]

Yeah large waterchanges. 30% is not large, maybe 60% for the first one, then 80% the next day, or start with 100% if you are relatively certain that your parameters were close to the parameters of the salt.

In the interim, crank up the skimmer for maximum air intake, maybe add a few air bubblers, point pumps at the surface so it gets choppy, the bacteria cloud sucks out oxygen, that's what killed the fish and is making the corals suffer

If the skimmer goes nuts, let it, let it remove everything it wants to, don't let it overflow back into the tank. Watch your salinity though, it might drop, but the large waterchanges hello with with that too

 

[twentyleagues]

You can use vodka, vinegar, or sugar water to carbon dose. Essentially what you've done, just on a very large scale. Like @00W said. Not great but wc should fix most of the issues, how many and for how long not sure.

 

[Rip3618]

Thanks for the advice. Water changes are commencing and will continue over the weekend and into the week. I don’t post much and haven’t posted in a long time. It’s nice to have friends in the r2r community. I appreciate you all.

 

[Rmckoy]

I think the worse that will happen is a large bacterial bloom caused by the sugar ( carbon source )

The sugar will feed other bacteria which is the same as carbon dosing ( vodka dosing )
A few water changes but make
Sure you have good circulation , oxygenation is the most important as excess bacteria will consime
Oxygen