Using Bleach (NaClO) in a reef tank

[Paul B]

[QUOTE

Don't believe some old time reefers who claimed that higher ORP was necessarily better.[/QUOTE]

Oh NO!!!, Now I have to throw out my ORP meter.

 

[edosan]

If my math is correct! With the addition of 1 ml of 5% sodium hypochlorite to 500 liters you are only effectively dosing 0.1ppm of chlorine to your tank. Which really is not that much. To have an effective kill on most parasites and bacteria you need a concentration of 5 times that of what you are dosing for a contact time of at least 1 hour. Having a reef aquarium at pH=8.0-8.2 greatly reduces the potential of conducting any true disinfection as your tank would need to be pH=6.5-7.5. At this point you are keeping the bleach in the form of hypochlorite. Which has no real effective kill on organisms at that dosage.

Ok, now I have more time to reply.
No interested in kill everything, just looking not to harm any corals, and try to keep in line bad stuff.

If you really want to understand chlorine and the factors that are involved. Research Dr. Trevor Suslow at UC Davis and look at effect of pH on chlorine concentration and the realities Oxidation potentials.

Reading, thanks

If you are truly into experimentation. Why don't you try peroxyacetic acid? Decompositional breakdown is H2 O2 and acetate. The acetata after 30 minutes or less breaks down to H2O and CO2. Although Peroxyacetic Acid (PAA) does not have the oxidation potential of Ozone it is still much greater than that of Chlorine and far greater than that of Hypochlorite.

I do not see the point, why not use H2O2 direct instead of peroxyacetic acid? Acetate = Acetic Acid (already dosing)

I could go on and on with pluses and minuses for all oxidants but my greater interest in this thread is what brought you to contemplate dosing Sodium Hypochlorite to your tank?

That one is already answered.

Thanks for the input

 

[edosan]

Oh NO!!!, Now I have to throw out my ORP meter.

Give it away! do not throw it out!..

 

[edosan]

Interesting read:
http://postharvest.tfrec.wsu.edu/pc2004b.pdf

 

[Val Shebeko]

Following

 

[edosan]

I have increase the dosage a bit 1 ml each 250 liters, all good. 4ml in total, half direct in the tank, half in the sump close to the skimmer

 

[Jumbo]

Do you have shrimps? Any adverse effect?

 

[GEP0934]

Does doing so affect your skimmer? I find that if I don't thoroughly rinse and dry my filter socks after bleaching them -- and sometimes even when I do -- that my skimmer overflows for a few minutes and then goes flat for hours.

I never had that issue

 

[edosan]

Do you have shrimps? Any adverse effect?

I do, no

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

so what positives have you seen since starting this less algea?

 

[rog2961]

i've been doing this to get rid of dinos and it does work for that. I notice after i put it in, pod massacre for 5 minutes or so, but then I look in the tank and they are crawling all over. Same thing with corals, they initially close up, but as the day goes on they open bigger then ever. It seems after the initial shock passes, the benefits increase. I am also running fallow so that is a big part of it, but its a predominately sps tank. I believe i lost my rbta, or it may have taken a walk. Didnt lose anything else.

 

[teller]

OMG! From twilards threads related to Bleach and others H2O2, a common situation is that (even also demonstrated in this thread) : corals get irritated temporarily and copepod die!
So I figure the next reefing break through and technic is to dose something everyday that irritates corals (temporarily) and kills pods.
Good luck!

 

[edosan]

Is all in the dosage.
I found another good thing for bleach, bacterial blooom. I had one a few weeks ago after reseting a 70g frag tank. After a bacterial bloom i dose 2 ml of bleach, 1ml in the morning and 1ml in the evening, with corals and shrimps inside, next day cristal clear water and happy eveything.

 

[rog2961]

my tank has never looked better after bleach. If I dont dose, and give it a day the corals open up much more. Im following up with kno3 and thus far no dinos

 

[rog2961]

nitrate experiment didn't work. Back to trying bleach. Only did it for 3 days, plan on doing it for alot longer now. Does the extended dose affect dinos enough to allow others to out compete?

 

[edosan]

nitrate experiment didn't work. Back to trying bleach. Only did it for 3 days, plan on doing it for alot longer now. Does the extended dose affect dinos enough to allow others to out compete?

Dono, never have try the dinno dosing, is way much of what I dose. Right now I am in 4ml for 300gal aprox. Twise a week. It helps for ich (not a solution tho), specially in fish gills. But is only by observation nothing too cientific.

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

okay so have had dino for a few months now tried everything dino x did a good number but it comes back after a week or 2 what would you suggest as a safe starting number for a 90 dt with 30 gallon sump lps reef keeping fish in it

 

[edosan]

I belive there is dino post specifically for dinos and bleach. Donno about dino

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

there is but I believe no one has tried the bleach route I was going to try it and am wondering a good dose amount to start with it looks like you guys are doing 1ml per 100g

 

[edosan]

In my tank that is pretty safe