driftwood

I have a 125gal. saltwater tank,with a bio-ball filter.It has a cloth in it to filter out the big stuff in the water. My girlfriend was trying to be helpfull and washed the cloth in bleach water,but she didn't rinse it out very good befor she put it back in. now my fish seem to be dying. they won't eat and there breathing is labored. I have a lionfish(about 11 inches long), A striped grouper(8 inches long) and a spotted grouper(9 inches long). Is there any way I can nutralize the bleach in the tank. I did a 30% water change imeadiatly but didn't seem to help much. HELP PLEASE ANYONE! I DO NOT WANT TO LOOSE MY FISH! I WOULD RATHER GIVE UP THE GIRLFRIEND!!! PLEASE PLEASE ANY SUGGESTIONS.

Luniyn

If it's regular "chlorine" bleach, then use your tap water treatment chemical to get rid of it (Prime, NovAqua+, Amquel+, AquaSafe, whatever). If not then a much larger water change is needed. And then another one right after that. Do a 50% water change and then the moment you get done do another 50% water change. Each time you do this you will lessen the concentration of bleach in the water. The idea is to get it down so it isn't as toxic of a level. You'll have to keep doing water changes until the water quality gets better over the next few days. Good Luck!

driftwood

thanks Luniyn yes it was just a cheap laundry bleach.

sirdarksol

Fish are the only pet that you should use bleach around, because as Luniyn suggested, the chemicals we use to neutralize chlorine in our tanks will also deal with the chlorine in bleach (You may want to use a bit extra of the chemical to dechlorinate your water. Bleach can introduce much more chlorine than is put in by municipal water sources). Note that this doesn't mean you should use bleach while your fish are in the tank, it just means that it's easier to fix if an accident introduces bleach to the tank.

Luniyn

One thing to note though is that it will kill your good bacteria and possibly lead to a mini-cycle or in worst case a full cycle from scratch. So keep an eye on your ammonia and nitrite levels to make sure they don't start to go up.