What to do when you overdose your tank with 1000ML of vodka

So I screwed up my apex programming and overdosed my system with 1000 ML of vodka overnight on Friday. Luckily my system is 700 gallons, so for the most part it was able to absorb it.

I made a typical mistake of changing something when I didnt have time to monitor it. So Sat morning I went down to check tanks like normal, and noticed bottle of vodka was empty & doser was running non stop.

Everything looked good, so I cranked up the skimmer and left for Christmas at the in-laws. Came home last night and tanks were complete fog, the bacteria bloom had begun.

First thing I noticed was all the filter socks were plugged. Great I thought, you can filter it out. So I quickly changed the socks, and started a slow constant water change.

So this morning to my surprise all the fish, corals, inverts looked fine, but bloom was still in full swing. Changed filter socks again. APEX said ORP was steadily declining, so I added a couple of air stones.

So as of right now, everything still looks good other then the bacteria bloom. Will keep up the constant slow water change and filter socks every 12 hours and wait for it to run its course (I hope).

So lessons to take away.

Dont make changes when you are busy.
Don't panic and freak out if something does happen.
Keep plenty of RO/Salt water always made up, and don't be caught with your salt container empty.
Keep filter socks on hand.
Keep a small air pump & stones on hand.

 

Sounds like a good ending. Did something similar with vinegar although not as much in a short petiod of time and was fine.

Had ATO stick on and dump 15 -20 gallons of kalk and did not fare as well - lost several acro colonies, 2 fish and 3 plate corals (the silver lining here eas that 2 of the 3 plates ended up having babies in their skeletons some months later). We did 2 70 gallon water changes in the first few hours or it may have been worse so being prepared does help as we always have 75 gallons of saltwater and 100 gallons of ro water on hand.

 

Glad things went o.k. and you were able to make a quick recovery. A friend of mine did the exact same thing. He went out of town and when the person came to check on his tank the next day he had a 100% loss.

 

what caused the failure?, I am running my Avast Zeovit off the script I gave you and it runs for just the one minute 3x daily, sorry to hear of this, I hate it when automation fails

 

well I copied the time that my light uses, and just changed the times. I thought I would be safe

 

Really the only big danger is oxygen deprivation. I would personally drop a extra air stone in the display. Overdose of carbon dosing is surprisingly one of the least worrying things that can get overdosed in a reef tank.

 

That is what I am worried about, the ORP has been in a steady decline. I have several air stones going, skimmer very wet, and extra power heads pointing up.

 

How is it?

 

The ORP started dropping really low on Monday, started racking my brain on ways to raise oxygen levels. I already had the skimmer going like crazy 6 air stones, and extra power heads. Tanks were both completely foggy.

So I thought about Hydrogen Peroxide. Started adding 1/2 cup every hour and within a few hours it started clearing up. Last night they were 75% clear and orp was climbing steadlily.

Ended up with 2 dead fire fish, 2 dead wrasses, and 3 dead anthias. Not happy, but could of been much much worse.

Still skimming extremely wet and doing adding new saltwater slowly to make up for wet skimmate.

 

Wow, I am surprised losses were that great. Sorry to hear. Did the fish die before or after the peroxide?

 

I cant tell, the water was too cloudy to see anything, found them after the water cleared up. They all died in the tank that was farthest from the skimmer, so I assume they had the least amount of oxygen. I think the type of fish must of mattered as the clowns and angels in that tank were fine.

 

That seems like a lot of peroxide.. is that much still safe? I've used it to clear cyano up before and have followed a suggested dosing guideline of 1mL/10g of system volume per day. On a 700g sytem the guideline would be 70mL per day while you were dosing around 120 mL per hour. I realize that H2O2 is fairly unstable and quickly breaks down into pretty harmless components but it still seems like a lot to me. But perhaps you were well aware and given the circumstances were willing to pull the trigger.

 

Sanjay once said to never change anything before vacation. I took that to mean only change when you can constantly monitor. That being said, trying new things can lead to great improvements. Let me know if you need to replace some of that coral.

 

I didnt know what the recomended dosages were, I just new that h2o2 broke down into h20 and o fairly quickly. I was looking to boost the oxygen level quickly, killing off the bacteria was an added bonus.

Overall everything looks pretty good now. It is really wiping out the algae I was trying to combat, I just wish I didnt have to sacrifice a few fish to do it.

Sanjay is very wise.