Topic: X Roommate poisoned my fish in my 55 gal. with household chemicals. HELP!!!!!!!!

[rynm]

I have a 55 gal. and had 3 big piranhas and a plecostomus that was about 16 inches long. Had a psycho roommate that went crazy and poisoned them with an unknown household chemical. (needless to say he went to jail and will possibly be getting his head thumped for animal cruelty. What would be the best thing to clean and neutralize any chemical he may have poured in the tank? I have boiled the crushed seashell and was thinking vinegar and maybe baking soda for the chemicals to be neutralized. Please any feedback would be great I have been a member of this forum for a yr and a half and u have all been more than helpful and have given me excellent ideas thanks again for your replies! I will be forever grateful =) Thanx and HAPPY FISHING!!!

[Snapple]

Wooooooow that is horrible! Did any of your fish make it? vinegar is a great way to disenfect your fish stuff I use it all the time over bleach. Just make sure after you soak it in I think it's 1/2 hot water 1/2 vinegar (I do over night just to be safe) you rinse it over and over and over again! I have never triend useing baking soda before so I cant say anything on that. If you have a sensitive noise sniff it up and if there is any trace of the vinegar rinse some more. If not ask a friend to do the nose test. If you dont smell anything rinse again with hot hot water one last time to be super sure. Do the same with your tank if you can afford that much vinegar if not then hot hot water and a scrub brush that does not have soap in it. You can buy a tank cleaner to use for the inside of your tank i dont remeber the brand but I know I've seen it some where before that is advertised to be safe to use on the inside of the tank thats what I use for my big tanks when I move and feel the need to scrub them before I reset them up instead of soaking with vinegar since buying over 40 gallons of vinegar is just not money wise. Hope this helps and good luck getting everything back up to par!

[Cholly]

That seriously sucks! I've had stuff poured in tanks, but it was by a little kid that thought she was helping clean the tanks.

I'd probably get new substrate, definitely get rid of any wood that was in there, there's no telling how much chemical the wood soaked up, nor for how long it would release it. Vinegar might work on the seashell, but be ready for the chemical reaction between acid(the vinegar) and base(the shells) It will probably foam like mad, but I'm thinking that could be a good thing in this case.

I would get rid of any pads or filter floss, they could hold onto chemical and it's pretty certain it already killed your beneficial bacteria, in many ways they're more fragile than fish.

White vinegar is a good biological cleaning agent and it's fairly easy to tell if further rinsing is needed due to the stink.(Plus it's really cheap if you get the store brand!)

A bleach solution one part in ten of water is usable in a situation like this, but rinse like crazy and let dry thoroughly. The chlorine will go to gas form and evaporate. The other option to drying is just adding some extra dechlorinator, but you still have to rinse like crazy. I'd probably do both because I'm slightly paranoid.

[RinsMom]

I would really hesitate using bleach, since you don't know WHAT chemical he used....

Bleach can react rather violently (toxic gas) when mixed with ammonia, for example...  it makes chlorine gas!

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_happens_when_you_combine_bleach_and_ammonia.

[ruthcatrin]

yah, without knowing what was poured in the tank avoid bleach, for your sake it nothing else.

get rid of any wood, filter media, and probly any porus rock (such as lava rock) or plastic (and possibly the filter itself....).  Vinegar and water only for cleaning as frustrating as thats going to be, but the worst vinegar will do is raise your PH (baking soda might be ok too, I'm not familer with the cleaning stuff Snapple suggested, but its probly worth looking for).  For cheap vinegar (if you're in the states anyway) look for apple cider vinegar, its very inexpensive. I'd also highly consider new substrate and all new decor, its hard to judge how much of the chemicals such things will soak in.

My biggest concern is that sometimes the silicone used to seal glass tanks can soak up chemicals and although large quantities of declorinator will take care of any chlorine theres so many more things it could have been.  For example copper based meds can soak into the silicone and then leach out later (killing snails and the like).  I highly recommend that you spend a couple months with very inexpensive fish in the tank once you set it back up.  If they start dying off you may have to ditch the tank.

[Cholly]

Good catch RinsMom and Ruth! I wasn't thinking about that because I never use bleach due a sensitivity to the stuff(If they use chlorine in a pool, I can't use it. I can't even be in the same room if it's indoors.)
Chlorine is pretty evil stuff.

[ruthcatrin]

I use bleach pretty regularly to clean up stuff for the fish tanks cause its an easy "fix" and its easy to neutralize, but yah, it can be very bad.

[rynm]

Thanx to all for the advice you have all been VERY helpful! I knew about vinegar and wasn't real sure about baking soda (I do know that it will neutralize some chemicals) Just wasn't sure if it was fish friendly. I never use bleach usually try to stick with more natural stuff. I have a very pricey canister filter so I cleaned it well and replaced all the filters and different types of media that were in it. I soaked my crushed seashell in vinegar and then boiled it for awhile. The seashell is $25 a pound so I wanted to save it if at all possible. So far so good Ive had the tank running and put platy's mollies and gouramies in it and they seem to be doing fine so far actually 2 of the platy's are pregnant  on to the next question now lol. How long are platys prego and should I separate them so all the other fish don't eat their fry? If so what would be the best way to separate them because I've also heard the mothers will eat the fry. Any suggestions??? Please and Thanx in advance   

[Cholly]

I wouldn't worry too much about saving the babies or you'll be overrun in short order. One mating can supply a female live bearer with enough sperm for 3 or more clutches of fry, they can and do store it in their bodies. Egg layers are different, they fertilize the eggs outside the females body as they're laid.
What I do is supply some ground cover to hide in like guppy grass, real or fake, it doesn't matter. Just give them somewhere to hide, and the fastest/smartest will survive. You'll still be overrun eventually, but it will take a lot longer. Even 3 survivors a batch add up pretty quick, because they'll drop fry every 28 days or there about, depending on food and temperature.

[ruthcatrin]

From my own experience with guppies I'd not worry to much about saving the babies.  Trust me, enough will survive to keep you in fish for longer than you can imagine!

Actually watching the babies grow up will probly give you the best idea of what state the tank is in (in reference to recovery from the chemical overload).  Keep a close eye on them!