Using Bleach (NaClO) in a reef tank

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I wash my filter socks in bleach, rinse and let air dry before putting them in my sump so I suppose I am inadvertently dosing bleach with no adverse affects. I always wondered about this so I'm glad to see this post. BTW; what does ORP stand for?

ORP is the oxidation/reduction potential. It is a measure of the relative oxidizing and reducing power of the water. I know that doesn't say much to many folks, but it is a very complicated measurement that its its ultimate root in seawater, may primarily reflect the relative amounts of trace metals in more oxidizing states (e,g., ferric iron, Fe+++) and more reducing states (e.g., ferrous iron, Fe++).

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

 

[vic5hands]

For those who thing I have a simple tank, here is a few Pic of my DT, those pictures where taken a few weeks ago, dosing where on:











More pictures? check my signature, page 4
(One year old tank)

What size tank

 

[edosan]

Arround 1200 lt with sump, 190x70x70cm + sump

 

[badd]

I started with @twilliard metro thread.. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-dinos-a-possible-cure-follow-along-and-see.253917/

Did the metro.. seen a little dino die off..nothing to say it worked... So the thread morphs to a bleach thread.. So I did the .003/% x gallons .. for 3 days twice a day dosed 1.5ml.. by the last day.. I could see what was once snot bubble string infected rocks ..to nice rock again... but there was a out break of GHA after ... I have still dosed 1.5ml once every other WC.. been just about 3 months..from the reef cancer to now.. I wont say I'm dino free for fear of jinking myself..I lost 2 emerald crabs.. not sure when..but sometime in that time frame.. my BTA bleached out..but is slowly looking better...other than that..only thing i lost was brown snot strings lol... I would not recommend this.. unless you are on your last leg.. and ready to pull the plug..
I am no expert my any-means!!!!!! use at your own risk.. bleach does kill.. living things.. but in my case ..I like the results

 

[edosan]

I started with @twilliard metro thread.. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-dinos-a-possible-cure-follow-along-and-see.253917/

Did the metro.. seen a little dino die off..nothing to say it worked... So the thread morphs to a bleach thread.. So I did the .003/% x gallons .. for 3 days twice a day dosed 1.5ml.. by the last day.. I could see what was once snot bubble string infected rocks ..to nice rock again... but there was a out break of GHA after ... I have still dosed 1.5ml once every other WC.. been just about 3 months..from the reef cancer to now.. I wont say I'm dino free for fear of jinking myself..I lost 2 emerald crabs.. not sure when..but sometime in that time frame.. my BTA bleached out..but is slowly looking better...other than that..only thing i lost was brown snot strings lol... I would not recommend this.. unless you are on your last leg.. and ready to pull the plug..
I am no expert my any-means!!!!!! use at your own risk.. bleach does kill.. living things.. but in my case ..I like the results

Thanks for sharing!, I remember that reading. Yeah, IT IS DANGEROUS! I only have done this after like 6 months testing, and 2 months in the DT.
I do like the results too in general.

I´ve read some comments on Facebook on the @revhtree post ... jaja funny! Everyone have an opinion

 

[badd]

Thanks for sharing!, I remember that reading. Yeah, IT IS DANGEROUS! I only have done this after like 6 months testing, and 2 months in the DT.
I do like the results too in general.

I´ve read some comments on Facebook on the @revhtree post ... jaja funny! Everyone have an opinion

I agree.. whats the point.. either give up reefing or try to save what ya have.. like mine really called for 1.7ml.. just to be safe..if there is such a thing..i only use 1.5ml.. didnt lose any fish.. but some have used the exact amount by the formula and have had fish die.. so what is really safe? is what we need to figure out..

 

[edosan]

I agree.. whats the point.. either give up reefing or try to save what ya have.. like mine really called for 1.7ml.. just to be safe..if there is such a thing..i only use 1.5ml.. didnt lose any fish.. but some have used the exact amount by the formula and have had fish die.. so what is really safe? is what we need to figure out..

Me on the other hand no problems but ich, but ich is not killing anything (over a year, but I do not like see fishes scratching or with ich gill breathing, after a while you know when they are not confortable), & I just like to experiment, I am naturally curious. I do belive excess are bad in everything so is about to find out how much is excess... (so totally agree with you)

How many gal or liters is yor tank?

 

[badd]

How many gal or liters is yor tank?

46 gallon bowfront.. I would say it will manage or even kill ich..if run thru the whole cycle.. worth testing anyway.

 

[edosan]

Whow, 1.5ml for 46 gallon, that is a lot
I dose 1 ml for 132gal aprox, nothing compare to you. (test kits seringes of 1ml are great for that)

So we have some data to compare...so far, hope others can share too

mine is more like a profilactic treatment.. with hopes to give fishes a rest on ich, but colateral efects are good so far.

I have tridacnas, Shrimps (all main 3), and 80% of my corals are SPS, I have lost NOTHING and I see, better polyp extention, cleaner glass, lower ich incidence (still there tho), among others. SPS do slime when I dose as inmediate response. So far I do not see anything wrong, water change only once per month or when I see specific problems.

 

[DanP-SD]

I wash my filter socks in bleach and never had an issue. I typically never wait once they are clean to put in the tank

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.

 

[Scott.h]

I'm fairly skeptical on the whole orp deal myself. My mindset was to start dosing orp but there is a lot of contradictory stuff out there. The end result was monitoring but doing nothing to change it. This tank is a newer tank (6mo?) but orp hangs in the high 200s. It's understocked and over filtered. More importantly everything is healthy and doing great. So if mine is considered "low" why? And why raise it 100 points?

In your case having ich would be a reason I guess.. if it works. But I've "uneducatedly" become a skeptic of the whole deal

 

[edosan]

I'm fairly skeptical on the whole orp deal myself. My mindset was to start dosing orp but there is a lot of contradictory stuff out there. The end result was monitoring but doing nothing to change it. This tank is a newer tank (6mo?) but orp hangs in the high 200s. It's understocked and over filtered. More importantly everything is healthy and doing great. So if mine is considered "low" why? And why raise it 100 points?

In your case having ich would be a reason I guess.. if it works. But I've "uneducatedly" become a skeptic of the whole deal

Mmm I dont think if I get your point. Orp imo does not matter much on a specific number, (meaning in the 200 or 300 or 400 range is fine and depends on a lot of factors) is just an observation on flutuations when you dose, We are not discussing a number, just fluctuations. In order to try to understand oxidation, but never a fact or saying is important. (or doing this for rise ORP)

Up or down depends un several factors, so dont get what you mean. You are right to be skeptical tho

All this is not focus on ORP, and is not about getting high or low ORP.

 

[marinelife]

I had a thread like this before
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bleach.274093/

I never tried it by my LFS never had issues dosing.

 

[tjnorthdakota]

So I don't really suggest doing this but I maintained a 45g tank for my grandparents, mostly soft corals with a few scattered lps and one or two montis, to make a long story short it was starting to get some algae growing in it so my grandpa put a cap full of household bleach in the tank, well it works in the cattle watering troughs he said. I noticed something was different when I visited next because the tank was completely algae free, when he told me what he did. Nothing was the worse for wear, but I still proceeded to dechlorinate the whole tank anyway. Probably just got lucky.

 

[edosan]

I had a thread like this before
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bleach.274093/

I never tried it by my LFS never had issues dosing.

That is the thread ive read! Thanks for that!

After reading this my test and trials started :

Possible velvet irradication. Many warnings inside.

https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?threads/Possible-velvet-irradication.-Many-warnings-inside..260088/

PS: Just edit the first post to add this link, because that post was my trigger to star "bleaching!

 

[Scott.h]

So you are adding bleach with a goal to raise orp, or just using bleach to keep that orp number the same?

 

[edosan]

So you are adding bleach with a goal to raise orp, or just using bleach to keep that orp number the same?

Hi Scott, easy answer, NEITHER.

ORP is just a data, not a goal. I really do not care for ORP as long as it stay in the range that usually does.
The goal of adding Bleach is to try to keep bad things on the reef in the low end, that is: Dinos, Velvet, Ich, bad bacteria, and so on. By no means erradicate (at least on my side, but if it does, even better) or play with ORP.

Other efects are crystal water (better light penetration), coral slime reaction (they clean themselfes), better polyp extention. All based on simple observations. And please, remember this is an experiment on my side, IT IS DANGEROUS.

ORP goes up with "oxidators" and also goes down with for example Vitamin C or Dead fishes (It helps to alert about it). But the goal with ORP (IMO) is to keep it in a range. If goes up and down it give you an alarm, that something is going on in your tank, that you can or can not see.

 

[Bio-nut]

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.

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.

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 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?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

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.

I don't know about the rest of what you posted, but why do you think acetate breaks down to CO2 and water and how did you get that time of 30 minutes? It doesn't break down on its own. It can be taken up and metabolized by organisms (which is why many people dose acetic acid), but it is perfectly stable on its own.

 

[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.

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.

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 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?

Thanks I will look into it

What brought me into this is to find a way, reef safe, to balance bad stuff (any) with bleach, my goal is not to desinfect, is just balance, but if any coral show signs of problems then I will stop. [emoji108]