HELP!!! Disaster???

[Stix]

I just took some sponges I bought at the store and dipped them in my RO reservoir and washed the salt creep off the top glass braces of my reef tank. It started foaming up so I looked at the bag and it said "100% cellulose sponges. Do Not Use to clean Aquariums!" I'm flipping out here! What do I do? Some of the soapy water got in the tank!

[joefish]

Originally posted by Stix
I just took some sponges I bought at the store and dipped them in my RO reservoir and washed the salt creep off the top glass braces of my reef tank. It started foaming up so I looked at the bag and it said "100% cellulose sponges. Do Not Use to clean Aquariums!" I'm flipping out here! What do I do? Some of the soapy water got in the tank! \

I would say a major water change and new carbon (alot of it) Then pray! If any ill affects More water changes !
Good luck I hope all will go well .

[zebrasoma17]

Crank up the Aerofoamer too and a Polyfilter probably wouldn't hurt either. Good luck.

Al

[Evergreen]

The sponges you get at supermarkets are treated with antibacterials and soaps even if it doesn't say so on the package. Extends their "sinklife".. ever try to wash a pot with a brand new sponge? It doesn't make the dish soap foam up well in the beginning. And it has a yucky smell. Hopefully your tank is large enough to dilute it down a lot and hopefully not a lot got in..

[Stix]

OK about an hour later all is well. The carbon is new as of this week and i just added some more to the bag in the sump. The skimmer pulled out some foam right away and i'm gonna crank the water level up in the skimmer in a little while to get all the foam out and clean out the collection cup and start it up again. The fish, corals, clams, and inverts seem fine and the water cleared up. The fish are eating normally too. The only thing i see different is on colony of button polyps is closed and my branching hammer, all the heads are closed. I think it's gonna be ok. But Holy $***! I was so scared. I just realized that if my tank ever undergoes a serious disaster I think I'll cry and probably have to change my underwear :eek1: :lol: This hobby has a hold on me, I need help!

[Stix]

Just tested my parameters. My nitrates are reading 20ppm! I don't know what they were before cuz I haven't tested in months. How dangerous is 20ppm? I'm mixing up saltwater over night for a water change tomorrow.

[Evergreen]

This is a longshot but perhaps it affected the denitrifying bacteria? I mean, if the sponge had "antibacterials" it might make sense.. who knows. Does your refugium turn on at night? Hopefully your macros will suck up all the nitrate if that isn't a normal thing in the tank..

[JohnL]

Originally posted by Stix
Just tested my parameters. My nitrates are reading 20ppm!

What test kit? Is it measuring NO3+ or NO3-Nitrogen? In the best case, it's kind of high.

[Stix]

John it's a LaMotte test kit.

[JohnL]

Dude, that's bad, man. My Lamotte kit only reads up to 10 PPM NO3-N. You need to multiply that by 4.4 to get at NO3+. :eek1:

[Stix]

no JohnL, my test kit reads at less than 5.0 on the color chart. multiplied by 4.4 its about 20ppm.

[JohnL]

Originally posted by Stix
no JohnL, my test kit reads at less than 5.0 on the color chart. multiplied by 4.4 its about 20ppm.

Oh that's much better. Still kind of high, imo. I've been doing a lot of water changes to try and get mine below 1PPM.

[Stix]

About a month ago they were 0.0-0.5 but I also had a lot more algae back then. For one I think that maybe that red cotton algae I used to have was soaking up nitrates. Also, that stuff smothered my caulerpa in my refugium so now I have no red algae but I also have very little in my refugium, just some spaghetti macro and very little grape caulerpa. It just dawned on my that this may be the reason for high nitrates. What do ya think?

[JohnL]

Originally posted by Stix
What do ya think?

Could be. Seems like a pretty big jump though. Have you been feeding more lately? Water change schedule change recently? Any of those snails die yet?

[Stix]

Been feeding about the same if not less. Since last test only changes have been I started using DTs, only 2 or 3 of the snails died (giving them away in a hurry), and i used to do water changes biweekly but now i do them monthly, sometimes less than once a month. Gonna do one today and see what the test shows.

[pyro383]

Shoot, mine are below 50ppm and I will keep it that way for a long time. As I discussed at a few meetings, I have better growth, fuller polyp extensions and have kept my scallop alive for more than 10 months due to higher nitrates. I am going to add more to the sandbed and just recently put my sump up and about to get a refugium, so that I don't max out on nitrates.

[joefish]

Originally posted by Stix
About a month ago they were 0.0-0.5 but I also had a lot more algae back then. For one I think that maybe that red cotton algae I used to have was soaking up nitrates. Also, that stuff smothered my caulerpa in my refugium so now I have no red algae but I also have very little in my refugium, just some spaghetti macro and very little grape caulerpa. It just dawned on my that this may be the reason for high nitrates. What do ya think?
Is it all gone and how did you get rid of it ?:confused:

[Stix]

The red cotton algae? Mexican Turbo Snails from Premium Aquatics.