Reefs.org Forums

[tommyfishpr]

Hello.

I am looking into bleaching out some of my systems and was wondering if there are any tips on this.

How much? What would be the quickest way to get things up and running again.

I was going to bleach for a at least 12 hours, drain water, add fresh water and run for another 12 hours, fill again with saltwater and get thing going from there.

What you all think?

Thanks.
T Nelson.

[jhemdal]

What are you looking to accomplish? Sterilization for bacteria, killing metazoan parasites, oxidizing organics in the piping? A 1:10 bleach/water solution for an hour is thought to deactivate 100% of the bacteria and parasites, and also will oxidize some organic slimes. However, at that level, it takes much more than a rinse to clear out all of the residual.

Drinking water is around 2ppm free chlorine. I think for a running system, 100 to 200ppm would take care of most nasties, without having too many issues with rinsing. To calculate 100 ppm, you multiple 100 by the gallons of the system, and divide by 266. This gives you grams (or ml) of product to use. Remember though, that bleach is usually only 5% sodium hypochlorite, and only part of that will be free chlorine. At the very least, multiple the result by 20 to give you the ml of bleach to add. Also, too many household bleaches now contain surfacants and perfumes, etc. Some even use other bleaching compounds. I get my "pure" bleach from Gordons Food Service.

Ultimately, you will need a free chlorine test kit to make certain there is no residual bleach.....

Jay Hemdal

[tommyfishpr]

Thanks.

I am now working on it.. lets see how much trouble I get myself into.......

T Nelson.

[dkarc]

For cleaning/sterilizing a system, look into the use of Virkon Disinfectant. It has many advantages over bleach. Only draw back is it's around $90 for a 10lb bucket.

-Ryan

[GreshamH]

For cleaning/sterilizing a system, look into the use of Virkon Disinfectant. It has many advantages over bleach. Only draw back is it's around $90 for a 10lb bucket.

-Ryan

But a 10lb bucket goes a long way

[PSLive]

I have bleached out or instructed on the bleaching out of between 500 and 1,000 aquariums at my old job. The ratio mentioned above for bleach is what I have always gone with. I also agree with the note about doing a lot of rinsing to get it all worked out. I would typically do plenty of rinsing out with fresh water, and also used some dechlorinator in the tank as well for what it is worth.

As far as I know we never had any issues related to the bleaching once everything was put back online.

[bobimport]

I nail it with formiln works it way out of the system faster and i can reuse the water.

el chepo