Yeast in tank :,(

[Andrew.]

Well, I was on my second DIY CO2 bottle and yeah ... some yeast got in there.

My first bottle went completely fine, nothing bad happened, plants did extremely well.

The second bottle, which I created yesterday, foamed up overnight. The water is cloudy at the moment. I did a 30% water changed and rinsed off the filter pad. I don't think that too much went in there. I did a search and read the posts about the entire bottle or half the bottle going in there.

My fish are still alive as well. How often should I do water changes to clear this up? People in the other threads said keep doing 50% water changes, but mine isn't on a scale that large. How much and how often should I do to clera this up?

Yes, I should have had the second bottle to catch this stuff, but it was fine the first time.

:( Thanks.

[geofied]

Huh, never had this problem. Haven't seen anything to suggest this is catastrophic either. You seem to be doing the necessary changes, so I'd go by appearance and smell to make sure things are getting cleared up. "The solution is dilution" as they say.

By the way, I don't think most folks have a second bottle, so don't feel so bad. I'm wondering if a check valve would have reduced the impact a little though?

[Andrew.]

The water smells normal. :) I had a check valve. It has some of the gunk on it too so I through it out.

[plantling]

Sorry to hear of your mishap. I've got two 2-liters going in my 29 also and have feared mishaps but luckily haven't had any. I agree with geofield, just keep doing water changes every day or other day until the water is clear again.

[jessicar613]

Your fish should be fine, that happened in my tank too. The fish didn't even notice. Just keep doing pwc until its clear. :) I just did a couple *large* water changes, like 75 percent, it was fine.

[Squawkbert]

I agree - a large PWC or two will probably do it. Check the plants and be sure they aren't slime coated - a good tapwater rinse followed by an aquarium water dip should fix it if they are.

my own old spilled reactor thread w/ pics (http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91838)

[Andrew.]

The water cleared up pretty good last night. I rinsed off the filter pad before going to sleep. This morning, the water was crystal clear. I rinsed off the pad again and did a 25% water change just in case. It looks back to normal at the moment. :) I don't see any slime or anything either. :) Thanks guys.

[vic46]

The water smells normal. :) I had a check valve. It has some of the gunk on it too so I through it out.

A check valve only works one way. It is likely that your check valve would be intended to avoid a siphon FROM the tank and not something entering the tank. Otherwise, you would never have injected any CO2 into your tank as the check valve would not allow "downstream" flow.
Vic

[vic46]

The "must" from your DIY CO2 system could have varying degrees of toxicity. A product of fermentation is ethyl alcohol which is not likely to be good for fish. The level of the alcohol depends on how long the fermentation process has been underway. I would suggest that you continue to do fairly large daily W/C's and keep a real close eye on your fish particularly sensitive fish such as fish with skin (loaches etc,) angels, etc. If you see some distress increase the water changes and clean part of your filter regularly. However, be careful not to crash your bio-filter.
Vic

[247Plants]

A product of fermentation is ethyl alcohol which is not likely to be good for fish

Not necessarily true. A lot of reefers use vodka in their tanks to introduce an algae bloom to lower nitrates.

[vic46]

Not necessarily true. A lot of reefers use vodka in their tanks to introduce an algae bloom to lower nitrates.

I was not aware of that however, the issue is concentration of the ethyl alcohol. That coming from a fermentation process may well be much stronger than from a commercial product - 80 proof, 40%x volume. The ethyl alcohol in the vodka dosing is absolutely controlled whereas the accidental dosing from DIY CO2 is absolutely uncontrolled. Taking the precautions would be mush wiser than hoping that the concentration is not toxic. Also, we are talking about a freshwater aquarium, not a marine aquarium.

[J double R]

Your fish should be fine, that happened in my tank too. The fish didn't even notice. Just keep doing pwc until its clear. :) I just did a couple *large* water changes, like 75 percent, it was fine.


;)

[Squawkbert]

I was not aware of that however, the issue is concentration of the ethyl alcohol. That coming from a fermentation process may well be much stronger than from a commercial product - 80 proof, 40%x volume. The ethyl alcohol in the vodka dosing is absolutely controlled whereas the accidental dosing from DIY CO2 is absolutely uncontrolled. Taking the precautions would be mush wiser than hoping that the concentration is not toxic. Also, we are talking about a freshwater aquarium, not a marine aquarium.

No. You're confusing distillation w/ fermentation (I think). DIY CO2 yeast croaks once the EtOH concentration gets to ~12% (assuming baker's yeast is used - ~15% for beer/champagne yeasts). Assuming that the CO2 jug was about done, that would put EtOH at ~10% of the CO2 jug's liquid volume - that's probably pretty small compared to the tank's volume. If it was a 2L bottle, really full, that would be ~200mL EtOH. All of that added to a 40L tank, would almost certainly cause a problem, but I think we were dealing with a small % of the DIY bottle's contents going into the tank, and it was a large enough tank... no problem.

The note about check valves is correct, they won't prevent this from happening. A gas trap, and/or securing your DIY bottle to something upright are the best means of preventing aquarium contamination.

[Andrew.]

A check valve only works one way. It is likely that your check valve would be intended to avoid a siphon FROM the tank and not something entering the tank. Otherwise, you would never have injected any CO2 into your tank as the check valve would not allow "downstream" flow.
Vic

I know how a check valve works silly! I just said that because:

I'm wondering if a check valve would have reduced the impact a little though?



Which I would assume it "did" reduce some of the solution from going into the tank as there was solution inside the check valve. Reduce as in "slow down" the solution.

[OnyxFishies]

I've had this very same problem in the past: Yeast in the fish tank. I've got four very (not!) helpful cats, and one of them apparently thought that the 2-Liter yeast bottle I had needed to be dumped in it's side. I kept the bottle fairly full, (one lesson learned.. half full is probably better) and had the yeast bottle standing free next to the tank (another lesson learned... put the bottle in a brace/stand of some sort)

The above mishap happened at some point in the night, and pumped about a liter of yeasty solution into my 29gal planted. The end result was a nasty, cloudy, yeasty smelling fish tank that didn't seem to have any effect on the fish at all. The only damage that I could detect was a slime coat on most everything and the pH fluctuated a bit. After a week or so of daily 50% water changes and cleaning the slime everything seemed to be fine. I had a small school of cories, two dwarf gouramis, and a weather (dojo?) loach in there, and they didn't seem to care. The DG's in particular seemed to like to eat the slime, as a matter of fact.:silly:

[geofied]

Thank you Andrew., that was my point exactly :-).

[Andrew.]

No problem. :)

I've had this very same problem in the past: Yeast in the fish tank. I've got four very (not!) helpful cats, and one of them apparently thought that the 2-Liter yeast bottle I had needed to be dumped in it's side. I kept the bottle fairly full, (one lesson learned.. half full is probably better) and had the yeast bottle standing free next to the tank (another lesson learned... put the bottle in a brace/stand of some sort)

The above mishap happened at some point in the night, and pumped about a liter of yeasty solution into my 29gal planted. The end result was a nasty, cloudy, yeasty smelling fish tank that didn't seem to have any effect on the fish at all. The only damage that I could detect was a slime coat on most everything and the pH fluctuated a bit. After a week or so of daily 50% water changes and cleaning the slime everything seemed to be fine. I had a small school of cories, two dwarf gouramis, and a weather (dojo?) loach in there, and they didn't seem to care. The DG's in particular seemed to like to eat the slime, as a matter of fact.:silly:

Yeah, I would suggest lowering the level of the 2 liter bottle to a little bit BELOW where the bottle starts to curve ... lol. I would also say just replace the water as it evaporates instead of cramming all of it in there the first time.

[mellowvision]

I made a second bottle that acts as a gas seperator, so the co2 passes through fresh water before entering the tank, and have eliminated any yeast that I was seeing in the tank.

[jessicar613]

;)


Haha yeah you remember that don't you??? :hitting:

[J double R]

:D

"ZOMG JDUB MY TANK IS BADDDD ZOMGOMGOMG!"


;) j/k... you were pretty upset though.

[justintoxicated]

I had something similar happen when I knocked a bottle over, only it is alcaholic yeast mix inthe tank.

I lost one of my Oto's but the dwarf puffers were ok.

[magakitty]

16% is the absolute highest that naturally fermented alcohol can reach

[magakitty]

Maybe they got a good buzz :dance:

[magakitty]

I had a small school of cories, two dwarf gouramis, and a weather (dojo?) loach in there, and they didn't seem to care. The DG's in particular seemed to like to eat the slime, as a matter of fact.:silly:


This is what I was trying to quote^^^

[geofied]

I had something similar happen when I knocked a bottle over, only it is alcaholic yeast mix inthe tank.

I lost one of my Oto's but the dwarf puffers were ok.

Otos can croak when it rains outside. I wouldn't assume the yeast was the cause.

[Star_Rider]

I made a second bottle that acts as a gas seperator, so the co2 passes through fresh water before entering the tank, and have eliminated any yeast that I was seeing in the tank.

I had this happen twice in different tanks. I did the same thing and added a smaller bottle (gas seperator) now if the yeast gets over active it spills into the seperator

[jjjaks]

I used to have a DIY co2 system and shook up the bottle a little too much. I turn around and the water is super cloudy. After a few consecutive water changes, I found all my angels dead.