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View Full Version : ACK! Someone poured BEER in my tank!



JamesBenjamin
01-31-2003, 5:03 PM
and it was BUDWIESER at that! not even newcastle, or anything good!

thankfully it was in the 'feeder' tank (10g) that we use to house feeders before they are 'served' to the oscar...

so we had some people over last weekend, and one of our 'guests' thought it would be funny to 'give the fishies some beer', so he poured some in the feeder tank, I saw him do it, and immediately put some water from the large tank in a clean pitcher and netted the four feeders into the pitcher.

the next morning, before work i noticed that the water in what was the feeder tank had turned milky white, and the top had a film that looked like marble.

after work i rinsed the tank with hot water, and used a dish sponge to get the last of the slime off the inside, then rinsed it again. i didnt put any soap on the sponge, but it did foam a tiny bit, i figured it would be ok if i rinsed it well.

i then bought 5 new feeders, fed him one, and put the other 4 in the pitcher the others WERE in. (the original ones that were in the tank when he poured the beer in were allready fed to the larger fish) the next morning one of the remaining 4 was dead, in the pitcher. (no big deal, they die sometimes)

well, yesterday I filled the tank back up, with de-clorinater and put the remaining 3 feeders in it. my room mate fed one to the oscar that night, and then today the last 2 were in the tank, DEAD!

so.... 3 things could have killed them:

the remnants of the beer? probly not
tiny bit of soap residue that i hadn't noticed? possibly...
they were a bad stock of feeders? possibly...

what do you think? AND what can i do to clean that tank again, WITHOUT soap? just rinse it alot? I know you shouldn't use soap ever, but that beer scum wasnt coming off without some help from some kind of soap, i only used what was on the sponge to begin with, it wasnt much and i rinsed very well after...

wow, thats a long post.

thoughts?

GobyGuy5
01-31-2003, 5:43 PM
You could try using RO water, if it's practically pure it should do a much better job rinsing than tap water would..............

I'd see of any other feeders survive in that tank, if they don't rinse 'er out somemore!

pinballqueen
01-31-2003, 6:43 PM
A very weak bleach water solution should take care of the rest of the beer residue. Just be sure to rinse repeatedly and use a dechlorinator before refilling. Also be aware, you'll have to start the tank cycle all over when you do this.

Maybe you shouldn't have invited that guy....

Some people can be so insensitive... I would make him buy new feeders (but that's just me...)

JamesBenjamin
01-31-2003, 7:15 PM
4 feeders at 12 cents each is still only 88 cents... and the tank wasn't cycled, all he did was annoy the **** out of me, and then everyone else that was over gave him dirty looks.

the best part though? the girl he had been talking to got this 'awww! poor fishies!' look on her face and refused to talk to him for the rest of the night!

HA!

thanks for the info, hopefully the bleach will clear it up.

pinballqueen
01-31-2003, 7:21 PM
Does he know they were feeders and only cost a dime each?

I bet you could get a few bucks out of him if you really tried... that is, if he feels at all guilty about it...

Why not milk the situation for what you can....;)

Dangerdoll
01-31-2003, 8:36 PM
ugh....this happened to me when I was in highschool.....the whole tank turned white like you said. The way I fixed it was I emptied the tank, rinsed it really well and all deco....filled it back up and kept constant water changes going (about 50% every other day). I don't remember how long it lasted and unfortunately I didn't catch the person in the act and lost the tank full...... a nightmare, I know what you're going through but just thank your lucky stars it was just the feeder tank and not the Oscar. Not to say it's any better, but the fish were dinnedr plate servings anyway.....

amy
01-31-2003, 10:14 PM
Would running carbon in the tank help? I don't think it would hurt anything besides your wallet for a little while.