SOAP!! Please help!!!

D

dhamilton

AC Members
Nov 30, 2006
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I feel so frustrated right now...I FINALLY finished my fishless cycle and I was about to make a huge water change to get my nitrates down...well, I removed all the water and started replacing it (completely forgetting that I just put laundry soap in the laundry!)...

Needless to say, I got soap in the **** fish tank. I removed all the water and have put 5 gallons back in, removed the water, put 5 more gallons in, removed the water...it's a 46 gallon tank, btw...

It's still soapy whenever I add water not a huge amount of bubbles, but enough for me to know it's still soap...

What do I need to do?? Do I need to tear everything down, wash it, then restart my cycle??? I'm so annoyed...makes me not want the fish tank anymore!!!!

Please help...
 
Was your filter running when you did this? If not I would take the filter off imediately and try to at least save the bacteria on that. If your filter was running or is currently running I'd assume its too late but you could maybe still try and save it.
 
I don't get it. How did soap get in your tank? From what you said it sounds to me like you were taking water from the washing machine and putting it in your tank.

As far as getting the soap out, the only thing you can do is take it all apart and rinse it about a million times with hot water. Which will no doubt kill your cycle.
 
I am also a little confused, however; I am soooooooo sorry to hear this. The suggestion about the filter and using hot water are correct. It sounds like you didn't have any of your fish that you ultimatly wanted in the tank as of yet so this is a good thing. I would highly suggest changing your water system or what ever your using that let this happen to you.
 
I was doing laundry and got soap on my hands from putting the liquid detergent into the washing machine...

I do have a question...

I took some tap water and splashed it around to see what kind of bubbles formed and nothing formed...so I added the dechlorinator, and splashed it around and got bubbles similar to those that I am getting in my tank...is it possible the dechlorinator will cause lots of bubbles? The bubbles do disappear "relatively" quickly (although the bubbles are different and longer lasting than normal splash bubbles...they look like soap bubbles, which is why I was worried about soap contamination)
 
Whaddya know...I just read the dechlorinator instructions and I've been using DOUBLE what I should be using, which is why I'm getting so many bubbles...

Is it ok that I've put in double what I should??
 
If it's Prime, you can use up to 5 times the amount, as it states on the bottle.
 
fballguy said:
Adding extra dechlorinator does not hurt anything.
Click to expand...


Depends on the Dechlorinator, My mom killed almost all of her fish with an overdose of DeCHLOR. she is almost blind and the guy at the LFS told her it was the stuff she normally uses. So she put too much in. So be careful about puting too much of anything in the tank. (Double doses of almost all water conditioners are safe though IME) Just a heads up :)
 
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