Made a dire mistake last night

debaric

debaric

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Feb 2, 2006
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N.J.
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Im not a newbie but since I made a newbie mistake I am posting here. I added ammonia to my 75 (about 5 ML) to cycle it not realizing that it has "surfectants" in it. I read a few things saying that i need to tear down the tank and start over which is what I am doing, however I do not want to throw out my substrate since I dont have any more soilmaster select and this is going to be a planted aquarium.

If I scrub everything thoroughly and do a a few complete water changes, do you think my gravel will still be ok? I also threw out all filter media and washed down the filter equipment in hot water. :headshake2:

Any advice?
 
I think it will be fine.
 
I did the same thing once. My research at the time suggested that surfactants are very, very bad for fish, so I broke everything down and scrubbed and rinsed forever. Fortunately, I didn't have any substrate in at the time, so I'm afraid I can't tell you much about that. Would it be possible to rinse it out? I've never used Soilmaster Select or seen it in person, so I don't know what it's like.
 
its extremely porous. my dads a bio chemist and he said that the amount of surfectant in the bottle is so small that he doesnt think it iwll have a huge impact on the bioload. He said do a few complete waterchanges to get it out and scrub.

If anyone else can chime in please do so! Thanks!
 
Any "surfactants" in the mix are just organic compounds that reduce surface tension. They aren't going to stay around long term, they aren't going to change your substrate in any permanent way. Especially not when only 0.0018% of the tank volume has been added.

If you're extremely worried, do a couple big waterchanges.

This is not a break-down-and-scrub-the-tank issue, IMO.
 
ok im on complete water change #6 now. Gonna shoot for about 12. im also scrubbing the walls of the aquarium while doing this. Unfortunately i had peat under this gravel too and its all coming up. what a nightmare. This is going to be an all day operation. wish me luck
 
I'd also like to add, why are you cycling a planted tank? If this is a high-tech planted tank, and you completely fill it with plants, they will aid in the cycle and you might not ever see one really.
 
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