Soap or Chlorine?

Dragon Queen

Dragon Queen

AC Members
Feb 17, 2005
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About 2 or 3 years ago my sister-in-law washed her bio-wheel in dish soap, then put it back on the tank(10gal). She lost all of her fish. Since then she has tried to started it back up at least twice with no success, the only items left from that fiasco is the tank and gravel.
Could there still be enough soap on those to kill fish?
She also didn't use any conditioner on her water and put 6 fish in a few day old tank.
I'm just seeing if the soap had anything to do with this last die off or not.
 
I'd say it's possible... but hard to say w/o testing the water. Soap is pretty nasty stuff when it comes to fish. Was the tank cycled properly? If you're sure that it IS the soap and it's a 10 gallon... just buy a new one?
 
Good point, perhaps the question should be soap, chlorine, or ammonia and nitrite? With lots of rinsing the biowheel should be free of soap, but I'd probably replace it anyway, but then, I also don't use a bio-wheel.

Did you or she test her water after the fish deaths started? If so, what were the readings?
 
It's possible that it did, but adding fish to an uncycled tank when you know nothing about cycling is a recipe for disaster. Yes, perhaps the soap played a role, but the fish were in a no win situation to start with. Easiest way to find out is for her to get a new filter or biowheel, I assume that they're replaceable, and for her to start over with your help and knowledge about cycling. That should fix the two biggest suspects.
 
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