I'm sure this has happened to many of us, and I even expected it to happen to me.. but not this soon. I broke down and bought the fermentation CO2 system made by Nutrafin. I know I could have done it all myself, but it was only $30, and I wanted the reactor anyway. I had it set up for about 36 hours, and my cat tipped the fermentation canister over. (it sits in behind the tank, and was out of the way enough, or so I thought)
Anyway, I walked into my bedroom and looked into the tank and thought "My, that tank is waaaay cloudy!" as the cat scampers off. It had been tipped over long enough to push about half of the solution into the tank. I immediately changed approx 90% of the water, (only left enough for the fish to swim, about 2 inches) that was yesterday. Today I came home from work, and did another 50% water change. The yeast appears to be growing inside my aquarium, I have whitish slimy stringy stuff attached to the tank walls, some of the plants, ect. I removed as much as I could, and figure I'll have to keep this up for a bit. (remove the slimy stuff, 50% or so water changes...) Also needed to rinse the filter pads out, they had bunches of slime in em.
Is there anything I need to do or look out for besides keeping the gunk from taking over the tank? The fish themselves don't seem to mind, and my two dwarf Gouramis keep occaisionally tasting the slimy bits that break free and float around. (they spit it out though... must taste bad) All of the fish are as active and healthy looking as before, and are eating as well.
My check valve I had installed in the CO2 line is being a pain to clean.. wants to stick now.
I figure there wasn't alot of alchohol in the fermentate, (is that even a word?) it had only been producing bubbles for about a day. Sugar I figure is nothing but food for bacteria/yeast/ect, and by itself won't hurt much. (most of it has been removed, anyway.) The baking soda that remains from the "stabilizer" portion of the pre-packaged mix will do nothing but raise the kH a bit. Will an aquarium support yeast growth?
On a bit of a side note, is there a consensus on the reactor that is included in the CO2 kit? (it is alot like a ladder, the bubbles have to travel under slightly inclined ledges, back and forth intill they reach the top of the reactor). They do get quite small as they travel, going from about the size of a "tic-tac" (Normaly airline bubble size, I suppose) to being very tiny at the top of the reactor. Very little of the bubble comes out of the reactor, so it must be disolvine fairly well.
Anyway, I walked into my bedroom and looked into the tank and thought "My, that tank is waaaay cloudy!" as the cat scampers off. It had been tipped over long enough to push about half of the solution into the tank. I immediately changed approx 90% of the water, (only left enough for the fish to swim, about 2 inches) that was yesterday. Today I came home from work, and did another 50% water change. The yeast appears to be growing inside my aquarium, I have whitish slimy stringy stuff attached to the tank walls, some of the plants, ect. I removed as much as I could, and figure I'll have to keep this up for a bit. (remove the slimy stuff, 50% or so water changes...) Also needed to rinse the filter pads out, they had bunches of slime in em.
Is there anything I need to do or look out for besides keeping the gunk from taking over the tank? The fish themselves don't seem to mind, and my two dwarf Gouramis keep occaisionally tasting the slimy bits that break free and float around. (they spit it out though... must taste bad) All of the fish are as active and healthy looking as before, and are eating as well.
My check valve I had installed in the CO2 line is being a pain to clean.. wants to stick now.
I figure there wasn't alot of alchohol in the fermentate, (is that even a word?) it had only been producing bubbles for about a day. Sugar I figure is nothing but food for bacteria/yeast/ect, and by itself won't hurt much. (most of it has been removed, anyway.) The baking soda that remains from the "stabilizer" portion of the pre-packaged mix will do nothing but raise the kH a bit. Will an aquarium support yeast growth?
On a bit of a side note, is there a consensus on the reactor that is included in the CO2 kit? (it is alot like a ladder, the bubbles have to travel under slightly inclined ledges, back and forth intill they reach the top of the reactor). They do get quite small as they travel, going from about the size of a "tic-tac" (Normaly airline bubble size, I suppose) to being very tiny at the top of the reactor. Very little of the bubble comes out of the reactor, so it must be disolvine fairly well.
