Accidentally put Bromothymol Blue in tank....

[afFISHionado]

This morning (before my cup of coffee) I decided to put my final dosage of AlgaeFix in my 29 gallon tank. Instead of grabbing the AlgaeFix bottle I mistakenly grabbed the pH Indicator solution (Bromothymol Blue). After adding 5 drops I noticed the bluish-green color of the drops. I panicked since I had no idea of the toxicity of Bromothymol Blue on fish. Immediately I performed a 50% water change and added carbon to the filter media. It's been 5 hours now - so far, so good. Does anyone know about the toxicity of Bromothymol Blue on fish?

 

[Punkymom]

I have no clue, but I think you did the right thing by doing a 50% water change and adding the carbon to the filter...you might want to do another 50% tomorrow...I would...just to be on the safe side. That must've been scary for ya!!! I've always been afraid of doing that...

 

[William]

Thats why I keep all my testing chems in a box, away from anything else.

 

[sweetsuvvyb]

argh...i had this lovely reply, but somehow it got eaten by the forum.

Anyhoo, I dug up a little spec sheet on a universal indicator (which contains bromo blue). Looks as though it's the alcohol base that'd harm your fish, rather than the bromo...might want to look and see if test is in an ethanol base.

http://www.riccachemical.com/catalog/msds.asp?partno=8870

That being said though....I really wouldn't worry about 5 drops in 29 gallons, esp. with the water change. I'd calculate the teeny tiny parts per million (or billion? trillion?!) on that...but I swore off those calculations once I got outta college

Of course, as always, keep an eye on the tank.