Soap in an aquarium?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

DanielFZappa

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Mar 21, 2007
Messages
27
Location
Phoenix
When I first set up my tank a few days ago it was filthy from being in storage for a couple years, and I used a hand scrubber that had some soap residue that popped up when it got wet. Just regular old dishsoap.

Now that I am trolling the forums, I see that soap is bad bad bad. My question is this: I am doing a fishless cycle and I'm sure it will take a couple of weeks to complete; Will all the soap residue be gone by then or do I have to empty it and bleach clean the tank?
 
i'd rinse it like the others said, but i cant really see what bleaching will do. soap isnt a bacteria, so bleach wont kill it. If someone knows more on this issue, please let us know what bleaching will and wont do... :)
 
Marconis had a similar issue when he first set up his tank. I believe the main thing he had to do was rinse it out A LOT. Is your water foaming up or anything?

Oh, Marconis.....where are you??
 
Hello!

I highly recommend that you tear the tank down and rinse like mad. First...Are there a lot of bubbles/foam at your surface? If so, are the bubbles "colorful" under the light? Is a white film building up where your heater or filter meet the water?

When I first set up my tank, I acidentally used ammonia with surfactant in it, which is like a soap. It was a very tiny amount, and caused many many bubbles and foam on my water surface. I took my tank down, replaced the gravel and plants, rinsed my big fake rock, the filter, heater, etc. After I filled the tank back up, there was still soap! I did one final rinse of everything, replaced my fake rock, bought sand, a new bio-wheel and everything. Just to be safe. What I did was, test everything one by one for about a day or overnight to see if soap comes up when it's sitting in the tank. You need to have your filter running for this, because for me soap wouldn't come up unless there was water agitation.

For the tank itself, I rinsed with lots and lots of warm-hot water and baking soda. I now have a nice tank with no soap problems, so I highly recommend testing everything before buying new gravel and everything :). Your tank may not be contaminated, but just to be safe....RINSE AND TEST!

If your tank is contaminated, I feel your pain man.
 
No, there isn't any residue at all...or bubbles. I did it when the tank was completely empty and already rinsed the living **** out of it. I am positive I got all of it out of there (even used a wet micro-fiber rag to rub down the entire inside surface).

I just wasn't sure how long the residue lasts. Or if I even have any left.

My dad told me to dump 2 gallons of skim milk in there. He was trying to be funny I guess.
 
DanielFZappa said:
My dad told me to dump 2 gallons of skim milk in there. He was trying to be funny I guess.
8O Only if you're trying to cook up a 90-gallon pot of shrimp bisque.
 
Alright, I guess you're OK then. If you notice any white foam or bubbles with color, then you have soap.
 
DanielFZappa said:
My dad told me to dump 2 gallons of skim milk in there. He was trying to be funny I guess.

He might be onto something there! Soap works by binding to fats & making them soluble in water, so in theory, you can use fats to bind soap to get rid of it. Although, whole milk would be more effective than skim!

But rinsing lots is all you really need to do. Your nitrifying bacteria is prob the most sensitive thing in your tank to any residue soap. So if you can establish your cycle, you don't have enough soap left to worry about.
 
Back
Top Bottom