# Fish don't care for beer, I find out



## titan97 (Feb 14, 2005)

So, this isn't exactly a algae-specific topic, but it is kinda related. My 8 month old little girl thought it would be fun to play with Daddy's DIY CO2 bottles. Of course, she managed to get about 1 Liter of the stuff into the tank. The next day the tank turned milky white, and my loaches went belly up. Then my otos. I did a 90% water change, but I was still losing my mollies at about 3 per day. I haven't seen my SAE's since the beginning of all of this. My giant pleco has changed from black to brownish-red. I did another 90% change tonight. My ammonia was initially at 0 on D-Day, now it is off the chart (>5ppm). After the water change it is down to 1ppm. No nitrites, no nitrates. No algae other then the BBA that I had before all of this happened. My dwarf sag are failing. My mosses, hornwort, ludwigia, and ferns have died. Only the sword looks "normal". 

I hope I can get rid of this soon.

-Dustin


----------



## titan97 (Feb 14, 2005)

This is Dustin's wife and might I add, our entire office/fishroom smells like ****! 

Help Dustin before I make him sleep in here at night! :axe:


----------



## david lim (Mar 30, 2004)

Ouch. what a cruel daughter! hehe... Water changes are your best bet and possibly having another seeded filter running. A diatom filter to try and clean out all of the junk wouldn't hurt. I can't think up anything else other than waiting it out with daily w/c's. 

As for the smells I would suggest breaking out the candles and potpourri (more to help the wife and save you a slumber party with the fishes). Good luck and maybe this will help you get a foot in the door into pressurized . Good luck, man!

David

Forgot to add: for the plants, rinse them, take them out of the tank and place them into a bucket with clean water. The alcohol is most likely killing everything off including your filter. If you have another tank or filter available I'd recommend moving everthing into a unit isolated from that tank.


----------



## chiahead (Dec 18, 2004)

Sorry Dustin the only process I found was to boil the water, which is obviously not going to happen. I would suggest some carbon filtering along with big w/c's. Good luck!


----------



## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

For the Ammonia you could try some AmGuard or similar. I think Prime would also help.

For the 8 month old daughter I don't have a solution.


----------



## titan97 (Feb 14, 2005)

Well, the diatom filter in on my Xmas wish list along with some other fish/plant goodies, so I've have to wait until then for it. The water changes I can do on a daily basis. The tank looks better this morning, but then again, it looked this way after the last water change, too. At least the smell is way down. I hope the wife doesn't poor bleach in the tank, like she wanted to last night.  

-Dustin


----------



## ranmasatome (Aug 5, 2005)

If she does then she would prob have to contend with the smell of dead fishes and shrimps too...lol

Hope this goes well for ya Dustin.


----------



## titan97 (Feb 14, 2005)

Well, I'm getting ready for another water change tonight. As soon as my boys are finished with Sesame Street and their bath, Daddy gets to tackle the water change. I'll let you know how the tank comes along. BTW, one of my smaller plecos died today. I hope this works its way out soon.

-Dustin


----------



## titan97 (Feb 14, 2005)

I've done another watser change last week, but this morning, the smell is back. When I came back home from work this afternoon, the tank was pretty stinky and cloudy. You would think that 3 90% water changes would take care of all of the yeasties, but not for me. 

Any ideas on how to get rid of this stuff?

-Dustin


----------



## thinkfaster (Oct 3, 2005)

What temp is your water? if you have a few fish left, move them if they need really warm water. Then turn your heaters off or down. That can slow the living/reproducing yeast (if present) down a little bit, while the water changes get rid of the dead yeast and the EtOH. do you have a UV filter?


----------



## ranmasatome (Aug 5, 2005)

wouldn't you turn it up instead?? i would think you would want to make as much of it as possible until no more can be produced..then use a UV filter and kill everything.


----------



## titan97 (Feb 14, 2005)

My temp is hovering near 77F. No, I don't have a UV setup, not a DE filter. Although I have reason to believe that my Magnum filter will be delivered to me via Santa. 

I always believed that yeast needed a food source, aka sugar. Say that my 2 liter bottle had 2 cups of sugar in it, and that half of the bottle went into the tank, then I should have 1 cup of food in the tank. However, 3 water changes of 90% should have brought the concentration down by 99.9%, virtually removing all of the food source for the yeast. You would think that after a week or two, they would have consumed all that was left, and began to starve.

Now, all of this is based on my belief that there is no other source of food for them. Am I wrong? Where is this other food source coming from?

-Dustin


----------



## david lim (Mar 30, 2004)

I believe that the problem stems more from the alcohol dumped into the tank than the yeast themselves. Alcohol will kill everything in high concentrations including preexisting, beneficial bacteria. Once those bacteria die then you have an increase in NH3/NH4+ from all of the death but nothing to fix the nitrogen, hence you have to make many large water changes creating more problems. I think yeast contribute to the overall problem too, but the loss of your nitrogen-fixing bacteria takes its toll on the environment. Have you tried reseeding the tank with bacteria?

David


----------



## titan97 (Feb 14, 2005)

Yes, I have tried reseeding the tank with some used and still wet filter floss from another tank. It didn't do anything.

However, if N-fixing bacteria were the problem, then why do I have a white, cloudy tank that smells to high heaven? Normal tanks that are cycling don't get cloudy like this, nor do they smell this bad. 


-Dustin


----------



## david lim (Mar 30, 2004)

Are your current ammonia/ammonium levels in check? If the yeast are proliferating in the tank then they could also be outcompeting the nitrogen-fixing bacteria. What type of yeast did you use (bread, wine)? The smell could be from things still dying and the cloudiness from (like you said) a bacterial bloom of either yeast or another proliferating bacterium. 

About the yeast species, if you haven't already, set the temp of your tank opposite of what they like (bread yeast make temps cold, wine yeast make temps warm). Are you currently dosing anything in the tank right now (like excel?)?

I'm not a yeast expert but I think they can ascertain sugars in more forms than just glucose (like simple carbohydrates).


----------



## titan97 (Feb 14, 2005)

I'm using bread yeast, and I'm not dosing anything right now. On the first and second water change, I dosed KNO3, PO4, KCl, and flourish. On this last one I didn't do anything other than change the water.

You are right about yeasts being able to utilize more than just sucrose (table sugar). There are all sorts of simple and complex saccharides, from fructose, galactose, maltose, etc. 

I've got plenty of ammonia in the tank, but no nitrites, nor nitrates.

-Dustin


----------



## chiahead (Dec 18, 2004)

I wonder if a H2o2 flush out would help? Maybe dose 2-3 ml per gallon of H2O2 and see if that helps. That level shouldnt harm anything in the tank. Worth a shot maybe?


----------



## titan97 (Feb 14, 2005)

Well, thanks for the advice so far. I went away to San Diego over the weekend, and when I came back, the smell from my tank was gone. I had noticed that it had gone down a lot between Thursday night and Friday morning when I left for the coast. 

However, the cloudiness is still there. I haven't had time to check for NH3, nor NO2. I'll try to do that tonight. My fish are hanging out near the surface, so I'm assuming that my CO2 is getting a bit high. My BBA that had started several weeks ago when I ran out of DIY CO2 is now on the decline. I think I'll start dosing K, NO3, PO4, and micros again. Let's hope that the cloudiness goes away soon.

-Dustin


----------

