# bromo blue + fish



## hinch (4 Aug 2012)

Ok so I cleaned my tank out this morning then went off shopping came back to see the drop checker laying on its side on the substrate full of water and not bromo blue.

Its obviously come unstuck from the side and fallen off but my question is, is bromo blue harmful to the fish/tank its a 60l tank with another 10l in the external filter + hoses etc. There was only about 2ml bromo blue in the drop checker at the time.


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## Alastair (4 Aug 2012)

I'd pop in some carbon just for safe measure 


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## hinch (5 Aug 2012)

well its really blahblahblahblahed up the water clarity its now like milk instead of being crystal clear.

I've done another water change (2nd today  ) stuck in a big bag of carbon and turned the UV on the filter on don't know if it'll help at all.  I'll do another 20 litre water change tomorrow to be safe.  so far the fish don't seem that bothered they're not behaving oddly or anything so thats a good sign.


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## hinch (6 Aug 2012)

waters almost clear again this morning no fishy casualties.

So lesson to anyone else dropping bromo in their tanks  a few large water changes and a bag of carbon seems to work fine


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## ceg4048 (6 Aug 2012)

Hello,
         I really don't think you need to worry about a few drops of Bromo Blue in a tank. The Bromo Blue molecule is based on the Bromine atom as the name suggests. The toxicological effects of Bromine or Bromide  compounds to fish, plants and invertebrates are low.  You would need to have concentration values approaching 2000 ppm or higher to have any toxic effects. The relatively low concentration of the pH indicator solution combined with the small number of drops used in a dropchecker, when diluted in liters of tank water, means that the concentration of any Bromide formed compounds will be insignificant. You generate a much higher toxicity in your tank by simply feeding the fish. In fact, the CO2 that you are injecting into the tank is hundreds of times more toxic than the Bromo Blue that you are using to measure it.

Having said all that, changing your water and using carbon is always a healthy practice anyway and you should do that all the time in a CO2 injected tank. You will be cleaning out a lot more toxic things from the tank than Bromo Blue, like organic toxins which are produced by the plants and fish themselves...

Cheers,


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## hinch (6 Aug 2012)

I never normally use carbon in any of my tanks but always keep a bag of it around incase.  Though I've recently been considering swapping out the noodles in all the filters for bags of carbon instead with it being active at first and being purely biological after that due to its surface area. Does that sound sensible to you or me being a crazy person again?


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## spyder (6 Aug 2012)

I think Angel fish breeders use bromo blue to help prevent fungus spreading through eggs. Isn't it also used in white spot treatments? As Clive posted, a couple of drops from a DC is no problem.


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## ceg4048 (6 Aug 2012)

Actually, I think the anti-fungal agent is Methylene Blue.



			
				hinch said:
			
		

> I never normally use carbon in any of my tanks but always keep a bag of it around..


I use carbon all the time and I'm gonna use more. There are so many applications where it makes sense and it's is a cheap(er) alternative to a lot of those high priced fancy snake oil media being pushed by companies nowadays. I just mentioned to someone else the other day on a thread that it's great as a filter media, especially when combined with Zeolite, and this combination can even work as a sediment, although aesthetically it probably wouldn't be the greatest. It's got higher surface area than most media, so why not? I don't think you're crazy at all. 

All those claims about carbon releasing it's captured toxins back in the water are totally unfounded, but if you are worried about it then just go ahead and replace it regularly. What's crazy is all those people being convinced that somehow, activated carbon is some sort of outmoded or outdated product which has been superseded by more modern concoctions. But those concoctions are mostly an illusion, and the same properties that the carbon molecule has in forming and maintaining the chemical bonds in all living things (including you) are to some extent, exactly the same properties that allow it to capture and sequester many toxic or unpleasant substances in the water column.

Cheers,


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## hinch (6 Aug 2012)

at the moment i'm just running 1-2 trays of noodles and a couple of course pads in all the filters thats it. i was thinking of just filling the 3 lower trays with thin layers of carbon to allow high flow through them and hopefully the increased surface area of the carbon compensates for there being less actual media in the filter compared to the quantity of the noodles.


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## Ian Holdich (6 Aug 2012)

agree with Clive...i always have carbon in my filters, love the stuff. Again, i agree regarding the old leeching back into the water myth, after reading an article regarding this, apparently there needs to be a massive Ph swing in the tank for this to happen. It was a massive swing as well.


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