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Bleach for Purigen but not wood?

Big G

Member
Joined
20 Apr 2020
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174
Location
London&Thanet
Evening folks,

Just took a piece of wood out of my tank , dropped in a vase of 1 part bleach to 8 parts water for 30 minutes before ditching the solution and have the wood now in straight tap water. The algae, some sort of short green tufts, went white and I presume, dead. I was going to scrub and rinse the wood, soak it in a vase of dechlorinated water for twenty four hours then back in the tank.

I’m flirting with chemical strategies as I’m sure most have at one time or another. I have h202 , TNC Carbon and a glass syringe with 22g blunt needles on hand for in-tank spot dosing further down the line if needs be.

I know such things are not considered favourably in current practice as everything should be resolvable by tank balance, flow, plant mass, water changes etc.

I had watched this;



But always a cautious soul and not seeing any shrimp in his tank I paused and had a quick google. ’Don’t use bleach on wood’, ‘Never get it out of the wood’, ‘Kill your fauna’, is what seems to come back. Now I’m in two minds about it.:rolleyes:

I’ll happily discard the wood and would never directly inject or pour bleach in the tank but it did occur to me that hobbyists routinely use a 50/50 water/bleach solution to ‘recharge’ Purigen before rinsing, soaking in dechlorinated water then inserting back into their filter path i.e. more or less what I was going to do with the wood.

My question is therefore; What’s the difference between Purigen sachets and aquarium wood and why?

I’m a bear of simple brain so forgive me if I’ve missed something.

Grateful for help.

cheers

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Purigen before rinsing, soaking in dechlorinated water then inserting back into their filter path i.e. more or less what I was going to do with the wood.
Dechlorinated water isn’t enough. It needs to be soaked in water with added prime to neutralise the chlorine.
Difference with wood is that it will absorb the chlorine. Again, you might want to pop it into water and prime, but I’m not sure that will be enough, as it will have absorbed the chlorine.
 
Some wood is more/less porous, maybe post a photo of yours

For resistant algae on wood, always go with peroxide or Excel etc applied directly

I recommend out of tank for stubborn or extensive algae - if you treat in tank, always premeasure the maximum dose for tank volume and apply that to wood, you may need to spot treat in portions to avoid overdosing; also livestock may still be affected if they swim into the area where you’re spot dosing underwater

As you’ve bleached the wood
- soak in at least 3 changes of tap + 5-10x Prime, allow 24h/soak (note I’m estimating here, I’ve only bleached wood which then sat dry for a few months (after thorough rinsing))
- rinse thoroughly, then place in sun for a couple weeks (rain is good)
 
Bleaching wood doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

Purigen is a synthetic resin designed to be cleaned by bleach, then soaked twice once in highly concentrated dechlorinator and then in buffer to stablise to pH.

Wood is wood... I would imagine among other things bleach could discolour the wood.
 
. I was going to scrub and rinse the wood, soak it in a vase of dechlorinated water for twenty four hours then back in the tank.
You need to do that several times, maybe dozens of times. As @alto and @hypnogogia have said, you can add a big dose of Prime to the water, - then you can get away with fewer chages, but it will still need quite a few. When you think it's free of bleach, soak the wood again, and put some daphnia in the water to see if they survive. Leave it a few days for any bleach still in the wood to leach out, there may not be enough to kill them quickly, but any residue will leach into your tank water over time, so you want to be sure there's none left.
 
I bleached my red moor wood when I first got it, then treated it with dechlorinator in the same fashion you would Purigen. No problems. If you do use bleach, make sure it’s regular and not splashless. If I remember right I also let the wood dry COMPLETELY after the bleach soak.
 
Thank you very much for all your replies. I’m very grateful for the consideration you’ve given me. I’ve decided to ditch that wood (more of a twig really at nano scale) and put it down to experience. I don’t know how Georgie got away with that one but judging by the speed with which the green stuff was nuked by the bleach (like- a minute and in front of my eyes), that it’s not an important bit of wood and cost nothing (seasoned hardwood cutting from garden) and that my shrimp are important to me I’ll walk away. Got many other tools in the bag and many other twigs for the tank.

I use API at the moment, just because it was easier to get when I set up and although not expensive, I’ll save the heavy dose for the Purigen rather than the wood.

Going forward I’ll start experimenting with h2o2 on bits that can be removed for treatment first. Same with glute. Spot treatment thereafter if needed. Meanwhile I’m going to dial back the light a bit and rinse the sponges in the filter every water change. It’s no hassle really.

Thanks again for your input. Very kind.

Stay safe

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