Alum treated an entire tank, with plants and substrate (no fish). Am I doomed?

[MarTeeNez]

Hi, folks.  I have a small tank that I put non-alum dipped plants, and not only did it get weird little sideways rams horns (look like mini danishes), but it also got [shudder] LEECHES!!  [skinny, red, move like inch-worms]  It's my pygmy cory breeding tank, so I moved everybody out, pulled all the removable rocks, plants, and anything to go into an alum dip for 4 hours.  Since leeches were hanging out in the substrate, I loaded enough alum to handle it's 15 gallons, put the sponge in, stirred up the substrate during the 4 hours. It was gross.  I did get a few pissed off leeches, lots of dead snails, but I don't think I'll ever get the substrate clean. 

Can an activated carbon filter pull out leftover alum from the water column?  I've already put full clean water and swished around all the substrate. Twice. But I don't want to risk my pygmy cory babies and best breeders!  Kudos to @Irene for her detailed scientific method!  I've had horrible experiences with plants through my local aquarium society, and live by the alum dip for any plants transferring from tank to tank inside my own house!

[Guppysnail]

I found this on the internet for you. If you are sure you will not want to break down the tank and start over I I would do a deep very thorough gravel vacuum. Rinse and wipe all hardscape. 100% water change and run carbon for at least a week. I would try 1 hardy fish before I got a group. 

https://www.13abc.com/2023/03/18/chemists-address-water-sanitation-chemical-that-is-harmful-aquarium-fish/?outputType=amp

[dasaltemelosguy]

Hi @MarTeeNez,

Alum can be neutralized by adding crushed coral to the filter. It converts it to an insoluble, non-toxic aluminum compound that simply precipitates into the gravel where, as @Guppysnail said, it can and should be vacuumed out.

You can monitor this by checking the pH frequently until it stops rising as alum is highly acidic. As there may be some residue in the water column, @Guppysnail's advice to add carbon is also important.

In the future, you may wish to use Reverse Respiration as it leaves no residue and RR will kill leaches and all other parasites and won’t harm the plants.

 Reverse Respiration (aquariumcoop.com)

Good luck and welcome to the forum. 

[Torrey]

On 7/28/2023 at 6:50 PM, MarTeeNez said:

Hi, folks.  I have a small tank that I put non-alum dipped plants, and not only did it get weird little sideways rams horns (look like mini danishes), but it also got [shudder] LEECHES!!  [skinny, red, move like inch-worms]  It's my pygmy cory breeding tank, so I moved everybody out, pulled all the removable rocks, plants, and anything to go into an alum dip for 4 hours.  Since leeches were hanging out in the substrate, I loaded enough alum to handle it's 15 gallons, put the sponge in, stirred up the substrate during the 4 hours. It was gross.  I did get a few pissed off leeches, lots of dead snails, but I don't think I'll ever get the substrate clean. 

Can an activated carbon filter pull out leftover alum from the water column?  I've already put full clean water and swished around all the substrate. Twice. But I don't want to risk my pygmy cory babies and best breeders!  Kudos to @Irene for her detailed scientific method!  I've had horrible experiences with plants through my local aquarium society, and live by the alum dip for any plants transferring from tank to tank inside my own house!

Congratulations! Before I knew about RR (Reverse Respiration) I did this as a last ditch effort to nuke the planaria and leeches out of a tank😅

Glad you moved the fish out, sad you lost the little snails and didn't save any...they are phenomenal and I've been looking for some.

Dasaltemelosguy touched on the chemical (add crushed coral to bind it and make it easier to remove)

1. remove any aeration

2. let it sit for 24 - 48 hours. If there are any leeches or anything else left, this will generally take care of them

3. Thoroughly gravel vac until there's no water left in the tank. Refill

4. Wait 24 hours and gravel vac again, until no water left. Check your water to see if there are any living leeches left. If not proceed with carbon and daily gravel vacs that completely drain the tank. After a week of daily gravel vacs I had no hitchhikers, the cleanest gravel since I set it up, and water that the pH stayed stable in for 24 hours. I still did 2 more 100% gravel vac water changes.

5. Add a snail, see how it does for 3 days. If you don't have a snail, add a fish that isn't your favorite. Monitor for 72 hours. If no changes in behavior proceed to next step

6. Since I had effectively removed most of the BB, I slowly restocked my tank, moving one group of fish/snails/shrimp at a time from Q/T back to the tank (my tank was bigger...by a lot. I had 3 large groups of schooling fish... plus shrimp, snails, and a center piece ghost/lace half-black angel. Leeches squick me. This was my first nuking event, but not my last)

Now I know about RR, and I have also made peace with hitchhikers (except leeches). You don't have to wait as long to learn a trick that will keep you from **ever** having to do this again.

If at step 4, you still have leeches, may as well take advantage of everything being out of the tank. Copper is the most effective, and will be removed with the 100% water changes, just like the alum.

In about 2 decades, you will be able to look back on this, share the story with other fishkeepers, and laugh hysterically. Right now, I'm sorry you are going through this. I can tell you that I considered tossing everything and starting over...

Oh wait, I **did** do that the second time I found a leech. That method took longer to re-establish beneficial bacteria and I lost my centerpiece fish. Back in the 80s and 90s we ddin't have as much good information on how to Q/T plants, pretty much all plants were grown outside, and hitchhikers were common.

And we didn't have a forum like this to help us out, so we made far more iterations of the same mistake, before we learned better... or met people in here to save us from ourselves.

😉

Edited August 2, 2023 by Torrey
I need to get better at proofreading before I post