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Samantha asked in PetsFish · 9 years ago

I soaked my plastic fish plants in bleach for too long?

They had black algae on them. I soaked them in bleach way too long, so they smelled like bleach really bad. I didn't put them back in. They've been sitting for 2 weeks out in the room, and I don't think I smell the bleach anymore. Is it okay to put them back in the tank?

Update:

Well I tried everything to get this algae off but nothing was working, so I looked up online how to get this type of algae off. Everywhere I looked said to soak it in bleach but not for too long, and then let it sit until the bleach, like, evaporates or whatever word that is. And now it doesn't smell like bleach at all anymore. It seems safe right now.

5 Answers

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  • ?
    Lv 4
    9 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    Bleach is one of the safest things you could have used. Bleach is just chlorine and can be neutralized by either letting them sit or using a dechlorinator. Your plastic plants are completely safe to put back in the tank the bleach evaporated a long time ago. If your really worried about it you can soak them in cold water with a dechlorinator just to be sure. In the future you can use the bleach method to clean your plants again just make sure you rinse very well in cold water until you can no longer smell the bleach. Hope this was helpful.

  • 9 years ago

    Rinse. Once dry they can stop stinking so high, but add water again and if you can smell bleach, you still need to rinse. Soaking in very hot water can help (hot water will expand the pores of the material so any trapped bleach can get out, when washing with bleach use cold water to seal pores so bleach does not saturate the material).

    Also replacing or adding activated carbon in the filter will help with anything that you might have missed once you put them back into the tank.

  • 9 years ago

    Personally I wouldn’t wash any fish tank decorations with soap or bleach, just warm water. And before I put them back into the tank, I would put them in a bowl of water and use some kind of water conditioner to make sure any of the chlorine from the tap water was gone. Chlorine is extremely harmful to fish. If I were you Id spend a few extra dollars to get some new ones and throw those out. Don't even risk it for your fish's safety . .

  • 9 years ago

    I would soak them in regular water for a day or two. Normally if you clean ornaments with bleach u should use one part bleach and ten parts water not straight bleach

  • Anonymous
    9 years ago

    I definitely would not put them back in.sorry but I have never heard of using bleach to clean anything to do with fish.

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