Are household chemicals bad for fish tank?

[fishywishy]

So my fish tank is in the middle of my living room and about 6ft from a bathroom so there’s always all kinds of cleaning chemical smells around the tank, no chemicals are ever close enough to the tank where chemicals can get in the tank but you can definitely smell some of them all around the house and tank. Is this bad for the tank?

Another thing that I wanted to mention was recently we had a wire burn and the whole house smelled really bad of burning rubber, the tank was no where near the wire but you could definitely still smell it around the tank. could this also be bad?

 

[vetteguy53081]

So my fish tank is in the middle of my living room and about 6ft from a bathroom so there’s always all kinds of cleaning chemical smells around the tank, no chemicals are ever close enough to the tank where chemicals can get in the tank but you can definitely smell some of them all around the house and tank. Is this bad for the tank?

Another thing that I wanted to mention was recently we had a wire burn and the whole house smelled really bad of burning rubber, the tank was no where near the wire but you could definitely still smell it around the tank. could this also be bad?

Yes as certain fumes can be toxic especially if atmospheric via aerosols

 

[DaJMasta]

Maybe not to the point of causing problems, but yes, consider them a problem and try to minimize them. Open water is very good at pulling out aerosols, and any air going through your skimmer will basically have 99% of its particulate introduced into the water, so keeping them down in the area around the tank is important.

An extreme example: I had some incense going in the same room as an earlier tank, within just a few minutes the corals had closed up and the skimmate for a couple of days came out incense scented rather than skimmate scented. I suspect most household cleaners won't smell as strong or put quite so much particulate into the air, but you can count on anything aerosolized ending up in your tank unless you have a sealed lid and an external air source for your scrubber.

 

[ElementReefer]

The best answer to this topic is to simply increase ventilation in your home (open windows) whenever you are using household chemicals. Be they candles, cleaners, gas stove, bug spray, etc.

It’s not really the amount of chemical you’re using, but the fact that the air in our homes tends to be pretty stagnant. You’re doing your fish AND yourself a favor by getting fresh air in, especially when using household chemicals.

 

[fishywishy]

Maybe not to the point of causing problems, but yes, consider them a problem and try to minimize them. Open water is very good at pulling out aerosols, and any air going through your skimmer will basically have 99% of its particulate introduced into the water, so keeping them down in the area around the tank is important.

An extreme example: I had some incense going in the same room as an earlier tank, within just a few minutes the corals had closed up and the skimmate for a couple of days came out incense scented rather than skimmate scented. I suspect most household cleaners won't smell as strong or put quite so much particulate into the air, but you can count on anything aerosolized ending up in your tank unless you have a sealed lid and an external air source for your scrubber

Will a glass lid and turning off all equipment that puts air into the water help?

 

[fishywishy]

Yes as certain fumes can be toxic especially if atmospheric via aerosols

I run carbon, does carbon remove toxins like that?

 

[exnisstech]

I figure if I can smell it it can contaminate.

 

[DaJMasta]

Will a glass lid and turning off all equipment that puts air into the water help?

It will help, certainly. Will that be enough? Depends on the chemicals, concentrations, aquarium, etc. - I'd say when you expect there to be a potential issue, those things can help, but the solution is to figure out a way to minimize it.

Activated carbon will help too, but it's a treatment rather than a prevention, even if you run it 24/7, since it can only remove what's already in the water.

 

[fishywishy]

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