Painting fume kill shrimps???

[albash]

Hi guys,

I have been collecting quite numbers of dead shrimps over last 3 days. The feed amount not changed except I am recently painting my toilet and all my 3 tanks are close, literally just front to the toilet.

The most frustrating that one of tanks been subdivided into 2 sections - one to keep tibee and the other golden eyed blue tigers. My blue eyed are OK but tibees are just died like that.

Have anyone experienced this - potential of painting fume kill shrimp? Would it even be possible.

Thanks for your input.

[jayc]

Just trying to get more background....

Is there any ventilation to let the fumes out? Open windows?

Do you have air pumps? - That will draw in the fumes even if the tank top is sealed 100%.

Was it acrylic or oil based paints? Oil based paints are worse. And known to cause problems to fish in tanks. So by that deduction, it would be bad for shrimps too.

 

Wait, just re-reading your post, you mentioned painting the toilet. 

Did you use a paint that has anti-mould in it? If the answer is yes, and any of that fume got into the tank .... that will wipe out fish or shrimps for sure. That anti mould stuff is toxic.

If you turned off the air pumps and filters do you notice any scum film on the water surface?

 

 

[albash]

34 minutes ago, jayc said:

Just trying to get more background....

Is there any ventilation to let the fumes out? Open windows?

Do you have air pumps? - That will draw in the fumes even if the tank top is sealed 100%.

Was it acrylic or oil based paints? Oil based paints are worse. And known to cause problems to fish in tanks. So by that deduction, it would be bad for shrimps too.

 

Wait, just re-reading your post, you mentioned painting the toilet. 

Did you use a paint that has anti-mould in it? If the answer is yes, and any of that fume got into the tank .... that will wipe out fish or shrimps for sure. That anti mould stuff is toxic.

If you turned off the air pumps and filters do you notice any scum film on the water surface?

 

 

Hi mate,

Well I'm trying to smash this toilet's painting quickly as we are about to move out and rent this house out. So we can't afford the time and money of cruising our time to paint after moving out for rent out. And there are quite a lot for me to paint over these few weeks time.

3 coats paints - Taubman's (water based); first sealer and 2 coat paints - all are anti mould.

Toilet's window is always open and turn on exhaust fan all time and toilet door remain closed.

All tanks have air pumps. I just turn off the air pumps, by far haven't seen any scum film as you mentioned. Is this scum film good or bad thing? What should I do if scum film developed?

What should I do to minimise the casualty and still maintaining this painting period?

I have lost some good and beautiful ones - sigh...

 

 

 

[jayc]

13 hours ago, albash said:

3 coats paints - Taubman's (water based); first sealer and 2 coat paints - all are anti mould.

Toilet's window is always open and turn on exhaust fan all time and toilet door remain closed.

All tanks have air pumps.

If you can smell the fumes when you are standing next to the tanks, then the air pumps have sucked it  into the tank. 

 

13 hours ago, albash said:

Is this scum film good or bad thing? What should I do if scum film developed?

That would be bad. If you see scum on the surface then there is evidence that the beneficial microbes in the tank have died. But since you don't see any then it might not have impacted the beneficial bacteria. So that is not a problem with the shrimp deaths.

 

13 hours ago, albash said:

What should I do to minimise the casualty and still maintaining this painting period?

Turn off all air pumps and cover the tanks with towels or similar. If you rely in air for filtration then you need another method.

This is one of the benefits of Canister filters, it's a closed system. Canisters won't be affected by air fresheners, fly sprays, and paint fumes. 

A large water change is also a good idea, even if it was not paint fumes and some other cause.

[albash]

3 hours ago, jayc said:

If you can smell the fumes when you are standing next to the tanks, then the air pumps have sucked it  into the tank. 

 

That would be bad. If you see scum on the surface then there is evidence that the beneficial microbes in the tank have died. But since you don't see any then it might not have impacted the beneficial bacteria. So that is not a problem with the shrimp deaths.

 

Turn off all air pumps and cover the tanks with towels or similar. If you rely in air for filtration then you need another method.

This is one of the benefits of Canister filters, it's a closed system. Canisters won't be affected by air fresheners, fly sprays, and paint fumes. 

A large water change is also a good idea, even if it was not paint fumes and some other cause.

I'm using canisters for all tanks not sump system. Haven't seen any casualties - hopefully I'm not jinx myself.

I cover the gap in the tank with glad wrap as a precaution.

Hopefully these guys are getting better - thanks for your advice mate.

[jayc]

Good luck with the remaining shrimp.