Paint Fumes?

[FishyReef]

Another wacky question for ya! The conference room next door to my office is being refurbished (they are actually splitting it into two offices, a smaller conference room, and a hallway) - the work is going to take several months. Today I'm smelling some sort of chemical / paint fumes in my office. Any need to worry about those fumes getting into my tank? The top is open on my tank and there is an air duct directly above the tank....

 

[sen5241b]

I would worry. Carbon is very good in general for absorbing toxins. Got a room air filter?

 

[cvcdrk]

Out of curiosity...what kind of job do you have that they let you have a 90 gallon fish tank in your office? lol

Idk about the fumes. Gas exchange is important but I wouldn't think it would be that bad. I'm not sure, though.

 

[bjohanson1234]

Im betting that its the 10 gallon nano. I agree that about all you can do is run carbon in a filter to help reduce the levels of the fumes getting into the water. Carbon is usually the active filter in respirators. You can also try blocking the air duct to help keep those fumes out of the office in general.

 

[Bifferwine]

Im betting that its the 10 gallon nano. I agree that about all you can do is run carbon in a filter to help reduce the levels of the fumes getting into the water. Carbon is usually the active filter in respirators. You can also try blocking the air duct to help keep those fumes out of the office in general.

This would be your best bet. When I had my 3 gallon pico tank in my office, they did all sorts of stuff without letting me know first -- including painting and fumigating the whole office for bugs! Everything turned out fine; I covered my tank in a trash bag and taped around the edges to try to get a good seal and also did what BJ said. I have a HEPA filter from home (with carbon in it) that I brought in to run.

 

[FishyReef]

Ha, nope, it's the 90 that's at work (the 10g is at home). And for inquiring minds, I work at a hospital in the research department - we are in an old brick building and have individual offices instead of cubicles - I had a blank wall in mine, perfect space for a fish tank, asked if I could get one (other people have had 20-30g tanks in the past), and they said I could, so I did! I did mention that it was going to be larger than the one's other people have had, but didn't quite mention that it would be 90g ;) Everyone here loves it and stops by my little basement office regularly to watch me feed the fish or to take a break from the day. I got all of the equipment approved and have the official "sticker" that says its approved (this is a big deal!). I think it was much easier to get it approved to put at work than it would have been to get my landlord to approve it (and I think it would have been too heavy for the 100 year old floors in the 2-family home I live in!

As for the fumes, it wasn't too bad yesterday, but probably will get bad in the coming days. I'm going to see if there is a way to close the vent, and then will probably throw a sack of carbon in my sump - thanks for the idea!