Dealing with the contractors and the *$@! Dust

[jeffnewt]

Well, the remodel on the house continues. Despite my best efforts to counteract all the crap my landlord keeps throwing at us, I get outsmarted from time to time. Here is what happned:

Last few days they have been upstairs, working on the fireplace, and windows. When the windows went in downstairs, I made sure I was around to cover the tanks, check to see where they were pugging tools in, ect.

Much to my supprise, I came home from work today to discover they decided to do another round of finish sanding in my room. tanks all exposed, dust all over the place. Fastastic.

The dust appears to be a mixture of paint and wood. It is now residing in a fine layer over the reef tank, and the freshwater systems as well.

So what exactly should I do as this point. I can't figure out how to get it off the surface. I am sure somehow it will end up in the water colum, and then in mt tank where it will remain for some time. Its not falling into the overflow that much, just grouping up as the powerheads dictate. I think it all went underwater after i adjusted the inflow.

I worry about this stuff being in the tank, I just did a huge water change yesterday too to add to my frustration. There doesn't appear to be that much dust total this time, so perhaps I am overreacting. Its just I go through so much work to add perfect water, expensive salt, and then some jackoff goes to town with some sandpaper and it really gets under my skin. I feel almost like charging these guys for a water change(Salt and labor at my rate=$60) . I think I would be justified in doing so, as I told them last time that they need to call ahead, not show up randomly and be firing off nailguns at 8:30 on my day off. I would really lay into these guys if I wasn't trying to stay in good with my landlord as I like my house.

What do you guys think?

 

[DonW]

I'm remodeling also. Floor to ceiling plastic cutains will prevent the dust from landing in and on your tank. I'd probably use some sort of micron filter like a magnum or diatom to get rid of the dust.

Don

 

[burning2nd]

is the duse mixing in.. or laying on top?

 

[jeffnewt]

well, for a long time it was laying on top, then I adjusted in inflow and it mixed in. wasn't really trying to do that, I was attempting to get it tp flow through the overflow so the prefilter would take it out, i hope most of it did that(if I am lucky that is).

 

[trido]

The dust appears to be a mixture of paint and wood. It is now residing in a fine layer over the reef tank, and the freshwater systems as well.

Floor to ceiling plastic cutains will prevent the dust from landing in and on your tank

IMO your contractor is careless and sucks. Tent walls are a ten minute courtousy to keep ALL of your furniture from being coated in dust. I can only imagine that since your house is in ballard its old. In that case, the paint they sanded is likely lead based and is toxic. Not enough to put you in the hospital but can be very bad for small children. I would call the landlord and complain in a dleicate way. Not about the work being done, but how its being done. It sounds like the contractor is jumping from project to project and has absolutley no consideration for you or your belongings.
FWIW in the future, paper towels are real good at wicking stuff off of the waters surface.