skimmer air filters. do you use one?

[kpiotrowski]

Over the years I have heard of a few stories about " my wife cleaned the carpets, and now all my fish are dead". since joining the saltwater world and using skimmers, it has always concerned me about the amount of environmental air we are infussing into our systems. my wife is aware to not spray anything in the house...are even light a candle without me knowing so I can at least shut down my skimmers. and pretty much she just doesnt do it. as far lighting a candles, I am a nurse and have much experience with vent-dependant people ( life support) and you would be amazed how fast a single candle will plug a ventilator filter with black soot!

currnetly I at least run tubbing on the air intake of my sklimmers to the outside of my sump areas to at least bring in fresh air, and they all work well. seems more ideal than recyling O2 poor air under a cabinette.

I am hooking up a diy carbon air filter basically using a media reactor and was wondering how many of you do the same? and what are your designs? there is a major concern to not limit air flow and so I am going to use a reactor with 1-inch intake and output for a reef octopus xs 200. was thinking of using layers of loosley packed carbon and basically polyfill.

anyone use an air filter?

anyone who doesn't concerned about your skimmer poluting you tank when you burn some food, or a truck goes by buring oil and the fumes are in your house....or do you smoke ( anything) in your house? are your fish and corals addicts too? etc etc.

 

[DonW]

.or do you smoke ( anything) in your house? are your fish and corals addicts too? etc etc.

My fish were usually just drunks, wife makes me smoke outside. I wouldn't be worried about it unless your refinishing the floors or painting.

Don

 

[kpiotrowski]

there you have another couple of examples of times to be concerned " while painting or refinishing floors". How about when the spouse wants to spray ant killer, or carpet freshener...or air freshener, and what about the accumaltive affects?

 

[jezzeaepi]

there you have another couple of examples of times to be concerned " while painting or refinishing floors". How about when the spouse wants to spray ant killer, or carpet freshener...or air freshener, and what about the accumaltive affects?

When dealing with my roommates, I explained to them to never ever spray things in the air around the tank, and they have all been very respectful. No air freshener, no carpet freshener. That stuff isn't good for you to sit around breathing anyways. Whenever I have to use a chemical in the same room(for cleaning), I make sure to have all the windows open, and that when I have to spray stuff, it is only landing where I want it to land instead of in the air.

 

[Krish]

I've never used anything to filter air and could 100% say our housekeeper use to spray air fresheners etc in the house. If someone was sick, I would come home to a house smelling like Lysol . I wasn't overly concerned because all of my tanks had a canopy on top and closed in stands (besides the aquapod that didn't have a canopy) but she knew not to spray close to the tank. I can't honestly say, I've ever noticed an issue ever with it being this way though... Any issue that I knew of.


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[trido]

I use febreeze, carpet fresh, shampoo my carpets, flea spray on the pets occasionally, my wife burns candles, I clean my TV, computer monitors, and the front of my tanks with windex, have sheet rocked, sanded and painted my walls, my wife uses shout on clothing stains, I use bleach and comet in the laundry room/tank room and I've also dropped plenty of PVC glue drops into the reef without hardly a second thought or worry about my tanks.

Other than having hardwood floors refinished, IMO most things are pretty harmless to your tank.

 

[trido]

Oh, also when my son was younger he sprayed windex directly into my 30G softy tank trying to help. Not a single coral acted badly. Windex is near all ammonia.

 

[kpiotrowski]

Oh, also when my son was younger he sprayed windex directly into my 30G softy tank trying to help. Not a single coral acted badly. Windex is near all ammonia.

WOW! and to think I have been so careful to not spray widex directly on my tank all these years.

good info! I sure would hate to create some sort of panic in the hobby having everyone think they now NEED an air filter. What gave me the idea was seeing a monster tank build thread and how he used a filter as the air supply was outside the home. Also I have heard of people running thier air intake outside the home for "fresh" air...which is a little much for even me.

There has been however the opposite cases where in fact a major tank crash has been associated with a recent carpet cleaning. I have always been sceptical of that and assumed that surely something else was the problem. But I have personaly heard of several and most in freshwater where a skimmer is not even used! In my case, I'm bored I guess and am going to try one.

 

[1guydude]

wat do u mean windex in near all anmonia? I thought it had anmonia in it...? Candles are no prob but i dont like things being sprayed in the air around my open top 20g! Weve cleaned the carpets with no problem and wood that still smelt like stain was added to the stands... no probs. -d

 

[1guydude]

i didnt think fw ppl used skimmers. Also a lil fresh air is good for ph and air is good period lol...

 

[kpiotrowski]

i didnt think fw ppl used skimmers. Also a lil fresh air is good for ph and air is good period lol...

in general they don't use skimmers but there has been progress in recent years. too expensive and require too much power to be worth it.

(there you go again cpt. obvious lol) (no offense)

 

[Spinner]

Hello,

Open your curtains on a sunny day to allow a beam of sun light to come in and look whats floating in the air your breathing. Some authors believe the things we spray, wipe, ect... do have an effect on our aquariums in the form of back side DOCs.
If you could see the particles from the sprays land on your tank/water would you still think it's OK?

 

[trido]

Hello,

Open your curtains on a sunny day to allow a beam of sun light to come in and look whats floating in the air your breathing. Some authors believe the things we spray, wipe, ect... do have an effect on our aquariums in the form of back side DOCs.
If you could see the particles from the sprays land on your tank/water would you still think it's OK?

Yes, I would. I've been keeping fish tanks for over 25 years and have always believed in keeping a clean house. Cleaners are a necessity in every day life and if you want to keep a wife or husband happy, you better let them clean if its important to them. Would you tell your girlfriend to stop taking bubble bathes with candles if its important to her and you suddenly started a reef tank? I do open my curtains and the amount of dust in the air is outrageous since I've become a dog owner a few years ago. Dust particulate should be the least of your worries in keeping a reef tank. I tend to spend my time worrying about the diet I'm feeding my fish and my water parameters so my coral keep good color and grow as quick as possible.
Did you know that a teflon pan can release vapors that will kill a large bird such as a macaw or parrot? Maybe we should all quit using teflon as well because we're reef keepers. I doubt that every reek keeper in LA runs carbon in their air intake due to smog which is full of dust and exhaust. I've seen some beautiful tanks from there. In fact, Most of what we see in our hobby goes through LA.

My point here is, dont worry about every little thing. Take a bit of time enjoying your tank. Don't over analyze every aspect of it.

 

[Krish]

wat do u mean windex in near all anmonia? I thought it had anmonia in it.

Not sure if I just need to go back to bed or if I should read this 20 more times.
This will definitely haunt me all day until I find out what "anmonia" is and what that all means.




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[trido]

wat do u mean windex in near all anmonia? I thought it had anmonia in it...?

Krish, it was a typo.

I guess I should have clarified, Windex is near all water but one of the three most active ingredients is ammonia along with a type of ethanol and Isopropyl alcohol. People dose a different type of alcohol into their tanks on purpose.

I just tend to disagree with most "this nuked my tank" stories. I've done a lot of remodeling around my tanks over the years, cleaned my carpets with smelly soaps, had the carpet cleaners use their chemicals, and have also had my tank in the laundry room for the last six years where I do all sorts of cleaning of paint supplies with paint thinner along with other harmful chemicals in the wash sink that's in there.

If something as simple as cleaning your carpets triggers and event that kills your tank, there were some other major underlying problem to begin with.

 

[Krish]

Krish, it was a typo.

.

Lol! I know. Just screwing around



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[kpiotrowski]

Krish, it was a typo.

I guess I should have clarified, Windex is near all water but one of the three most active ingredients is ammonia along with a type of ethanol and Isopropyl alcohol.

PLEASE tell me you had to look up the msds for windex and that you did NOT retrieve it from memory! lol!

 

[kpiotrowski]

Well, I did it. Made a skimmer air filter out of a brs jumbo rodi canister. Filled it with filter floss just to see how it would work, and secondly to see how much dust it may or may not collect over time.

Biggest surprize was how much it silenced my skimmer that I never even new was that loud. HUGE difference!

Here is the short video. You can hear the difference big time!

skimmer filter and silencer - YouTube

note that you can't even hear the vortech mp40's untill the silencer is fully connected. Should give you an idea of the before and after.

 

[Reefbound]

I don't use a filter but, I did drill a hole in the side of my house and ran a hose to the outside to bring in fresh air. I read somewhere it helps.

 

[kpiotrowski]

See now, THAT'S where I would be affraid on something crawling inside the inlet or something. But I do run my air intake to outside of the under the cabinette on all mhy skimmers cuz it cant hurt to bring in fresh air rather than just swirling around an recycling the air under it.