Apartment being fumigated help!!

[nacho1cheese]

so my apartment is being fumigated for cockroaches on the 11th and they sent a pieces of paper that said it would be bad to have a fish tank. it said absolutely NO pets allowed. we can't be in the apartment from 1pm to 6pm! the problem is i start work at 7am!!!! there is no way i could seal the tank for 12 hours and have nothing runing. i dont know what to do. i have a 55 gallon and a 20 with one golfish. please help!!!!

 

[Cichlid Kid]

Ok. If your forced to leave the inhabitants in their aquariums then there is a way to quell most if not all the vapors. Firstly you need to make sure the hoods are seated firmly in place and run a continuing piece of masking tape the entire length of the hood where it sits on the tank. I realize you probably have a good bit of area in the back that this won't work on, so secondly gather some clean beach or bathing towels from your linen closet and soak them in water. Wring them out just enough so they're not dripping water and gently lay them over the HOB filters or canister filter flow tubes. This is by no means a foolproof method but I've had to do it before twice and never lost a fish.
The wet towels will filter most if not all of the particles and vapors so they don't poison your fish. Let me know how things work out for you. Sorry i dont have a failsafe method for you. Goodluck.

 

[nacho1cheese]

Thanks. I did read about the wet towl thing and wondered how exacly it would help so thanks for that. I aslo hope it goes well

 

[Zimmanski]

Don't forget to turn off any airstones!

 

[Tetra1990]

+1 to all of the above. I would do a large pwc the night before just to get all your levels close to zero.

 

[nacho1cheese]

What about siranrap

 

[jcolon]

What about siranrap

It has been done funny enough ... you just want to avoid having the fumes enter the tank through the largest opening which is the top.

Lastly, you could drape .. with a large enough wet towel or sheet .. the entire tank and filter.

 

[nacho1cheese]

Ok what if i removed the filter amd some water into a bucket and took it to work or placed it somewhere safe. Would that kill the bacteria?

 

[jcolon]

Ok what if i removed the filter amd some water into a bucket and took it to work or placed it somewhere safe. Would that kill the bacteria?

That's a tough one ..there should be enough ammonia in the bucket to keep the bacteria alive several hours ... for 12hrs I'm not sure about. You could put the filter cartridge in a media bag and put it in the tank. You'll ensure the bacteria have a constant ammonia source.

Depending on how stocked your tanks are ...there should be enough Oxygen in the water for the hours the filter's not running. Unless you completely wrap the whole thing in plastic ... some air will make it's way into the tank. Draping the tank with wet towels etc will help filter out the fumes.

 

[hpiguy]

Not sure if anyone mentioned this, but if you have air pumps, shut them off or they will pump poisoned air right into the tank.

 

[nacho1cheese]

Ok got it. i really hope this works >·< i really like my fish and don't want to stay over....

 

[jetajockey]

Is the tank heavily stocked? Most tanks should be okay for 12 hours sealed off, I have sealed off all of mine for 8-10 hours while fumigating in the past without any issue.

I used duct tape and some trash bags/sheet plastic over the tops.

 

[nacho1cheese]

Not really i have 1 angel, 1 gourami, 9 tetras, 7 rummys, 7 corys and 2 ottos

 

[jetajockey]

You could test it out while you are at home, just tape it off and watch them closely over the course of 12 hours, if they start gasping at the top then you need to turn the filter back on. If that's the case, that particular method is not going to work.

 

[boadams87]

Taking the filter media with you in a bucket for a few hours wont kill your BB. Id take the entire top off seal it with saran wrap then use the wet towel method. 12 hours without any water movement wont hurt them. Do you have live plants? If you do they should be making oxygen anyway.

 

[aqua_chem]

Beneficial bacteria will be good for days without ammonia. They're the least of your worries.

 

[christine2012]

Garbage bags! Seal everything up with heavy duty bags and duct tape it all seamlessly.