Covering the tank with plastic wrap

[Kep]

I have some remodeling going on in my house. The ceilings are being redone in the tank room today and that requires plastic masking of the walls. Of course I want to eliminate the possibility of paint spray or material entering the tank, so I have covered the entire setup with plastic wrap.

The concern I have is that there will not be enough oxygen in the system to maintain the livestock/corals for two days. I also had to turn off my vortech circulation pump because the heat it generates under the plastic might overheat the mechanism. I doubt that will do much, but the lack of air flow to the tank concerns me.

Has anyone had experience with masking off an entire tank for several days? I'm sure we have many people who have had a similar task to undertake.

The good news is that I have a large tank with a lot of corals and a lot of water, but not a lot of fish. I only have:

2 large chromis
royal gramma
rabbitfish
bangaii cardinal

Lack of oxygen may become an issue, but I am also concerned about the change in pH from a buildup up CO2.

Any thoughts?

 

[TomRep]

I did the same thintg with my 120 when we painted the room. I did not turn off my powerheads since they do no produce a lot of heat. I did, however, turn off my skimmer. i didn't want the paints fumes in my water column. I had no problems doing this for one full day. If they are just remodeling and not painting at your house, I would say you should be fine if you keep the skimmer running. Turning off your Vortec is going to lower your oxygen levels, so keeping the skimmer on should hopefully compensate for that a bit. I would say after one day, take the wrap off and turn the Vortec back on until the following day. JMO Good luck!
tom

 

[Kep]

They will be painting as well. I'm hoping that since the tank is double wrapped, the fumes won't get near the skimmer, but thanks for the tip, I hadn't thought about the paint fumes.

 

[TomRep]

Quite honestly, most inddor paint has no odor, or atleast very little. But I didn't want to take any chances!

 

[Kep]

Thanks for the responses Tom

 

[sunfish11]

You could run a long/short piece of airline tubbing to a large air pump outside a window if you have a real concern about lack of oxygen. That is probably what I would do in your situation.

Lisa

 

[Kep]

Alright, so I talked with John over at YourReef.com, and he said he knew of a guy that lost nearly his entire collection because of paint fumes entering the water from the skimmer intake. I'll be going home STAT to shut that thing off.

 

[snorvich]

Yes, skimmers need to be shut down if they are in the same room as the painting (mine are in the basement with the tanks upstairs). Skimmers suck in air (which is how they skim) so sucking in paint fumes or other airborne toxicity is undesirable.

 

[downhillbiker]

yeah skimmer off. i would also have the lights on for minimal amount of time each day to help keep down stress. the hose out the window sounds like a good idea.

 

[snorvich]

I think lights off would be a good thing. Keeps the tank cooler for sure and with no ventilation to speak of, that might be important.

 

[Kep]

Yup, the lights are off. Heating would have been a major issue since the tank is completely wrapped in plastic and has no air flow.

 

[snorvich]

You should be fine. Let us know how it goes.

 

[Kep]

Well, the remodeling in that room is done. I finished painting this morning, and so far everything is normal. If anything there is extreme polyp extension which I assume is due to the lights being off for nearly two days. But all is good! so far........

 

[jiperalta]

crapload of activated charcoal should help with any vocs in the water...