My family and I just got infected from palytoxin

sasq40

New member
So here's the whole story. We bought our inlaws acreage and was moving everything all week. We did the fish tank on last Sunday and I think a anemone got shredded. On Monday everything died in the tank so the father inlaw flushed the tank with well water to remove the smell. We were still moving our house to the new place so it took a week for me to clean it. We moved all the lr into the brutes into the garage to "cook" them. After we flushed it twice and I sucked the rest out with a shop vac to get the last bit out.

Last night around 8 well all devolped a burning cough, so when decided to go to bed. By 3 am most of us couldn't breath, had the chills, amongst other thing. I had read article about palytoxin before and since all the animal in the house were acting up we rushed the the Er and brought the dogs to my sisters. We were at the Er for roughly 10 hrs after getting blood work and ecgs done on all of us. Talking with toxicogist they confirmed we had the palytoxin and sent us home to rest up. They're instructions where to sir out the house, which is what we did before we left, mighty cold in the house now since it was - 15 last night, and to dispose of the tank and any equipment associated with it.

Now I'm looking for opinion, if I should destroy my tank (160g bowfront and my 2 mp40ws). I'm also unsure if cooking the rock is still wise or if I should just throw it all out. I'd also like to raise awareness of this issue again so more people dont get complaint like it did.

All I can say is I'm so thankful my 7 month old was up stairs most the day with his mom. In the bedroom well I was doing the cleanup.

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That's wild. Did they say how this happened????

I've been around large aquariums basically my whole live. In the past 20 years I've moved 400+ gallon stystems and started over / upgraded some of them to 700+gallons.

I wouldn't dump everything. I'd clean the tank very well. I would then do a muriatic acid bath on all of the rock followed by a good rinse. Then I would do a bleach bath and again with a couple good freshwater baths. You can use dechlori in them. Then air dry. The acid will etch off maybe 1/16" of the rock taking any dead organisms with it. When you do the bleach bath it's just to kill any organisms left on the rock.

Re plumb everything and get back at it. :)


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I'm kind of wondering what evidence they used to diagnose Palytoxin poisoning. Did they do a test? Did the doctor indicate he's seen palytoxin poisoning before?
 
That's wild. Did they say how this happened????

I would then do a muriatic acid bath on all of the rock followed by a good rinse. Then I would do a bleach bath and again with a couple good freshwater baths. You can use dechlori in them. Then air dry.

Better to use baking soda solution. I'm not sure de-chlor will do anything against acid.
 
I'm not 100% sure if doing a muriatic acid bath would be a good idea as it releases toxic gas in the air. Your best bet is to do a bleach bath where the toxic water can be dump.
 
I'm kind of wondering what evidence they used to diagnose Palytoxin poisoning. Did they do a test? Did the doctor indicate he's seen palytoxin poisoning before?
I suggested it may be that and they did blood tests and ecg on all of us. It was a long night and I think they determined it Becuase of the elevated white blood cells levels. Right now I have the rock sitting outside in the freezing cold to get it away from us. Do you think ozone would a sufficient way to kill things?father in law has a big generator he uses on the house water

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Better to use baking soda solution. I'm not sure de-chlor will do anything against acid.



The dechlori is for the bleach. You never mix muriatic acid and bleach togehter. Acid bath ->> rinses >>> bleach bath >>> rinses >> dechlori rinse >> air dry.

I've done this plenty with great success. Do NOT mix bleach and muriatic acid togehter. When you handle the acid make sure to be smart about it and use caution. It is a acid after all.


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My family and I just got infected from palytoxin

Just dry it out and start over.



This will only kill organic material, it will not remove them. By just air drying and placing back into the tank you're introducing plenty of dead material to feed bad algae and bacteria. This is not a good solution and will creat more work in the long run.


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Last edited:
I'm not 100% sure if doing a muriatic acid bath would be a good idea as it releases toxic gas in the air. Your best bet is to do a bleach bath where the toxic water can be dump.



It does, I suggest doing it outside. The rock will bulbble a lot as it's "œetching" your rock. It's taking the outer layer and breaking it down removing anything unwanted. It's perfectly safe as long as you wear gloves and a mask.
3380652630d57fa71517bf75493555a3.jpg

This is what it looks like



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What should I do with the tank to confirm theres no toxin left?

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Personally I'd use some gloves and a mask and give it a good vinegar bath. I'm not a doctor so I'm unsure if that will kill the poison. I didn't know the position could go airborne and I thought you could only acquire it if you had a cut and scraped yourself on something in the tank.

Hopefully someone with more knowledge on this will chime in.


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My family and I just got infected from palytoxin

Obviously...

Ok dry it out bleach bath it for a few days and restart.

It's a huge not hazmat, call the cdc issue.

Good lord....
 
Yep, bleach kills on contact. Give to a good spray let sit for about 10 mins. Rinse out well, then finish with a vinegar wipe down.

Do it in a well ventilated area however.
 
Fyi this toxin can be removed eith activated carbon.. Studies have already shown this.

Do you have zoanthids ? I believe this toxin mainly comes from them but i heard dinos have it and some anemones
 
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