Does Household Borax Offgas?

[dangles]

Ok weird question I know but I’m trying to zero in on a cause of a couple of rapid fish deaths I had during quarantine.

I had set up HumbleFish’s TTM in my laundry room. Both fish I put in quarantine died inside of 18 hours. They had both been eating well and were very healthy for the almost 2 months they were at my lfs.

I’ve ruled out the obvious things so far but one oddball possibility is borax fumes… It didn’t cross my mind until after the fact, but there was a box of household borax on the windowsill, which is right where I put the air pump for the air stone. Is it possible the air pump sucked in fumes from the box of borax? Does borax even off-gas like that?

 

[gbroadbridge]

No, A box of borax sitting on the windowsill would not cause a problem.

You need to look elsewhere.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Agreed. There's no gas phase form of boron that would come off borax.