Lysol

[ReeferMo]

It’s not an experiment, but rather an experience which I haven’t seen discussed a lot. So for a few months we have been battling with a mold odor in our home. Long story short it’s in the AC coils, so being a reefer with a snail brain I decided to spray Lysol in the return vent a couple of days in a row. Not aggressively but a few nice seconds. And now I have a soon to be dead seabae (my only anenome) and an upside down emerald crab, so I am no putz but I guess call me a klutz. I thought my vent in my dining room was closed (even so I knew I can have an issue) but it was open. And chances are 100 percent I had some airborne droplets of Lysol enter my tank (70 percent is covered by my T5 lights rest is open) and I guess that is what caused them to die. So I guess Lysol residue can be toxic to a 110 gal tank.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

wow. im really sorry

 

[Klem]

That sucks man. At least it’s not a mystery? Keep your chin up and reef on!

 

[Gtinnel]

I may be completely wrong but I would've thought your hvac filter would have captured most of the lysol spray.

 

[ReeferMo]

I may be completely wrong but I would've thought your hvac filter would have captured most of the lysol spray.

Lol. You are right. I took it out so the spray will clean out my ducks

 

[Fish Fan]

Sorry for your losses, but best of luck going forward!

 

[Klem]

I may be completely wrong but I would've thought your hvac filter would have captured most of the lysol spray.

Spraying it on the condenser is above the filters.

 

[Gtinnel]

Spraying it on the condenser is above the filters.

Yes, but they said it was sprayed into a return vent so I assumed they didnt open up the handler to spray it.
The filter would have also stopped them from accomplishing the goal of getting the spray into the coil.

 

[Reef Jedi]

It’s not an experiment, but rather an experience which I haven’t seen discussed a lot. So for a few months we have been battling with a mold odor in our home. Long story short it’s in the AC coils, so being a reefer with a snail brain I decided to spray Lysol in the return vent a couple of days in a row. Not aggressively but a few nice seconds. And now I have a soon to be dead seabae (my only anenome) and an upside down emerald crab, so I am no putz but I guess call me a klutz. I thought my vent in my dining room was closed (even so I knew I can have an issue) but it was open. And chances are 100 percent I had some airborne droplets of Lysol enter my tank (70 percent is covered by my T5 lights rest is open) and I guess that is what caused them to die. So I guess Lysol residue can be toxic to a 110 gal tank.

This is what nightmares are made of. I’m sorry this happened. My wife is a clean freak but at least I got her to stop spraying anything harmful in the house and especially in the living room. That’s the one discussion I actually won. The score after 9 years: 1-825263846 lol

 

[Gumbies R Us]

So sorry about your loss!

 

[EnterName]

I really hope I made a mistake (very possible) and I would really appreciate someone double checking, but if I'm not mistaken the tank could be in trouble. You might want to observe if copepods are still doing fine or if bacteria are having trouble (nitrogen cycle).

I found this SDS https://rbnainfo.com/MSDS/US/Professional Lysol No Rinse Sanitizer Concentrate v7 EN GHS US.pdf

The actually dangerous substances in Lysol are the "quaternary ammonium compounds, benzyl-C12-16-alkyldimethyl, and chlorides" as it seems. I didn't find any studies on anemones or crabs but as you can see in the linked SDS and when searching through the web some algae and small crustaceans seem to be affected (even if not necessarily lethally) by concentrations as low as 0.01mg/L - 0.02mg/L by benzyl-C12-16-alkyldimethyl.

Depending on the used Lysol product you could reach these levels in your (110gal ≈ 416L) tank with less than 0.1mL Lysol when using the 10% or 5% (assuming a significant portion of this 5-10% is benzyl-C12-16-alkyldimethyl) products so this might explain how you managed to get enough of this stuff into your tank.

 

[ReeferMo]

I really hope I made a mistake (very possible) and I would really appreciate someone double checking, but if I'm not mistaken the tank could be in trouble. You might want to observe if copepods are still doing fine or if bacteria are having trouble (nitrogen cycle).

I found this SDS https://rbnainfo.com/MSDS/US/Professional Lysol No Rinse Sanitizer Concentrate v7 EN GHS US.pdf

The actually dangerous substances in Lysol are the "quaternary ammonium compounds, benzyl-C12-16-alkyldimethyl, and chlorides" as it seems. I didn't find any studies on anemones or crabs but as you can see in the linked SDS and when searching through the web some algae and small crustaceans seem to be affected (even if not necessarily lethally) by concentrations as low as 0.01mg/L - 0.02mg/L by benzyl-C12-16-alkyldimethyl.

Depending on the used Lysol product you could reach these levels in your (110gal ≈ 416L) tank with less than 0.1mL Lysol when using the 10% or 5% products so this might explain how you managed to get enough of this stuff into your tank.

Correct. Spot on