Aquarium Danger Zone

[Dave62]

So my better half has decided she wants to do some home remodeling and have hardwood floors installed. This involves swedish finish which requires us to move out of the house for a few days because it's so noxious. Naturally I'm very concerned about the health of my fish, not to mention all my plants and BB. It's a 110 gallon aquarium and 30 gallon sump so it would be very difficult to move the whole setup out of the house. It took 5 guys just to move the tank into place.
The installer has suggested that he can seal off my room and keep the fumes from affecting my fish. The room can be closed off with an interior door and has several exterior windows for ventilation. But, naturally I'm gun-shy - I've seen the effects first hand how this finish affects aquariums and it's not pretty.

So I'm hoping somebody here has refinished hardwood floors without moving their beloved fish completely out of the house and kept everything alive an healthy? If so how did you accomplish that? Is it really possible to completely seal off one room? I've toyed with moving my fish and bacteria to a spare 45 gallon tank in the garage temporarily, but don't have a filter big enough for all the media. However, that would also mean probably 'shrink wrapping' my aquarium for several days, which I'm pretty sure would kill all my plants and any other BB in it. I've also thought about enveloping the entire aquarium in plastic sheeting with an air hose leading out the window, in addition to sealing off the room. Or I could figure out a way to pump air into the room to generate positive pressure, keeping any fumes out of the room. Anyway, you know what they say about the best laid plans - I just don't want to take any chances because of all the time and effort put into this aquarium (I'm sure you all can relate to that).

I'm getting serious pressure to do this project so I need a plan. I would really appreciate hearing from anyone that's done this before!
Thanks in advance!

 

[Blakewater]

I've seen this happen multiple times, if youre anxious you can duct tape the cracks on your tank hood and get tube leading out the nearest window for air. I am 99.9% sure youd be fine if you just taped off the cracks in the door though

 

[Hendre]

I'd put in the smaller tank, bio media can also live inside the tank without issue, just may not be as efficient as that inside a filter.

 

[jjohnwm]

Maintaining positive pressure in the room would require pumping a fair bit of air into that space. Much easier to shrink wrap the entire tank/stand/sump assembly, and then run an airline into it from an airpump placed outdoors. Even a fairly small pump will be able to create a positive pressure in that small volume to prevent toxic fumes from being drawn in. Just make sure the exterior pump is actually drawing clean air and not contaminated stuff escaping the house.

 

[characinkid]

Why not just seal up the room as best you can and put a fan in the window to blow fresh air into the room for the couple of days?

Moving the fish will be very stressful for them.

 

[fishguy1978]

Box fan in the window and then sheet plastic over the door should be enough. If you are running an air pump you could turn it off for the time that the finish is curing. If you have central air close off the vents to that room and plastic over them as well.

 

[Dave62]

Thanks everyone for your ideas! i Think the key is going to be creating some kind of sealed wrap around everything and feeding it with air to create Positive pressure to keep the fumes out. And jjohnwm that’s a great observation about not feeding the aquarium with fumes escaping the house. I’ll need to get a super strong air pump and some long airline.
i think also sealing the room and venting out the windows will help.

 

[burntrubber]

Move the live stock out. Put the media in a tub and run it with an air stone or 2.

 

[fishguy1978]

Thanks everyone for your ideas! i Think the key is going to be creating some kind of sealed wrap around everything and feeding it with air to create Positive pressure to keep the fumes out. And jjohnwm that’s a great observation about not feeding the aquarium with fumes escaping the house. I’ll need to get a super strong air pump and some long airline.
i think also sealing the room and venting out the windows will help.

I was trolling through your posts and say this one agian. How did this turn out? Did you move everybody out of the house or just seal the room?

 

[Dave62]

Actually I ended up not having to do anything. We decided not to re-finish the hardwoods. My ultimatum was to move everything over to her parents house temporarily until all the vapors dissipated. That pretty much ended that!