Glade Plug Ins?

[sharkbaitwoohaha]

over the weekend in noticed my water in the tank going a bit cloudy and this was due to a white film on the inside. i also noticed that my mum had added two glade plug ins to the room where my fish live. it has quite a powerful air pump which pumps the scented air into the tank. this morning i noticed one of my mollies lay on the bottom and she has shoved herself into some plants, also a platy and guppy just lay on the bottom and my corys had their fins flat to their bodies. water is good and has a pH of around 7. i have read about plug ins causing problems with aquatic life. i have removed them but is their anything else i can do??
panicking cos i dont want to lose them.

 

[Bex]

I have heard about this as well. I was going to buy a Glade scented candal and then I read on the back a warning about it being harmful to aquatic life. I have since told anyone who comes around to house sit and feed fish when we go away to not spray any air fresheners in the room where the fish are.

My only guess as to what to do would be a fairly sizeable water change and maybe keep all the windows open in there to get rid of any lingering fumes. I'm no fish doctor/expert though so you might want to wait for some other suggestions. A good water change can't do any harm though!

 

[black angel]

Do you have an air pump? I have plug ins but they arent glade so dont know about any particular brand. Does it puff the freshner out like you would a can or is it just a smell?
It does sound like they are getting in to the tank so I would remove the freshners and do a huge water change and see if that helps at all.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hmmm we've got a pplug in next to Ian's big tank in the living room, never seems to have caused any problems.

Do you all have secure fitting lids?

 

[Bex]

I read a post (not sure if it was on this forum) where someone lost a tank of zebra plecs because their GF sprayed a load of air freshener and it got into the tank through the air pump.

Wouldn't want to risk it as I have read warnings on the labels about it being harmful to aquatics.

 

[treacles]

hi
i use them new 3x plug ins across the other side of the room from my tank, but i also use scented candles and joss sticks

 

[geo7x]

yeah a friend of mine lost a whole load of fish from some scented candles

 

[treacles]

yeah a friend of mine lost a whole load of fish from some scented candles

really omg i thought they would be safe

 

[sharkbaitwoohaha]

gonna try the large water change. im absolutely devastated. crying the whole time, it seems so stupid to get thru so much with a tank and then this make them sick. im so angry.

 

[xostrawberryox]

Have you tested the water yet? If so what are the stats? Ive never previously heard of them causing any damage, i have one in the same room as my betta tank x

 

[sharkbaitwoohaha]

yep. stats are spot on. pH is low. ive read and heard quite a lot about it. ive done about 80% change and switched off the air stone cos thats how its getting in. everyone seems to have picked up a little bit, apart from my clowns, but then thats the way they are. the water was frothy when i poured it down the drain and it isnt usually. also my pH was about 6.6, when previously it was 7.4. gonna do an experiment to see what effect the plug in has on the ph of tap water. just to see. do you think i should take my plants out?

 

[vic]

gonna try the large water change. im absolutely devastated. crying the whole time, it seems so stupid to get thru so much with a tank and then this make them sick. im so angry.

It may be a good idea to get some activated carbon in your filter system. This will help remove any offending chemicals that have gotten into the water column. If the air freshener must continue, get you air pump into an area that is not subjected to the air freshener stuff!. I am assuming that you are using an air pump as I don't think there could be a way that the air freshener stuff would get into the tank given that you have a tightly fitting cover on the tank.

 

[Shepdog]

A few years ago I had really bad eyesight problems for about three months. One day it was getting very painful and my wife remarked that she had put a new plug ( can't remember the make.) in the socket. I got rid of the plug and things improved quickly. My doctor said she had heard of several similar cases. If it does that to humans just think what it would do to fishes restricted to one environment with an air pump running.

 

[sharkbaitwoohaha]

yep. i thought of the activated carbon and its in there. lost a guppy, four clowns and some mollies. the rest are still sick. im gonna use one of my other filters from a tank (not in the same house) to set up an emergency home for the surviving few and strip down the tank and just start again. my mum got the box out of the bin and it says that it causes long term damage in the aquatic environment so im not holding out much hope!
we learn from each others mistakes and i never thought this would happen to me but i hope that everyone else, even the people who dont believe that a glage plug in would do this will take note so that this doesnt happen to them!

 

[Bex]

The post I read about the zebra plecs were to do with Febreeze I think, so don't get carried away with that stuff either! Just always check the labels before you use them. I know for definite that on Glade Scented Candals it has a warning about being harmful to aquatics so I just apply it to all things similar now. Most of these things will carry a warning about being harmful to animals or aquatics. My husband has a habit of wandering around spraying his deodrant as he goes so I've told him off about that too!