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| General Reef Discussion In this forum we discuss issues related to keeping marine and reef aquariums in a friendly flame-free environment. |
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11-21-2007, 04:18 AM
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#1
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Little Fishy
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Norcal
Posts: 179
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can melted plastic contaminate the water?
ive been using a 50 gallon rubbermaid storage bin for quite a while to mix my salt and my filtered water with a Rio 2100 pump...today i noticed some kind of oily film on the surface of the water and smelled a burning smell...i found that my pump fell off its suction bracket and was laying on the bottom of the bin and not working...it seems like it took a chunk off the storage bin by overheating under water? now theres some pieces of plastic floating on top of the water and is oily on the surface of the water...is it safe to still use the saltwater from the bottom of the bin? does the burning of plastic under water cause any kind of contamination? there is still about 40 gallons of water in the bin as of rite now...please help me guys...wat should i do?
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11-21-2007, 04:51 AM
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#2
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Big Fishy
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Canada
Posts: 751
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I would not use the water, why risk killing everything in your tank.
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Pit-bull-pirate-arrrhhhh
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11-21-2007, 05:08 AM
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#3
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Little Fishy
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Illinois
Posts: 97
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Don't risk it, there are a lot of chemicals in plastic.
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11-21-2007, 06:04 AM
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#4
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The Muddy Mod
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Uxbridge, MA
Posts: 5,525
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Toss the water 
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Butch
***Factory Trained BMW Driver***
****Proud member of the PRG**** 
*President of Tri-State Reef Society*
"I'm King of the Sea People" - Cartman 
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11-21-2007, 06:56 AM
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#5
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Carpe Noctem
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Western Colorado
Posts: 8,212
Reviews: 25
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The key phrase out of that entire post is
... Rios are notorious for doing this and I've read of many reefs that were nuked by them. They reportedly fixed the problem with new sealing techniques, but as you found, some of the older style pumps are still out there.
Toss the water and toss the pump!
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Hop~
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11-21-2007, 07:01 AM
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#6
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I've got the REEF rash!
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 34,177
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Get rid of it! I had a heater go in my tub and did the same thing,it even change the color of the water!.got a new barrle.
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11-21-2007, 09:47 AM
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#7
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Stinky Slimey FEESH
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: San Antonio
Posts: 2,189
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I agree, dump the water and the bucket - - I had the same problem with a Rio pump, it fried on the inside of the bucket with RO in it, I didn't want to risk putting that oil slick in to my tank!
HHC
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You can't kill a fish born to hang.....
135-gal Oceanic reef, MH, PC, Lunar
12-gal Nanocube
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11-21-2007, 01:33 PM
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#8
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Little Fishy
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Norcal
Posts: 179
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done deal
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11-21-2007, 02:08 PM
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#9
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.
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: NW
Posts: 11,333
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like hop said......toss it for the rio alone.
Most likely anything that came out of the plastic is inert...but what came out of the rio is another story
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I like to glue animals to rocks and put disturbing amounts of electricity and saltwater next to each other
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11-21-2007, 03:52 PM
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#10
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Little Fishy
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: "we all live in a..."
Posts: 304
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all plastics are made from petroleum-based materials..... what you are seeing are the oils in the petroleum.... TOXIC to fish? who knows but wouldnt chance it.
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Here is the ANSWER to every question on TRT:
go buy all new stuff.......and start over
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11-21-2007, 04:03 PM
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#11
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senior member
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: Walnut Grove, SC, USA
Posts: 15,201
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hop
The key phrase out of that entire post is ... Rios are notorious for doing this and I've read of many reefs that were nuked by them. They reportedly fixed the problem with new sealing techniques, but as you found, some of the older style pumps are still out there.
Toss the water and toss the pump!
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Absolutely, toss the Rio and any other Rio pumps you have still. The problem with motors going bad and melting the plastic is that they release PCB's from the winging coatings into the water column, not to mention issues with copper... 
Toss the water, if it happens in a tank with live specimens, 100% water changes ASAP and add fresh GAC to the water at the rate of 1 TBS/20 USG in a media bag where the current is strong.
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Tom <"))))>(
(TDWyatt)
Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something. -Plato
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