Just got polytoxin posioning. Public health says toss everything g
 

So just finished a long night at the Er, and myself and 5 other all have confirmed poly toxin and were instructed to throw everything away. Is they're merit to this? It's a 160 gallon but I'm thinking proably wise to throw it all out

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Who were the 5 others?

My inlaws, my wife, my nephew and our newborn, that's why we went to the Er so quickly didn't want to risk it with our 7 month old

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How did everyone come in contact with the toxin? I also assume you mean Palytoxin?

Here’s an interesting article on it
http://www.tfhmagazine.com/details/a...thid-toxin.htm

Just got polytoxin posioning. Public health says toss everything g
 

Some how my message got lost. So here's the whole story. We bought our inlaws acreage and was moving everything all week. We did the fish tank on last Sunday and I think a anemone got shredded. On Monday everything died in the tank so the father inlaw flushed the tank with well water to remove the smell. We were still moving our house to the new place so it took a week for me to clean it. We moved all the lr into the brutes into the garage to "cook" them. After we flushed it twice and I sucked the rest out with a shop vac to get the last bit out.

Just curious,
How big is your tank, and size of the living space( house/condo) and did you have a lot of palys or zoas? Were you cleaning the tank or some sort of stress on the zoas/palys? What were the symptons?

I recall this happening a couple of years ago and made it to the cbc news.
Best of luck with a speedy recovery.

Best regs
msjboy

The tank is a 160 gallon and the living space ls a open concept house at around 1700sqft house, I did have zoas and stuff, not anymore tho lol

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I'm glad everyone is ok.

So if you've already lost everything (sorry to hear), and the old rock is cooking, then what's left to get rid of?

I would also add that this is extremely rare, and seems to be a result of the 'perfect storm' scenario.

Yeah this week has been a disaster. We had water leaks at the new and old house house, the tank dying, and now this. I think I'll just throw my rock away. I don't want to rish my family's health trying to recoup it. The only thing I'm unsure of is if the tank it's self has to be destroyed or not if it's empty. Also would I have to get rid of my mp40ws that was in there? Can I just bleach the tank and equipment or vinagur bath them?


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Glad everyone is OK. Sucks about the tank though.

I’d reuse everything you have. Clean all the equipment, keep cooking the rock until time permits a tank reboot. Wear gloves when working on the tank in the near future.

I wonder how persistent palytoxin is? Heading to google, I’ll post any answers I find.

Yeah I've been googling it and can't find much for answers, public health said destroy everything but it's not like they're experts in this field. They had never even heard of it I just read a few articles about it at one point.

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Public health are just covering their ass.

Give all the hardware a good soak and cleaning in vinegar. Bathe the rocks in bleach, give them a good rinse and then start cooking them for the rebuild. In the meantime, monitor your families health, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to get an air quality test done inside your new house.

Yeah I would assume as far as they're concerned the tank is a biohazard. Do I just rinse the rocks with a house and dump them in a bleach mixture then? Will this kill the toxin? What about freezing all the rocks then taking a pressure washer to it? As well as the bleach? What's the best way to clean the tank. Yesterday I filled it up and ran some vinegar in it then ran my pumps, drained the whole thing and added more water to hold back any smells

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here was the cbc.ca news on a family with similar plight:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...mily-1.4633810

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...ison-1.4635311

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...anup-1.4640303

Very different then what we were told by the hospital in Alberta. They just said air it out and remove the tank

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Here is what I’ve found on destroying the toxin, it’s not much

. It is heat-stable, not inactivated by boiling, and is stable in neutral aqueous solutions for prolonged periods, however a rapid decomposition occurs under acid or alkaline conditions, leading to loss of its toxicity [2].

From page 3 of this article https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/art...1/#!po=6.94444, I’ll grab the footnote info too.

Katikou P. Chemistry of Palytoxins and Ostreocins. In: Botana LM, editor. Phycotoxins, Chemistry and Biochemistry. Blackwell Publishing; Ames, IA, USA: 2007. pp. 75–93.

I’m guessing the shop vac sent it airborne and everyone was exposed. It appears that the alkalinity in our tanks helps keep the toxin in check. It’s actually scary stuff. I’ve read lots of documented cases where pouring boiling water on palys has created problems for everyone in the vicinity.

Just got polytoxin posioning. Public health says toss everything g
 

Yeah I've read alot of those articles. The father inlaw has a big ozone generator, maybe just bladtoc that will help

I too have suffered from palytoxin poison. Been put in hospital for a few days than had to use a puffer afterwards for 2 weeks. This was caused by trying to scrape off palys in the kitchen sink whilst running hot water on them. Than another time I was once again scraping them off a rock and got squirted in the eye which caused a chemical burn to my cornea.
Palys are extremely dangerous and the medical staff in my town had no clue what it was and I had to inform them both times of what I had.
But to tell you to throw everything out is ludacris. Whst your doin with vinegar for your equipment is fine.
It took my years to finally get the palys off my rocks.
Since your tank is pretty much toast I suggest you put the rocks in a well ventilated area or outside in a large container of water and throw in a gallon of muriatic acid and let it sit for a couple of weeks. It's only way i got rid of my palys. You can get muriatic acid at a hardware store. The big ones don't seem to carry it anymore. Just remember to have the water first. The fumes are pretty strong so be careful. Good luck. No plays!!! They're bad!!

Wow, that's some scary news. I didn't know heat doesn't do anything to it. Good to learn that acidic and alkaline baths will cause it to denature. Good luck buddy.

Anthony

Good to hear from another survivor ha! Last night i drained the tank for a 4th or 5th time, washed the inside of the tank out with bleach, i ended up using about 2l of bleach. I then rinse again, wiped down with a 1-1 vinegar mix on the whole tank. I filled it up again and dumped some vinegar in and let it sit.

How long did you air the house out after? We've had fans blowing out the fish room for 36hrs now. Also unsure if we need to sterilize all the furniture and stuff in that room?

Will a muriatic water mixture free? Currently jumping form -5 to -15 around here right now , so might not work great to toss it out side in a bucket ha

My case was just from one single rock coated in plays. I didn't air house out. If nobody is suffering any symptoms im pretty sure the house/furniture is fine. I'd imagine the muriatic acid water mixture would freeze, I did my baths over a long period of time a few rocks at a time in my basement. Than I soaked in fresh water for a week than let dry out for another week. Slowly added piece by piece over time. There is no source of any saltwater related items in my town or I would have bought new rock. But that's a big expense

I guess before I get to crazy with the tank over setup, do you guys think I need to reseal? Is it worth it to reseal? Both front corners look like this from the outside looks good but inside has lots of bits missing https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...fe14592194.jpg

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It's cosmetic.
But if this is gonna be a long term display, I'd do it.

Because since you brought it up, I know it's already in the back of your head. And if it's already in the back of your head, you're gonna think about everytime you see it.

Ha it doesn't bother me at all, I'm just concerned if it's structural

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It appears you have been a little rough with the cleaning. How old is the tank? Silicon has a life expectancy. After time it will start to leak.

I bought the tank used 3 years ago, it was like that when I got it, but I've definitely taken some chunks off cleaning, but I'm generally pretty careful close to the edge. When I got home I'll take a look at tag on the bottom to see if I can see a date

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If you are handy with silcon and have some experience you may want to take the opportunity to replace it now. It would give you the great opportunity to really clean the glass.

However if you are not handy with silicon, like me I find it difficult, a lot of work, and no fun. There are a lot of better things I want to do with my tank.

After the whole scare I'm auctally looking into building a addition onto our house that will extender my garage, we'll stick a "window" into the new fish room that will display the tank into the house. I'll be moving up the a 240 or bigger if this happens. If I can get the price cheap enough on the addition this will be one wild ride ha

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