Beware scent diffusers

[badstorm48]

So, this week has been a very stressful week. My tank crashed due to a scent diffuser my mom bought. The first thing I did was check my water and everything was fine. Then I noticed a oily look at the top of the water. First fish died in a day and today my second fish died. I had two clown fish. My tank just got done with cycling and was good to go so as you can imagine it was quiet devastating to have my tank crash. As soon as I figured out what it was my mom returned them and I am in the process of trying to clean up the mess that happened in one day. So far it's going good and there's not as much oil on the water. All I've done so far is do a water change and skim the top of the water with a cup. Today I don't see the oil look but am keeping an eye out to see if it comes back or is gone. Just plan on doing regular water changes until my tank is good again. The inverts are still doing very well. I have a urchin peppermint shrimp snails and little hermit crabs in my 20 gallon tank. So I'm hoping I caught it fast enough before it could totally destroy my tank.

These diffusers seem to be somewhat new. So, I figured I would share my experience with them for those that have aquariums and or looking at them. They are similar to aerosols in that they put the scents into the air like a steam. Well it goes up and goes through the vents in the house and ends up in your aquarium. Now my mom had a diffuser in her room which is right across from mine and one in the living room which is not close to my tank at all. Both of the diffusers were in separate rooms and not close to the tank and it ended up crashing it.

Here's some pics of my water

This pic below is after the water change and I still had oil on top of the water so I skimmed the top with a cup.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

FWIW, fish die in new systems for lots of reasons. It might be the organic compounds from the scent added to the water, but it might also be other things, and figuring out why is not easy to do.

That said, do you have a skimmer for aeration (an oily layer blocks aeration through the top), and do you have either GAC, a skimmer, or other means of exporting organics that might have helped with this issue?

 

[reefrider777]

you can also go by the fire department and get an oil cloth. They will usually give them to you for free. The cloth is what they use if their is an oil spill from a wreck and gets into the water system.

 

[Damon]

Interesting and sorry for your loss.. I and a couple friends of mine all use scent diffusers.. I have been using the 4 that we have for almost two years, and the three talks we have(my 180 reef with canopy), my 20 open top(with baby bangai), and my girlfriend's 29 gallon freshwater have never had problems..

The only thing I can think of, is either something combined with the oil, or a massive amount was used, the brand and type of oil,or something else went wrong. Because we've never experienced it, and pretty much run them every day..

If it helps, you may want to tell your mom to try "plant therapy" brand essential oils.. And we use the smiley daisy diffusers..

But sorry for your loss...

 

[justaDutchguy]

Sorry about your loss, happens to all of us bit it's devistating every time.
Just out of curiosity, how far away from the tabk was the diffusor?
We have one too and occasionally light some incense. It makes me paranoid every time so we burn/diffuse on the other side of the the room.

 

[ontop27]

I would go with that is just dissolved organics. When is the last time you checked ammonia levels. I would imagine there plenty of us that use diffusers. Heck i even spray the room with fabreeze too

 

[brandon429]

There's a neat older article online as well talking about home scents driving tank invasions that look like white slime, aerosol vectors are rare for us but apparently pretty real if that causative can be pinpointed

 

[Airspeed35]

Coming in late to confirm. This happened to me as well. I had the same oil slick on the surface. My 2 clowns were dang near floating lateral at the surface. They were acting very neurologic. Since they feed from floating surface food they were becoming toxic. I did a 50% water change, and used paper towels to lift the oil off the surface. Fortunately, I did not suffer a loss. The clowns do have some weird swimming patterns (they list from side to side, lol), but are active and eating. This was 7 days ago.

 

[Jorge Linares]

Coming in late to confirm. This happened to me as well. I had the same oil slick on the surface. My 2 clowns were dang near floating lateral at the surface. They were acting very neurologic. Since they feed from floating surface food they were becoming toxic. I did a 50% water change, and used paper towels to lift the oil off the surface. Fortunately, I did not suffer a loss. The clowns do have some weird swimming patterns (they list from side to side, lol), but are active and eating. This was 7 days ago.

I know this is old but what oil did you diffuse.

 

[BoomCorals]

We have 3 essential oils diffusers. Never an issue.