I mean if you have tanks in your room and you close up your window and you sleep with it, will you get sick from the vapor coming from your fish tank?

considering that the tank has chemicals in it like water neutralizer and ammonia, nitrate and stuff

what do you guys think?

I doubt it. There's a lot worse stuff than fish vapors in the air we breath.

but no doubt there is a smell there though

just like walking in a humid fish store, there is that smell

to get rid of it or to hide it is to add a live plant in the room?

It's not healthy to have fish tank in the bed room.

I have had a fish tank in my bedroom for probably about 4 years now and it has not done anything to me.. we keep it clean so there is no smell and we also have an air purifier in the room.. main reason for that is cats and smoke... not sure if we would really get sick if i removed the purifier but at my last place i didn't have it in the bedroom...

so idunno

opps..

This post has been edited by flowerhornsfrombeyond: Apr 21 2008, 10:26 AM

I dont think there is enough concentration to have any effect on us as long as you clean your tanks on a regular basis. I started to run a dehumidifier once a week and its helped but I cant smell so I dont know if its helped with that.

If your fish tanks smell there's something wrong. They should definitely not smell fishy or anything. A well cycled, properly filtered aquarium smells like fresh dirt. If anything I miss having the aquarium in my bedroom because of the added humidity. The air here is dry in the winter because of the heat and dry in the summer because of the AC. Even with hundreds of gallons of water in several aquariums throughout the house the humidity is still way below 20percent. Does anyone have any valid reasons to not have an aquarium in the bedroom? Just saying it's bad for your health without an explanation I'm not buying.

Dirt tank = you aint getting any tonight!

I have a 40g in my bedroom with angels and gold fish for the wife and once my discus grow I will make that their new home and the goldfish will suddenly die... what a shame

This post has been edited by danz: Apr 21 2008, 01:56 PM

I wonder if adding live plants would help?

Bizarre, but totally true.. I couldn't put my finger on it before, but that is exactly what it smells like

I had a few tanks in one bedroom and my window sills started to grow mold. I hear that stuff is bad for your health. What do you think about mold?

yep, thats actually what i was thinking as thats the biggest problem in my fish room.

Certain types of mold can be deadly. Try using exhaust fans or dehumidifier on large fish rooms If you have a problem with mold. But I seriously dout that the water vapor from a aquarium is harmful. When Im sick I will sit in my fish room and It make me feel better because of the humid air. Its like my private tropical paradise.

nah, I don't think so bro. I've done that in the past and still, I'm here healthy. If I only have a room for a tank in my bedroom, I would be happy to put one in. I love having my aquarium light as my nightlight during the evening. It's so relaxing. Some aquariums might smell but it can be fixed by using charcoals for chemical filtration. There's no proven incident that what you're saying happened already so don't worry.

Like I said, I've got several hundred gallons of water throughout my house in various aquariums. My place is so dry it makes me sad. I doubt you got mold on your window sill from the fish tank. Condensation will cause mildew to form if you don't clean well enough and you never open the curtains. But that's from the difference in temp on either side of your window...Hot outside and cold inside because of air conditioners or cold outside and warm inside because of heating system. You'd have to have wall to wall 180 gallon aquariums in your bedroom heated to 88 degrees with the room temp at 65 to cause enough evaporation to cause mold...or a good sized fish room. Don't sleep in your fish room and you'll be fine. Another reason a lot of people's fish rooms are damp is because they're in the basement which is already damp even without the added fish tanks. A dehumidifier will take care of that. An aquarium in your bedroom is not going to hurt you.

This post has been edited by Katt66: Apr 21 2008, 09:05 PM

I do not think the effect is big enough or else surgeon general will start putting labels on fish tanks to not be place in a room where you normally sleeps in. Maybe it is a silent killer and takes time?

One thing for sure, a room with a fish tank will smell differently than one that is not. The smell is not enough to kill a person or to make them sick but the smell is easily notice once you walk from the hallway to your bedroom. I think a person get used to that aquarium smell after awhile but we are not aware of it.

I even stick my head into the aquarium before and after a water change just to smell the difference. Ammonia has the strongest odor and we know that some chemicals are odorless

Once again, if your aquarium smells there's something wrong. You should have no ammonia in your aquarium. If you do, you need to reevaluate your fishkeeping practices. Anyway, if you're that worried about mold, get rid of all your fish. Just keeping the tanks out of your bedroom won't save you from the mold. What about when you sit and watch TV all day Sunday? You're breathing those "fish vapors" all the while you're in your living room or den or wherever all your fish tanks are too. And make sure you've got an Ionic Breeze hooked into your central heating and air conditioning system and tons of air filters, and dehumidifiers, ect, etc, like my Mother-In-Law who's allergic to everything under the sun and has tons of air filters in her house to keep her from getting sick and ending up in the hospital in respiratory arrest. (not being sarcastic, she does have some serious allergies)

Unless you've got a fish room moving hundreds and hundreds of gallons of water you shouldn't need to worry about mold or any harmful vapors coming from you aquariums. Even then, people with humidity problems in their homes, whether it's from aquariums or that damp moldy basement or whatever just get dehumidifiers. There is nothing gonna hurt you about keeping an aquarium in your bedroom. If there was they wouldn't be allowed in hospitals and nursing homes. Everything in there has to be strictly tested and controlled for the safety of all residents. There's a 180 gallon aquarium in each dining room of the nursing home I currently work at. Several residents have fish in their rooms from betta bowls all the way up to 20 or 30 gallon aquariums. The pediactric unit of Geisinger Hospital has aquariums all over the place as well. And there's some pretty sick kids there. If aquariums were emitting any deadly "Fish vapors" they wouldn't be allowed around fragile sick kids.

Now that I think about it, a lot of hotels and resturaunts have aquariums in their lobbies and dining areas. The Board of Health certainly wouldn't allow something that's giving off deadly vapors and causing mold to be in a public dining area.

This post has been edited by Katt66: Apr 22 2008, 07:03 AM

OK, OK point taken. I know that there are many factors that contribute to health problems. I used to be paranoid about having tanks in the house when my baby was born. We even got rid of the water turtles because of the salmonella risk. We were just being overly cautious because of our new addition to the family. Now that my baby is two and very healthy, I am far less concerned, unless he starts drinking tank water. Thanks for the explanation

Lmao Danz.. that's usually the story right?..lol they suddenly died...gold fish are nice and calming but you need to clean the tank more often depending on the type of golfish.. i like the fancy ones with the bubbles on their head... anyway discus are nice but unfortunately i'm getting rid of all of mine... i have about 9 of them

if anyone is in the toronro ontario area and is interested (most likely will be free) hit me up...