View Full Version : Mold
marcusg17
02/04/2010, 08:40 AM
Over the years I have had a handful of floods in my fish room. Sometimes the water has reached the drywall, never to bad but it still has gotten wet a time or two.
I am remodeling my sump setup. Now that I have access to all corners of the room I'm wondering if I should do some exploring for mold.
My question is does saltwater create an enviroment for house mold to grow?
Thanks
Randy Holmes-Farley
02/04/2010, 08:49 AM
The humidity certainly does. It can be a big concerned.
I recently revamped my basement setup to cover everything there, including the 3 refugia and 2 sumps so that no moisture escapes, drawing air from inside the containers with exhaust fans vented outside. Simple exhaust fans alone were not enough to keep the humidity down in the summer time here.
noahm
02/04/2010, 09:26 AM
You are in Cheyenne. I would bet that as long as there is any air circulation in your fish room, that mold is unlikely. Most places in the country though, it would be a real concern. I would pull the baseboard molding (no pun intended) and do a quick peek, but probably don't need to tear into the walls if you don't find anything there. If you do find any, a good bleach solution will kill most mold. If the conditions for growth (humidity) remain or return, so can the mold.
Chiefsurfer
02/04/2010, 09:32 AM
How about running an ozone machine in your fish rooms? I used to be a boat mechanic, and some of the cheaper boats would come in with bad weather-sealing. This would result in water inside the boat after heavy rain. Some were REALLLLLY bad, and we used to scrape off what we could, bleach, then run ozone generators for a week, and that would kill EVERY last bit of mold anywhere in the boat. Since ozone is O3, I just don't know how this might affect the actual tank. Would it bother it at all? If not, that could be a GREAT piece of equipment to keep in a fishroom(like a in the wall tank set-up).
marcusg17
02/04/2010, 11:10 AM
The humidity is not really an issue, the area is pretty well ventilated. My bigger consern is that the water has seeped up the dry wall a few times in the past and I was thinking that salt water in might not create the right conditions for house mold. Am I wrong in that assumption?
Chiefsurfer
02/04/2010, 12:10 PM
yeah. Water, whether salt, acid, or plain, will eventually grow mold, as long as it sits there for a while without being dried. If you live in a very dry place, and the room has plenty of ventilation, I would just do 2-3 spot-checks with a 1/2" hole, and if you don't see anything, you should be fine.
marcusg17
02/04/2010, 01:18 PM
thanks
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