Polyurethane on running tank stand?

[Cjud7982]

Just curious what peoples thoughts are on applying a coat of polyurethane on a stand with a running tank on it. All of my fish are in a separate qt tank. But there are corals and inverts in the tank that I am planning on applying the finish to the stand. I know the gas exchange is sensitive on these tanks and want to make sure the fumes from the poly wont hurt the tank. I have some glass lids that I will put over it to minimize it. It should help at least I would think.

 

[JoshH]

Personally, I don't think I would ever do it. The fumes are bad enough for humans I can't Imagine the effect it would have on our reefs. Especially with what spraying a little air freshener around our tanks can do.

 

[Cjud7982]

thanks for your input! I was thinking the same thing, but the area was so small. I decided to go for it because I do not want the wood to get water stained, so it needed to get done at some point. I put glass over the top of my tank and it was almost completely covered over. I put a fan in the window right next to the tank to pull the fumes out and blow out the window as well as put plastic over the sump area. I attached a pic if interested. I will be sure to get back if I notice any side effects.

And I completely agree with you on air fresheners and scented candles. I have to constantly remind people in my house to stop and never do it again lol.

 

[1WildBill]

Wish I would have seen this earlier, minwax makes a waterbased poly that is very durable and has no smell.

 

[JoshH]

Wish I would have seen this earlier, minwax makes a waterbased poly that is very durable and has no smell.

Yes they do, would have been my next suggestion but it's already done lol but it's important to note that even water based products give off potentially harmful vapors, just much less of them

 

[Triggreef]

Cover your tank with some plastic sheeting like they sell for painting. Open all your windows and use some fans, it should be fine. If really worried you could turn off the pump for an hour or so and just leave powerheads on. Where water dumps down to your sump is where the most gas exchange takes place.

 

[JoshH]

Where water dumps down to your sump is where the most gas exchange takes place.

I would have thought the skimmer would be the area where the most gas exchange takes place?

 

[Cjud7982]

All great thoughts guys! I will look into the minwax water based poly. I have this new high gloss poly from blue diamond that I wanted to try out. I certainly opened all of the windows and had a couple fans going. And I guess never thought of the most gas exchange. I would've guessed main display with all the water movement, but both other thoughts are making me question it. Good discussion

 

[JoshH]

Blue diamond is some awesome stuff!

 

[Triggreef]

I would have thought the skimmer would be the area where the most gas exchange takes place?

I would think it would be obvious to turn off the skimmer for the time being but I guess that should be pointed out.

 

[JoshH]

I would think it would be obvious to turn off the skimmer for the time being but I guess that should be pointed out.

A ha, I agree but sometimes you just never know, with first time projects or situations it's sometimes easy to miss the obvious when your heads wrapped up with other things.

 

[Cjud7982]

A ha, I agree but sometimes you just never know, with first time projects or situations it's sometimes easy to miss the obvious when your heads wrapped up with other things.

Yeah I can completely agree with this. This isn't my first tank setup and have been doing it for a few years now, but your right about overlooking the skimmer. I should have known better ;Facepalm. There is so much to think about when doing anything with or near these tanks. I will certainly have the skimmer and rerun pumps shut down tomorrow when I do the second coat. Thank you for the input

 

[Cjud7982]

@JoshH , I think you are correct as well about the skimmer being the most important for gas exchange now that I think of it more. I feel dumb not realizing it before but the entire design of the skimmer is based on air draw and contact time with bubbles and the water. In the many hundreds to thousands of liters per hour of air draw. Seems like a no brainer now... To quote the great homer "Dough"

 

[1WildBill]

Yes they do, would have been my next suggestion but it's already done lol but it's important to note that even water based products give off potentially harmful vapors, just much less of them

I’m a painter by trade, if you pay attention to VOC’s (which I have to), there will be very minimal smell.

 

[JoshH]

I’m a painter by trade, if you pay attention to VOC’s (which I have to), there will be very minimal smell.

I don't entirely understand your comment. The "Smell" of a product has nothing to do with the amount of VOC's in it. Yes oil based products typically contain more and they do "Smell" worse but there's no correlation between them directly. A latex based paint in a dark color/shade ex. Navy blue or red can have FAR more VOC's in them depending on the type of tint used to mix it vs. A regular oil based white paint.

 

[1WildBill]

VOC’s have a direct correlation to smell. Lower they are the less smell. You can’t get rid of it completely, but you can reduce it.

 

[JoshH]

I worked in the paint dept for a few years and the tints we used had 100x's the VOC content of any oil based product we sold, and none of them had a stronger odour than latex paint so I'm not sure where your getting your information from. But I digress. A dark coloured latex paint can easily have more VOC's in it depending on the tints used (Which will NOT be shown on the paint can label) or reflected in the smell. Regardless, they all have VOC's in them and whether there is a little, or a lot, they all have the same effect and that still needs to be considered in any project planning.

 

[Cjud7982]

Sorry to raise a hard topic guys, I did not mean to start any arguments, just hoping to get some input from you smart fellas. From what I can tell, reading your posts and research, I will assume that all paints and finishing materials will contain some amount of VOC's regardless of smell. Which means caution should be taken for our own bodies sake, and even more care around our reef tanks. I have used all sorts of paints, poly's, lacquers, automotive finishes painting entire cars and I have always worn a respirator for my lungs and hearts best interest. I guess I just need to take more caution around my tanks in the future. Both of your inputs are appreciated and will inspire me to finish all of my stands prior to having the tanks up and running to be on the safe side. All good info and much appreciated Thanks guys

 

[Sleepydoc]

I just got done touching up my stand with oil-based polyurethane. Nothing fancy - just cheap, MinWax poly from Home Depot. It went fine with no mortality and no signs of stress in the tank inhabitants. The levels were likely not the same as refinishing the entire stand, but at least it's some evidence.

My rationale for using oil-based went something like this:
All polyurethane varnish has some sort of volatile solvent that evaporates off, leaving the polyurethane behind along with fumes from the evaporated solvent. For traditional, oil-based polyurethane, it's a some sort of hydrocarbon. For water-based, it's generally a glycol ester, although I've used some that at least smell like they have a component of ammonia in them as well.

For water-based coatings, the solvent is by definition water soluble, where as for oil-based coatings it is water insoluble. As such, the fumes created by a water based coating would be much more likely to get absorbed into the tank water and potentially cause issues, where as the opposite would be true with fumes from the oil-based solvent. I know this assumes equal toxicity at equal concentrations, etc, so it could be totally wrong, but it sounded good in my head, and in the end things went fine.