Fire extinguisher used near fish stuff

If the chemical was indeed ammonium phosphate DO NOT USE BLEACH. This will form hydrazine (due to the ammonia portion of the compound). This compound (NH4)3PO4 will not cause harm to your tank in low concentrations due to the ammonium being consumed by your nitrification bacteria and the phosphate consumed by anything living in your tank other than the fish. Just give everything a good clean in water.

Hydrazine is a strong reducing agent and has the side effect of destroying any living tissue though in small concentrations I would not worry about it. Hydrazine is a gas and rather unstable so I would not worry about it long term.

In short ammonium phosphate is rather harmless to your tank in small concentrations (test for ammonia though) and bleaching it will yeild a highly toxic compound that has been known to kill people.
 
well I havent done anything to it yet, thank goodness! Hm.I just found what the chemimcal agent is: monoammonium phosphate. Same thing as ammonium phosphate? Im thinking now I'll jut rinse everything again well.
 
If my chemistry serves me right mono ammonium phosphate is (NH4)H2PO4. This will still form hydrazine since the high pH of bleach will convert the NH4 portion to NH3 which then can react with the bleach to form hydrazine. Any residual of this chemical will just be consumed by your bacteria, plants and algae so I would not worry too much.
 
Please do not use soap. If even a little bit of soap should get in your tank from not rinsing well enough, this could cause a big problem in your tank. When I use bleach to clean something for my aquarium, I use one part bleach to nineteen parts water. Afterward, I rinse and rinse and rinse with the final rinse in declor. Basically if I can't smell the bleach anymore than I know that it is safe for my tank.

Marinemom
 
Hydrazine is only one of the products from the rather messy reaction of ammonia and bleach. You also produce chloramines and chlorine gas. In short, nothing good comes of it. All you need is a good rinsing under running, warm water.

Never use bleach unless you're trying to eliminate some form of living organism. Bleach is really useful for sterilizing, but should not be used flippantly. It is easy to neutralize after use through rinsing and liberal use of a dechlorinator, but as this thread has pointed out, there are times when bleach is a really bad idea - namely any time ammonia is involved.

Soap is never a good idea. Surfactants should never be used to clean aquarium gear. Good cleaning solutions, in general, are bleach, oxiclean, vinegar, and water. The specific cleaning requirements will determine which chemical is best suited.
 
All you chem majors have been very helpful! You know, it really should say somewhere on the extinguisher not to use bleach to clean up the residue! It seems like it coud be extremely dangerous, lots of people use bleach for EVERYTHING. I tend to stick with vinegar for everything, myself. As for my tank stuff, the only time I used anything but water was when I got a used tank, used a bit of bleach then.
 
ammonia and bleach should never be mixed. they create an instantly fatal gas. however, common dish soaps and bleach are fine. but as already mentioned, dish soaps can leave residues that are harmful to fish and shouldn't be used. bleach is basically chlorine, and it evaporates without leaving any residue, and if your worried, it can be rinsed with a 4x solution of dechlorinator and water.
 
FYI: I wound up just rinsing everything out well in tap and letting it dry for a day. I used the gravel vac, the buckets, the cup and the algae mit in my water changes and all was well!! Im relieved, but also frustrated at fire extinguisher companies now....I had to really search the extinguisher to find out what the "stuff" is, and nowhere on it does it mention anything about bleach...I may just write a letter of complaint!
 
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