Poly-fil by Fairfield - Not Safe for Aquariums

[Kivstev]

Got the info from the source.

I bought some of this stuff at Satan's favorite store - Walmart. I saw a notice on the bag of the '100% Premiium Polyester Fiberfill' that it passes flammability requirements in Cali.

After rummaging through the boards, I decided to call the company and get the straight answers to whether the product has chemicals added. The number is on their web page. To my surprise they told me that their Poly-fil and foam product are made with 'recycled materials' which can lead to iron oxide issues in aquariums and fish tanks. Iron oxide is rust I believe. They strongly "Do not recommend" their product to fish keepers.

I never really got around to getting a straight answer on the flame retardancy (is that a word?), but I didn't need to. I'm not putting this stuff in my filters if they don't recommend it. I'll pay a bit more for the aquarium safe stuff elsewhere.

Don't Shoot the Messenger by Puscifer - great CD.

 

[tcarswell]

The poly fil in the green bag from wal mart ive been using for years?



"Sheesh what doesn't give you cancer these days" - Stewart Gilligan Griffin

 

[Zander_The_RBP]

iron oxide is also what in aquarium plant fertilizers and special sands for plants only extremely high levels of it is going to do any harm to your fish and if you have live plants they will actualy use the iron in it.



theres a bunch of different types of iron oxide so to say it's "rust" is sort of incorrect

 

[Chaz88]

theres a bunch of different types of iron oxide so to say it's "rust" is sort of incorrect

I think it would be more correct to say there are a bunch of different types of rust. Iron oxide is ether FeO or Fe2O3.

 

[Kivstev]

Fair enough. Maybe it's not strictly common chemical 'rust'. They do deem it unsafe for aquariums because of the recycled agents involved - whatever they may be. Good enough for me not to use it.

 

[Zander_The_RBP]

I think it would be more correct to say there are a bunch of different types of rust. Iron oxide is ether FeO or Fe2O3.

there are several types of iron oxide (if you count Iron hydroxides)the rust that forms on a iron pole or such is one type (Fe2O3)

these include:
Fe2O3 (rust formed on iron objects or found naturaly as hematite)
Fe3O4(magnetite)
FeO


and there are 2 iron hydroxides:
Fe(OH)2
Fe(OH)3


the kind they are most likely refering to is Fe2O3

Fair enough. Maybe it's not strictly common chemical 'rust'. They do deem it unsafe for aquariums because of the recycled agents involved - whatever they may be. Good enough for me not to use it.

unless you know exactly what they are recycling we can never be sure. That being said it's probably recycled plastics which may leach bisphenol A into the water this would be bad if your drinking it becuase bisphenol A actualy acts as estrogen in the human body (this is why they say don't reuse plastic water bottles anymore)but estrogen is a mammalian hormone and would not affect fish


you would be able to tell if it's affecting your fish as soon as they start getting moody once a month

 

[Chaz88]

Ok. I will give you the Fe3O4 as an oxide but not the hydroxides.

 

[Toby_H]

If the manufacturer said "sure, our product is safe to use in your fishtank" then you would have the legal right to sue them if their product caused some problem in your fish tank...

Thus the manufacturer has ample motivation to tell you the safe answer... As they would rather loose the very small percentage of sales by loosing aquarium application sales than to loose half a dozen astronomically high lawsuits.

This is what lawyers have turned our world into...


As a proven example...

I contacted the manufacturer of Krylon Fushion to ask them if their product was aquarium safe. They responded telling me that no animal testing was performed on any of their products therefore they do not recommend using it in fish aquariums. But this forum contains thousands of user experiences that verify it is completely safe for aquarium applications.

Feel free to contact Krylon to verify their claims/suggestions...

 

[squint]

Someone on another forum killed all their fish with one type of batting purchased from Wal-Mart.

Alternatively, buy some polyester micron filter pads and cut several of them to size. When dirty, remove them and immediately hose them off as best you can then put them away. When you've collected a bunch of filthy ones, mix a bleach and water solution in a polyethylene container and soak them for at least a day. Rinse them out again and add them to your laundry (I use only laundry detergent--no fabric softener). Air dry afterwards and they're ready to be used again.

I've been doing this for nearly a decade and have yet to have to actually throw away any of the filter pads. Some are getting a little frayed on the edges from all the wash cycles but are probably good for a few more years.

Another thing I've been trying is using stainless steel mesh of various micron ratings (something like 200, 100, 50) for the 3 stages in my wet/dry. The finest mesh is hard to clean so I reverted to using a polyester filter pad for the final stage. One day, I'll get an ultrasonic cleaner that will hopefully be able to clean the stainless steel mesh and likely the polyester pads as well. That would be much faster than the bleaching process as well as being reusable indefinitely.

 

[spyder6005]

I been using it for years. It could be like how GE silicone is aquarium safe but they wont say it is because they turn around and sell a repackaged version that labels it "aquarium safe" which they can charge more for.