Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello all,
Long story short, I inherited a box of random garage things, which included some wasp spray.
I had it sitting out on top of my gravel filled stock tank, which was going to be used for my next build (last June). Well, somehow the wasp spray exploded. I know that it got on some of the gravel. It was carefully and excessively removed. I believe that some got on the tank as well. I have washed and scrubbed, and washed and scrubbed, and washed and scrubbed this. But, I wonder if any of you chemists out there might have some input?

Don't chemicals like these have a half life, and would that have expired already (almost a year). I know that polyethylene absorbs chemicals.
Would heating it help? Maybe it would help the chemicals to exit, if they penetrated the plastic?

I know that someone on here got poison into their system, and cleaned it all out, and eventually got it running again. It's a pretty big tank, at 300 gallons. I hope it's not hopeless.

Any ideas are appreciated.
Thoughts: 1: Cry (Which I've already done above)
2: Use the tank for a wicking bed. (non AP) though I don't really have the space.
3. Fill it up with good water, and throw some sacrificial fish in there.

Crikey mate that’s no good!
Polyethylene is not hygroscopic so shouldn’t absorb the chemical, a good scrub and a couple of days in the sun and it should be right. If there was some left on it would be in such small concentrations it shouldn’t matter. I’ve used a couple of IBCs (polyethylene also)which were marked as toxic contents but after a good scrub and rinse there have been no issues.
I’d say the gravel could be reused if washed also but if it’s cheap don’t.
She’ll be right mate.

Agreed with above. But to appease your what if, look up the SDS for the bugs spray it it should tell you how to clean or neutralize it; or take a look at the active ingredients of it and see what Google can tell you if it will decay or can be neutralized.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

Damn that's bad luck

Hmmm its your life don't forget and others

Fish and in particular Frogs are very sensitive to chemicals so yes you could do option 3 before you reuse

I lost all my fish to insecticide spray drift (so very little would have got into system details in my system thread)

I suggest clean your tank fill it up and nuke it with pool chlorine (cover from sun) leave a few days clean out again fill it up chuck a little bit of ammonia in and get it to go green with algae for a long time ( so use natural processes to clean it )

And yes read up on the active constituent know your chemical

Long story short ive had too much exposure to insecticides (sheep shearing years ago when no one cared about chemicals in the work place) I got really sick so I run in the don't take the risk group

Maybe you could set up a little system and grow some Ornamental Fish and Cut flowers to sell and recoup some of your $$$ Roses grow beautiful in AP might be a little side line for you

After a few fills it would certainly be diluted

I no longer have the spray can that held the spray. So, I looked to one of the most reliable sources on the web, Wiki-something or other. This is what I found:
Most wasp sprays are made of synthetic pyrethrins, and most synthetic pyrethrins are:

"Cyhalothrin is inherently highly toxic to many fish and aquatic invertebrate species. Binding to soil and sediment reduces exposure and lessens the risk to fish: field studies found no significant adverse effects. In the opinion of the WHO expert committee "The concentrations of cyhalothrin and lambda-cyhalothrin that are likely to arise in water from normal agricultural application will be low. Since the compound is rapidly adsorbed and degraded under natural conditions, there will not be any practical problems concerning the accumulation of residues or the toxicity of cyhalothrin or lambda-cyhalothrin in aquatic species.[12]"

The bit about binding to soil, and Terra's idea about algae naturally removing the possible chemicals made me think:
Don't people pay good money to have baths in clay, and use clay masks on their faces to remove impurities or something like that?

It just so happens that I have recently created a sizable pile of very good clay, from excavating ( or digging) a sizable hole to fit this tank's twin into.
What if I were to create a nice slurry, slather it onto the area that i suspect contact was made, let dry, crack off, repeat. What about mixing some crushed activated charcoal in there?
Maybe???
I have to remember, I am not 100 percent sure about the contact that was made. I know that the very rim had a little on it. I think the majority absorbed into the gravel (actually perlite rock, which is very porous) i know, or have been told, that they use perlite to clean up chemical spills.
I might be overly cautious, but then again, the older i get, the less risky I am.
I've got this guy on one shoulder , and this one on the other !

Thank you for your encouragement and thoughts!

Terra, I looked at your thread, and you were one of the people I was thinking about, who had chemical drift affect their system. The last I read, you had some tadpoles make it after the fact, so is all good now?

I love your IBC frame grow bed, and tractor tire stand, sheer genius! Especially the tractor tire!

Are mosquitos a good sign??? We had a good rain about two weeks ago, and now I have mosquito larvae growing! I've never been excited about mosquito larvae before, but in this case....Wouldn't the poison kill them if it was still present? I slathered on a bunch of clay mud for the time being.

I would say so.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

Its likely that very little chemical would have contaminated the tank

Cant be too careful if you want to use it keep cleaning until your comfortable

After the poisoning of my system I decided to sell up and move we had been planning it for awhile anyway it wasn't only the ap system my whole organic garden concept was effected.

I pulled my system to bits and brought all the components with me left the gravel behind