Poisonous gas from bleach use??

[Ginevive]

Wow.. I am pretty concerned. I usually use bleach to clean-out my snake's tubs. I pour about half of a capful into each tub; mix in some warm/hot water; scrub with scrubbie sponge; rinse very well. Well, there was some caked-on urate in one tub. I figured, OK, pour bleach right onto it and it'll help loosen it.. I somehow created this HORRIBLE noxious fume that made me have to leave the room and run to the door and stick my head out!
I aired the house out, and luckily it was the bathroom; a room with no snakes or other pets living in it. I asked my hubby about it, and he said that I had created something like poison mustard gas??
Wow; I never knew about this and feel pretty stupid. I think that from now on, I will rely on antibacterial dish soap.. I would at least like to put this out there to caution anyone who uses bleach. I would recommend removing most of the urate with a paper towel or something..!
Why must my snakes move their newspaper out of the way before.. urate-ing?

[slartibartfast]

Yeesh. That sounds scary.

Bleach and ammonia make a nasty compound indeed.

Try chlorhex. :-) It kills the bad bugs and it's much safer all around than bleach. We had a safety meeting at work the other day, where they said bleach really isn't a very effective disinfectant, and should be used primarily just for whitening clothes. I was a bit surprised by that. We use chlorhex on all our surgical stuff.

[clipclopclip]

wow! I use bleach but I always mix it with water before I pour it into the tanks.....I've never had that happen though.....I'll remember not to pour bleach on my snakes' leavings.

That kinda reminds me of a time when I was trying to make my own herbal mixture to burn as incense. I didn't research very well. I burned an herb (can't remember the name now....but it isn't very well known as anything other than a cooking herb, I don't think) in this mixture that certainly hot-boxed my apartment and made me very high. I had no idea lol.

I ended up calling my BF to come open up windows because I was a little silly by that point.

Just goes to show that one should always open windows when playing with chemistry!!!

A fun story for you!

[fishmommy]

nutmegger!

[Ginevive]

lol
I am going to practice safe cleaning now, and search for chlorhex. Thanks for the advice!
Hysterical story, ClipClop..

[SatanicIntention]

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[Michael314]

put a lose paste made of biological washing powder and warm water on the stubborn stuff and it will just dissolve and come off easily and and then use watered down bleach to disinfect. It is cheaper than the professional alternative, If you are afraid of bleach now use 90% ethanol (not vodka) that will clean germs and dry streak-free.