Feliway Aerosol & Corals (Cat Behavior Modification Product)

[Timmay]

Hello All,

I need some help understanding how the chemicals in the Feliway (http://www.feliway.com/) product are affecting my reef (http://www.smokingchimp.com/timsreef/125/Index.html). If you're not familiar with the product, Feliway "mimics a cat's facial pheromones to calm cats in stressful environments, which can cause spraying, vertical scratching, and reduced desire to interact." The Feliway web site FAQ (http://www.feliway.com/html/feliway-faqs.php3) says that, "Because Feliway is ethanol based it should not be sprayed around children, or birds and other small animals. Breathing the mist can cause irritation of the mucous membranes." I sent them an email asking if its safe to use with reefs, but received no response.

I'm using it in an outlet 5' away from the tank and another one that sits above and to the right of the tank about 10'. We're using it in the
warming diffuser (http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=8906&Ntt=feliway&Ntk=All&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&N=2002) product that you plug into the wall. We've been using it for around 6 weeks. Over the last 4 weeks I've been losing all my SPS coroals and torch corals. On sunny days, you can see the mist coming out of the diffuser.

Until recently I'd been running carbon, but it didn't seem to make a difference. Any suggestions or advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Tim

P.S. - If anybody is interested, Feliway did help reduce the frequency of cat spraying. However, if this is what's killing my reef, it's not worth it.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The ethanol in it is of no concern to the reef. I' also expect the active ingredients are also no concern, but cannot be certain since I don't knbow what t hey are. Running some activated carbon would be a good insurance measure. :)

[Timmay]

Thanks for the information. I'll drop some more carbon in the tank to see if it helps.

Around the same time we started using the Feliway, we also temporarily moved the tank to install carpet. We drained the tank to 20%, lifted the tank/stand onto nylon sliders, slid the tank 10', and refilled the tank. We repeated the process 1 week later moving the tank back to its original location after the carpet had been installed. I moved the fragile corals to a holding tank while the carpet was being moved. The obvious answer would be that the corals were harmed during the moved, but I was very carefull and everything looked fine for several weeks after the move. Could there have been chemicals in the new carpet irritating the corals? Otherwise, I'm out of ideas. The water chemistry seems to be fine. The fish are healthy. My 18" carpet is healthy. The soft corals seem to be fine. Only the SPS corals and the torch corals appear to be affected.

Tim

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Could there have been chemicals in the new carpet irritating the corals?

There could be, but it would surprise me a bit. Does it smell very strongly? Running carbon is again the appropriate treatment.

[Timmay]

The carpet smelled strong for the first few days, but nothing overwhelming.

I put in some new active carbon. Hopefully it'll make a difference. Thanks again for the advice.

Tim

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You're welcome.

I hope things turn around. :)