ammonia WILL make u sick

Not really an allergy, but the membranes get damaged from the ammonia so any time you're exposed again it exacerbates the existing damage.

So just imagine what the poor fish go through.

 

yea, it was pretty bad and i hope enough ppl read this to know about ammonia poisoning. a week ago i was still coughing and thought i was sick. i was coughing up mucus but it had brown in it... come to find out it was blood from the ammonia making my lungs bleed, pretty nasty stuff.

 

Wow thats so scary, Im glad ur okay!

 

Sorry, but simple biology and math would prove this post completely wrong. The amount of ammonia produced in even a dying stagnant tank like that is negligible at best. Even in a large system like your 180, say you max out a typical test kit and the ammonia is at 8ppm. Even all night in that kitchen, would expose you to less ammonia fumes than leaving a bottle of ammonia open in the room for 10 minutes. A Or take a typical everyday situation. You walk into a small public bathroom that has just been cleaned with ammonia, and the fumes are very strong smelling. Just that small amount of time exposed you to more ammonia then that tank did all day and night.
It is much more likely you happened to just pick up a virus or bacteria that day. Actually, there are a ton of potentially very harmful bacteria in our systems that can be transmitted via contact or respiration. But ammonia? Not really a concern.
And FWIW, when you cough up blood, its red, not brown. The transit time is not long enough for it to turn brown. And even if it was, blood stagnant inside the body turns black, not brown. Trust me I went tgrough a case of pertusis and have coughed up blood, real blood.
Now, if you mixed ammonia and bleach together, then you have real problems. That's basically mustard gas.

 

your right, i dont know anything really about biology so maybe it wasnt ammonia, but something else that the tank was putting off. however i do know that it was the tank and not the "virus or bacteria" that u refer to, i was not the only person sick. the smell in my house was intoxicating and after just 20 minutes of being outside in fresh air the symptoms dissipated and once the house was aired out and the tank had been moved there was no smell and no symptoms at all. as for the blood, it was a mix of blood and mucus since u want to be technical and what i was coughing up and blowing out of my nose was a dark brown... the hospital staff (ie. a doctor) informed me it was blood.
but besides the point this post was just to caution others that there can be reactions to having a dirty, dying tank in your house without cleaning it. thank you for the input.
here is a link of ppl getting sick from their aquarium:
World
im sure theres others too.

 

these are the study results by the agency for toxic substances & disease registry on ammonia making humans sick for those who love to research

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp126-c3.pdf

refer to 3.2.1.1- inhalant

 

also, theres a link with safety precautions for wikipedia that refers to occupational safety and health association with more information on ammonia. link below:
Ammonia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia