E
esmerelda
Guest
Hello everyone...total newbie here...I have just aquired a female leopard gecko we have named Esmarelda. (a very good friend of mine is the "reptile tech" for a local vets office and she has more rescues than she can care for...knowing how I am with my animals she asked me if I would take her and I agreed)
I already ran this by her...and she was not sure beause these are not mainstream methods but she did not see any issues right off...so here I am.
Okay here is my thought...anyone see any reason that peracetic acid would not work as a disinfectant for habitats? Very interestingly, I was looking it up because of my experience of years of using it as a baby and child safe disninfectant...and found that they are starting to studying it against things like quat as well!
Peracetic acid is simply hydrogen peroxide combined with acetic acid...I.E. vinegar. I have personally used this for nearly 10 years as my household disinfectent when I read a study that it actually turned out to kill off things better than bleach and is far more safe. Over the years, I have discovered it is widely used in the food manufacturing industry and is even recommended as a no rinse produce wash to kill off any nasties. Many hospitals also use it and though it is a little harder to find all of the info...it does kill off fungi etc. as well. It is also suggested for use in households with asthma, because despite its strong smell initially, it disipates fully and with supposedly no residue. (I have never noticed any, but I still rinse stuff just because I am paranoid like that, lol) FYI, I use the common method of 2 spray bottles, one of vinegar and one of peroxide. Spray each down and let it do its thing. Wipe off and go for non eating surfaces (though they say its fine) but I do rinse for anything that is going into a mouth.
here is a little copy and paste from wiki to sum it up:
Peracetic acid is a disinfectant produced by reacting hydrogen peroxide with acetic acid. It is broadly effective against microorganisms and is not deactivated by catalase and peroxidase, the enzymes that break down hydrogen peroxide. It also breaks down to food safe and environmentally friendly residues (acetic acid and hydrogen peroxide), and therefore can be used in non-rinse applications. It can be used over a wide temperature range (0-40°C), wide pH range (3.0-7.5), in clean-in-place (CIP) processes, in hard water conditions, and is not affected by protein residues.
Here is a very in-depth look:
http://www.electropure-inc.com/docs/peracetic-acid.pdf
I have actually already used it with no ill effects...just wondered what others think. (I had a used 20 gal fish tank..it was only used on fish but you just never know. I also had some granite that sat in my yard. I washed the tank down with wipe out 1, rinsed several times then used that on the tank and rinsed at least 4 times...scrubbed the granite down with my eco friendly dish soap and water, rinsed several times, then used this and rinsed the heck out of that too...and then I did wrap up the granite in foil and baked it at 350 for nearly 2 hours, lol) Now, even though it is used in no rinse applications...I rinsed the HECK out of everything JUST to be sure.
Normally I am not a nut about things needing to be disinfected (I use this for everything from when my kids have had the flu and vomit on the tile...to my raw chicken slopped counter tops...just the kind of stuff you really DO WANT to disinfect) and this is not something I would do more than once a month on the tank anyhow...I am just a little more from the school of thought that its not totally a good thing to kill off all germs...even if they are bad. For SO many reasons, I wont even go into that here. My post is already going to be pretty darned long, lol. Just because I want to make sure all is well, I would do it once in a while but not every week or anything.
Then I started wondering...would plain old steam not work as well?????? I happen to have a commercial vapor steamer (I bought to steam blast the 2400 sq ft of tile grout in my house every so often, lol) and I know for fact that it does disinfect...the boiler heats the water to 325 and the steam exits at 285 degrees. That kind of heat kills off a lot of stuff...and I have used it to "defunk" areas like the bathroom my boys use and the area my dog and her huge litter of puppies lived in for 3 months...on nice porous brick...etc. It certainly blasts away smells...but I wonder about fungus etc. Any thoughts?
I already ran this by her...and she was not sure beause these are not mainstream methods but she did not see any issues right off...so here I am.
Okay here is my thought...anyone see any reason that peracetic acid would not work as a disinfectant for habitats? Very interestingly, I was looking it up because of my experience of years of using it as a baby and child safe disninfectant...and found that they are starting to studying it against things like quat as well!
Peracetic acid is simply hydrogen peroxide combined with acetic acid...I.E. vinegar. I have personally used this for nearly 10 years as my household disinfectent when I read a study that it actually turned out to kill off things better than bleach and is far more safe. Over the years, I have discovered it is widely used in the food manufacturing industry and is even recommended as a no rinse produce wash to kill off any nasties. Many hospitals also use it and though it is a little harder to find all of the info...it does kill off fungi etc. as well. It is also suggested for use in households with asthma, because despite its strong smell initially, it disipates fully and with supposedly no residue. (I have never noticed any, but I still rinse stuff just because I am paranoid like that, lol) FYI, I use the common method of 2 spray bottles, one of vinegar and one of peroxide. Spray each down and let it do its thing. Wipe off and go for non eating surfaces (though they say its fine) but I do rinse for anything that is going into a mouth.
here is a little copy and paste from wiki to sum it up:
Peracetic acid is a disinfectant produced by reacting hydrogen peroxide with acetic acid. It is broadly effective against microorganisms and is not deactivated by catalase and peroxidase, the enzymes that break down hydrogen peroxide. It also breaks down to food safe and environmentally friendly residues (acetic acid and hydrogen peroxide), and therefore can be used in non-rinse applications. It can be used over a wide temperature range (0-40°C), wide pH range (3.0-7.5), in clean-in-place (CIP) processes, in hard water conditions, and is not affected by protein residues.
Here is a very in-depth look:
http://www.electropure-inc.com/docs/peracetic-acid.pdf
I have actually already used it with no ill effects...just wondered what others think. (I had a used 20 gal fish tank..it was only used on fish but you just never know. I also had some granite that sat in my yard. I washed the tank down with wipe out 1, rinsed several times then used that on the tank and rinsed at least 4 times...scrubbed the granite down with my eco friendly dish soap and water, rinsed several times, then used this and rinsed the heck out of that too...and then I did wrap up the granite in foil and baked it at 350 for nearly 2 hours, lol) Now, even though it is used in no rinse applications...I rinsed the HECK out of everything JUST to be sure.
Normally I am not a nut about things needing to be disinfected (I use this for everything from when my kids have had the flu and vomit on the tile...to my raw chicken slopped counter tops...just the kind of stuff you really DO WANT to disinfect) and this is not something I would do more than once a month on the tank anyhow...I am just a little more from the school of thought that its not totally a good thing to kill off all germs...even if they are bad. For SO many reasons, I wont even go into that here. My post is already going to be pretty darned long, lol. Just because I want to make sure all is well, I would do it once in a while but not every week or anything.
Then I started wondering...would plain old steam not work as well?????? I happen to have a commercial vapor steamer (I bought to steam blast the 2400 sq ft of tile grout in my house every so often, lol) and I know for fact that it does disinfect...the boiler heats the water to 325 and the steam exits at 285 degrees. That kind of heat kills off a lot of stuff...and I have used it to "defunk" areas like the bathroom my boys use and the area my dog and her huge litter of puppies lived in for 3 months...on nice porous brick...etc. It certainly blasts away smells...but I wonder about fungus etc. Any thoughts?
(I'm totally kidding 
