Used food grade plastic drums

afqu · #1 08/10/2007, 07:42 PM

A company here sells used, sterilized food grade plastic drums. 30 gal and 55 gal. for about 20 bucks. You can still smell the apple juice. do you all think they would be safe to use for storing my RO water, and mixing my salt water? I suppose I could try one and see if I can taste any apple juice in the RO water?
Jean

bertoni · #2 08/10/2007, 07:48 PM

They're probably safe, but sometimes, such containers have enough residual organics in them to cause problems. I'd at least give them a careful scrubbing and then a cleaning with some vinegar, most likely. You could try making adding some water to see what happens.

afqu · #3 08/10/2007, 08:01 PM

I figure the closest thing to vinegar is apple juice? No? So maybe that would be safe.
Jean

bertoni · #4 08/10/2007, 08:03 PM

It's probably fine, but I was just replying to a thread a couple of weeks or so ago, in which someone had crashed a tank by using a food-grade container to store water.

afqu · #5 08/10/2007, 08:20 PM

Well, that's why I am asking. There must be dozens of containers that everyone uses, but I have no clue. I used a rubbermaid trash container for my original mix. I don't think that was too good. But didn't know what else to use. I will be doing 20 gal water changes some of the time.
Thanks for the replies.
Jean

bertoni · #6 08/10/2007, 08:32 PM

The RubberMaid cans work well. You could try using your containers after cleanup. I'd let the water sit for a few days with some water flow, to see how much, if any, decay occurs.

old salty · #7 08/10/2007, 09:06 PM

Whenever I get rubbermaid containers, I "cure" them for about a week or so. This removes the odor from the plastic. I figure if I can smell it, it's there.

Fill with water and add a bunch of rock salt and some bleach. Let it sit for about a week or so. Dump out, rinse and air dry.

Rock salt is very cheap, bleach is so nothing grows inside. I have absolutely no scientific proof that this does anything at all; nor is this published in a respectable scientific journal. It's just a method I use when using any sort of large plastic containers. I just recently finished doing this to the starboard that will be the bottom of my latest upgrade. The smell is gone!