The next-door neighbors moved a few weeks ago. The kind fellow (who
had just retired from working for a salvage type company) knew I kept
some aquariums, and left me a couple of blue plastic drums. These
drums are about 10 gallons in capacity, they have a black plastic lid
with a metal lever style ring that fixes the lid down, and they have
black plastic handles attached to each side of the container. The
plastic is quite thick, and I assume is HDPE. It was explained to me
that the drums contained dry chemicals that were packed inside plastic
bags, but the types of chemicals stored were unknown. The drums don’t
have any official markings/labels, but someone had written ‘Desi’ on
the side of one of the drums (A little googling tells me Desi might be
a clay desiccant).
I am contemplating using these drums for storing/aging water. I
examined them thoroughly, and I couldn’t find any kind of residue
inside. To prepare them, I rinsed with hot water. I then filled
with cold water, and added a cup of bleach to each drum. I let the
bleach water sit for a week, and then I drained out the drums. I
rinsed with lots of water. I then filled them up with used tank water
and let them sit for another two weeks. I then drained and allowed
them to air dry. The ‘nose test’ didn’t pick up anything bad, but I’m
now getting cold feet about actually using them to store water, as I
have concerns about their previous contents. I can't imagine this guy
would have been able to get these drums if they contained stuff that
was really terrible. Does anyone know if HDPE plastics will ‘hang on’
to chemicals? My white HDPE buckets got some stains from making
beer in them, hence my concern.
There were several snails (pond type) in the drums for the two-week
used tank water soak, and they appeared to be fine. I figured that
inverts are generally pretty senstitive to toxic materials. I suppose
I could fill one up and put in some guinea pig fish (I was thinking
zebra danios) for several weeks to see what happens. Are these
containers generally safe?
Cheers,
Andrew Roberts, Richmond Hill Ontario
AKA #08648
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