Flexible Vinyl Tubing

[Waters]

What is everyone's thoughts on using plasticized vinyl tubing? Any danger to livestock? I know PVC is safe (this tubing is polyvinyl chloride) but the plasticizers (what gives tubing flexibility) concerns me. This is the product I purchased which says it can be used for aquariums but I am not so sure? I am troubleshooting a mature planted freshwater aquarium crash which happened withing 6 hours of using this tubing.....along with one other change I had made. Trying to figure out the cause of the crash.

https://www.menards.com/main/plumbi...06c00101/p-1444442661647-c-8584.htm?exp=false

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

You won't be able to find out readily exactly what is in it, and tin is a concern as a heat stabilizer in PVC, but not always there (at least not always detectable in the water).

 

[Waters]

You won't be able to find out readily exactly what is in it, and tin is a concern as a heat stabilizer in PVC, but not always there (at least not always detectable in the water).

Thanks for the response. Do you think there is anything that would be in there that could affect fish behavior/health within 12 hours? If not, than I can eliminate the tubing as a possible cause.

 

[Malcontent]

The tubing loses flexibility over time and then annoyingly needs to be replaced. The cheap stuff from hardware stores seems the worst but even high quality tubing eventually stiffens up.

I haven't noticed any issues with toxicity.

I'm slowly switching over to silicone tubing secured with Oetiker clamps.

There are other plasticizer-free and non-leeching plasticizer options out there but they appear to be more expensive than silicone. These are the types of soft tubing used for beverages and water cooled computers.

 

[Waters]

The tubing loses flexibility over time and then annoyingly needs to be replaced. The cheap stuff from hardware stores seems the worst but even high quality tubing eventually stiffens up.

I haven't noticed any issues with toxicity.

I'm slowly switching over to silicone tubing secured with Oetiker clamps.

There are other plasticizer-free and non-leeching plasticizer options out there but they appear to be more expensive than silicone. These are the types of soft tubing used for beverages and water cooled computers.

Yeah, I am switching over to silicone also. Just trying to come up with reasons why a fully planted mature tank would crash overnight to the point where every fish is affected. I only made two changes with the use of the tubing being one.

 

[BeanAnimal]

FWIW - I have a roll of reinforced vinyl that gets an orange coating on the inside when used for the reef. It came from Lowes. The prior roll from there did not do this, so something in the formula changed.

I am actually currently migrating those hoses (chiller and skimmer) to reinforced platinum cured silicone leaders with regular hard PVC runs.

 

[Waters]

FWIW - I have a roll of reinforced vinyl that gets an orange coating on the inside when used for the reef. It came from Lowes. The prior roll from there did not do this, so something in the formula changed.

I am actually currently migrating those hoses (chiller and skimmer) to reinforced platinum cured silicone leaders with regular hard PVC runs.

I don't blame you. We know that silicone is totally safe.....not sure I can say the same thing about the vinyl I used. I don't want to reboot this tank until I figure out what caused the crash.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks for the response. Do you think there is anything that would be in there that could affect fish behavior/health within 12 hours? If not, than I can eliminate the tubing as a possible cause.

I don't know, but I would guess not that fast.

 

[Waters]

I think I can safely put the blame on the tubing. I turned the UV off last night and checked on the tank today and the fish (that are still alive) are back to acting relatively normal. I pulled the tubing out of the sump and everywhere the tubing was underwater, it turned white (used to be clear) and was completely slimy....almost like it was dissolving. You can actually see a film in the water surrounding the tube. This is with the tubing only being under water for a couple of days. I guess when this company markets it as aquarium safe, they don't plan on it being submerged? Very strange. Whatever that was leaching was enough to affect almost 50 fish and melt a tank full of plants in one night.