How to clean rain barrels?

[joseph scott]

i bought four 55 gallon rain barrels to store saltwater in preperation of my new 206 gallon tank arriving. They have a strong minty smell from some sort of cleaner. What would be the best way to make them safe for temporarily storing saltwater?

 

[Fish Fan]

Hmmmm, I'm not sure I'd use those if they had some kind of cleaner stored in them previously.

@Randy Holmes-Farley can you please weigh in here

 

[EnterName]

Maybe you can just fill them with tap water for a few days and then give them a rinse.

If that doesn't help an acid/base treatment could be a possible solution but I would want to wait for Randy's suggestion before starting to deal with strong acids and bases.

 

[joseph scott]

Ahh….it finally came to me, it’s not mint that i smell it’s more like Camphor smell. It clears out your sinuses kind of smell. I was wondering if i put some water then some Muratic acid and rolled the around if it would clean them out?

 

[EnterName]

Ahh….it finally came to me, it’s not mint that i smell it’s more like Camphor smell. It clears out your sinuses kind of smell. I was wondering if i put some water then some Muratic acid and rolled the around if it would clean them out?

Thats basically the acid part of the acid/base treatment.
I could imagine you are smelling solvents used in the production process.

 

[joseph scott]

So after the acid clean, i could then flush out with water followed by a bleach and then water again?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The minty smell is not likely any concern, but soap residue is a big concern. If rinse water is foamy that means lots of rinsing. I'd rinse with tap.

I don't se a reason to use acid or bleach unless you have reason to think acid will dissolve something present, andI would not bother with bleach unless you think its bacterially contaminated in some strong way.

 

[Rob A]

Rinse it well with tap water . All the barrels I have were filled with degreaser or car wash surfactant. Just be sure that whatever was in the barrel is water soluble

 

[joseph scott]

The minty smell is not likely any concern, but soap residue is a big concern. If rinse water is foamy that means lots of rinsing. I'd rinse with tap.

I don't se a reason to use acid or bleach unless you have reason to think acid will dissolve something present, andI would not bother with bleach unless you think its bacterially contaminated in some strong way.

Thank you so much for the quick reply. The barrels were purchased from my county. They have a rain barrels program so people can water their plants and lawns with rain water collected instead of municipal water. I tried calling them to see what they had possibly treated the barrels with, but it’s hard to get anyone on the phone. The barrels look clean, they just have a camphor smell. Maybe they disinfect them with Camphor? I know it prevents mildew. Abe while being stored they used Camphor to prevent mildew.

 

[EnterName]

So after the acid clean, i could then flush out with water followed by a bleach and then water again?

I was thinking more like sodium hydroxide, but this is (as I have stated earlier) the full nuke option

I tried calling them to see what they had possibly treated the barrels with, but it’s hard to get anyone on the phone. The barrels look clean, they just have a camphor smell. Maybe they disinfect them with Camphor? I know it prevents mildew. Abe while being stored they used Camphor to prevent mildew.

If it's actually Camphor it would be very soluble in organic solvents.
Isopropanol or ethanol would do the trick so you don't have to mess around with highly toxic substances and nasty fumes.

Camphor is not really well soluble in water but multiple tap water rinses should still get rid of a lot of it. I would try tap water rinsing first and if the smell stays you can still use some ethanol or isopropanol. Airing the containers out might also work wonders if you can take the whole lid off.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Seems odd to me that a county would do anything to barrels aside from getting ones without obvious environmental toxins that will pollute peoples yards.

Organic smalls readily penetrate many plastics, and getting rid of the smell may not be needed or easy to do.

I agree with just heavy tap rinsing and examining the rinse water for foaming.