Risk of Contamination from Water Storage Container?

[Hugh Mann]

I have the option here to buy a couple 55 gallon plastic barrels for $25 each. Would be great to store rodi water, as my system is slow due to water pressure (5 gallons in 4 hours) I am told they are BPA free, and were used to store a sanitizer for food prep. I'm wondering what risk, if any is there of residue leeching from the barrel?

If it matters, it was a 5% N Alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride and 5% N-something ammonium chloride.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Bump for the chemistry gurus @Randy Holmes-Farley

 

[Greg P]

Another bump

For what it's worth, I use barrels that contained food products; in my case sugars for food processing

 

[KSUChemist]

The common name is Benzalkonium Chloride. It's used as a preservative and bactericide in low concentrations (0.04%). With as much beneficial bacteria as we have in our reef tanks, I would hesitate to use them. Hopefully someone else has more experience on the matter, but for me I'd rather spend a little more on the container and be absolutely sure it's clean and safe.

 

[Hugh Mann]

That's a very good point. Yeah, will definitely look for something else. Maybe a rain barrel or something.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You'd need to clean it well. I think it would be OK to use after rinsing well with warm to hot water. I don't think it will appreciably soak into the plastic, but rather just be stuck to the surface of it.