Vegetable oil 55 gallon drum

[Reefer_Rob]

A pressure washer would help

 

[Hallowhead]

Hand held TDS comes tomorrow but inline meter is showing barrel water at 3 TDS ?

Thoughts ?

 

[Hallowhead]

I'm truly nervous about this effecting my tank. I may flush it several more times. Need to see what handheld says first.

 

[andrewkw]

You can always use bleach and let it dry out in the sun, then go back to vinegar. When I first started using my tomato juice / paste barrels they still had a bit of a smell but it eventually went away. I don't really think you have to worry much about this negative effecting your tank. If you added a teaspoon of vegetable oil to your tank now, worst case your skimmer would go crazy and maybe you'd have a bit of a bacteria bloom. Whatever tiny residue is left on your cleaned barrel is far less then that.

 

[Hallowhead]

You can always use bleach and let it dry out in the sun, then go back to vinegar. When I first started using my tomato juice / paste barrels they still had a bit of a smell but it eventually went away. I don't really think you have to worry much about this negative effecting your tank. If you added a teaspoon of vegetable oil to your tank now, worst case your skimmer would go crazy and maybe you'd have a bit of a bacteria bloom. Whatever tiny residue is left on your cleaned barrel is far less then that.

Good point - what do you blame the 3 TDS on? Leftover tap from cleaning barrel? Maybe some residual pipe primer / glue ? I think after I test the TDS with the hand held to confirm I'm gonna empty the tank one last time using the ro to clean the inside and than go into production

 

[Eagle_Steve]

My barrels were veggie oil barrels and had a smell for a bit. I ended up using a 50:1 citric acid/water mix and it knocked it out. Then I just rinsed with water a few times and let dry in the sun. No smell at all after that. 2 years later, the barrels still do their job.

 

[Hallowhead]

My barrels were veggie oil barrels and had a smell for a bit. I ended up using a 50:1 citric acid/water mix and it knocked it out. Then I just rinsed with water a few times and let dry in the sun. No smell at all after that. 2 years later, the barrels still do their job.

Was the barrel smell almost like a sweet smell? Like a citric acid powder? You let that soak for how long?

 

[andrewkw]

Good point - what do you blame the 3 TDS on? Leftover tap from cleaning barrel? Maybe some residual pipe primer / glue ? I think after I test the TDS with the hand held to confirm I'm gonna empty the tank one last time using the ro to clean the inside and than go into production

It could be anything. Are you washing them outside? Dust? Could even be the source container unless you have the RO line going directly into the new barrel. It's good you are looking into it, but I just wouldn't stress too much about it.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Was the barrel smell almost like a sweet smell? Like a citric acid powder? You let that soak for how long?

It was a veggie oil smell. Not sure I would call it sweet. As for the time in there, about an hour with a powerhead in it that also needed a light cleaning lol.

As for what I used, I use it to clean a lot of things with my tanks, so had the below already lying around. As for the exact ratio of mixing, I figured out what I had left and how much water was going in and it came to about 50:1. I do not remember the exact number, but it was no where near the recommended 3/4 cup to gallon to clean powerheads encrusted with coralline.

Citric Acid Aquarium Equipment Cleaner

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[Hallowhead]

It could be anything. Are you washing them outside? Dust? Could even be the source container unless you have the RO line going directly into the new barrel. It's good you are looking into it, but I just wouldn't stress too much about it.

I also guess a TDS of 3 isn't near as bad as tap water.

 

[Hallowhead]

It was a veggie oil smell. Not sure I would call it sweet. As for the time in there, about an hour with a powerhead in it that also needed a light cleaning lol.

As for what I used, I use it to clean a lot of things with my tanks, so had the below already lying around. As for the exact ratio of mixing, I figured out what I had left and how much water was going in and it came to about 50:1. I do not remember the exact number, but it was no where near the recommended 3/4 cup to gallon to clean powerheads encrusted with coralline.

Citric Acid Aquarium Equipment Cleaner

Quickly and Effortlessly Remove Coralline Algae from Pumps & Powerheads. Over time pumps, powerheads, heaters, or any other piece of equipment in your aquarium can start to have mineral deposits form or coralline algae build-up, which can hamper the performance. Keeping your equipment clean will...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

You're saying 50 gallons of water to a pound of citric acid or?

 

[Eagle_Steve]

You're saying 50 gallons of water to a pound of citric acid or?

It was the last of my 6lb tub I had. I do not remember how much was left exactly, but it was not a ton left in there. I just remember it came out to about a 50:1, with the 1, being a gallon of water to where no more citric acid would dissolve.

I took what was left, and all but a small bit was able to be dissolved in an old milk just of water. that was then added to the 55 gallon drum and the last little bit dissolved.

 

[Hallowhead]

It was the last of my 6lb tub I had. I do not remember how much was left exactly, but it was not a ton left in there. I just remember it came out to about a 50:1, with the 1, being a gallon of water to where no more citric acid would dissolve.

I took what was left, and all but a small bit was able to be dissolved in an old milk just of water. that was then added to the 55 gallon drum and the last little bit dissolved.

I'm confused by your ratio.. in my mind it would imply 50 parts citric acid to 1 part water... 55 gallons of water to equivalent of 2750 gallons of citric acid. You claimed to only have 6 pounds of citric acid.

I'd say you used roughly 4 pounds of citric

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I'm confused by your ratio.. in my mind it would imply 50 parts citric acid to 1 part water... 55 gallons of water to equivalent of 2750 gallons of citric acid. You claimed to only have 6 pounds of citric acid.

I'd say you used roughly 4 pounds of citric

ok maybe I messed up somewhere explaining this. lets start over.

not much left in tub of citric acid.

50 parts water to 1 part citric acid mix.

50 gallons of water in a 55 drum.

1 gallon citric acid mix.

the 1 part citric acid mix was what was left in my 6lb tub, and it was almost empty. What was left was able to be completly dissolved in the 1 gallon of water, with just a bit that would not dissolve. that is where the 50:1 came from. More than likey it was about a cup at most of citric acid powder.

Hope that clarifies it.

 

[Hallowhead]

ok maybe I messed up somewhere explaining this. lets start over.

not much left in tub of citric acid.

50 parts water to 1 part citric acid mix.

50 gallons of water in a 55 drum.

1 gallon citric acid mix.

the 1 part citric acid mix was what was left in my 6lb tub, and it was almost empty. What was left was able to be completly dissolved in the 1 gallon of water, with just a bit that would not dissolve. that is where the 50:1 came from. More than likey it was about a cup at most of citric acid powder.

Hope that clarifies it.

Yes it does! So if I buy a 4 gallon tub I should be beautiful. I need to get some veggie oil so I can truly know if that's the smell

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Yes it does! So if I buy a 4 gallon tub I should be beautiful. I need to get some veggie oil so I can truly know if that's the smell

I just did it as it was laying around, looked at a thing of GoJo in the garage, thought "it has citric acid in it and that helps remove grease from my hands, the citric acid powder cleans ,my pumps and other things well, I hate the smell raw vinegar, why not use the citric acid podwer I have left and try? Worst case was it still had the smell. I know my pumps haven't killed anything in the tanks after being cleaned in it and then rinsed. So I gave it a shot lol. No more smell and the one pump that the mix was going to be used on was mostly clean. It really needed more of a concentration to get it spotless.

As for a 4lb tub. that is quite a bit of citric acid powder, but will for sure knock any grease/oil out if there is any left.

 

[Hallowhead]

I just did it as it was laying around, looked at a thing of GoJo in the garage, thought "it has citric acid in it and that helps remove grease from my hands, the citric acid powder cleans ,my pumps and other things well, I hate the smell raw vinegar, why not use the citric acid podwer I have left and try? Worst case was it still had the smell. I know my pumps haven't killed anything in the tanks after being cleaned in it and then rinsed. So I gave it a shot lol. No more smell and the one pump that the mix was going to be used on was mostly clean. It really needed more of a concentration to get it spotless.

As for a 4lb tub. that is quite a bit of citric acid powder, but will for sure knock any grease/oil out if there is any left.

I see they also have citric acid bath bombs haha.. just toss one of those into a full barrel. I will order food grade cleaning citric acid off amazon tonight depending on what TDS hand held reads.

 

[Hallowhead]

Meter registered 0 TDS while in line registered 2 TDS. We are good to go ! I'm sure through some cycled of the barrel the TDS will drop and I'm hoping after my first clean the smell will go away

Mixed in with my ATO and my qt tonight we'll see if everything is dead tomorrow haha

 

[Hallowhead]

So I've thoroughly flushed water through all my glued pvc to remove and residue glue or primer.

I spun up my first batch of water last night and this morning took a sniff and I smell some glue / primer. Should I dump this water ? I mean it's been like a week since I've glued anything.

 

[Iballhog]

Why, not dump the water just to be sure.