I bought one of these for water storage to make water change easier. Do I have to clean it before use? If yes, how do I clean it properly or just spray with a garden hose and it's good enough?
Can I Use Trash Can to Store Water?
- Thread starter FishGoneWild
- Start date
I'm always excited when I get new fish things, so I would just rinse it off. There are better things you can do if you want to be cautious, but I say just rinse it a bit.
FishGoneWild;1161580; said:I bought one of these for water storage to make water change easier. Do I have to clean it before use? If yes, how do I clean it properly or just spray with a garden hose and it's good enough?
Yes I agree rise it very well w/ garden hose nozzle that can be adjusted to a strong pressure & make sure that you run the water through hose for a few min.'s, many people don't worry much about it, but garden hoses are notorious for containing all sorts of containments most notable LEAD, so if any water has sat collected for just a day or so, specially in the heat in the hose then many toxins can & are commonly found to be released. Scrub w/ a scrub brush preferably. IMPORTANT, I just found out (when I bought 5 45 gal. cans to house about 25 fish for a few days, then return the cans for a refund, shame on me) that some/most of the trash can manufacturers are scenting, yes scenting the trash cans/plastic w/ a perfume like odor. Sounds crazy I know, but I could only find 1 manf. out of about 5 that weren't doing this. I assume they think some how it will make the cans not stink so much. So BE CAREFUL and smell them well, kinda smells like laundry soap, not something I would want to keep fish in. The cans also wrk well cause they are so drk & w/ a lid on it really calms the fish, good for the stress of moving them. Have had to keep fish for 7-10 days B4 in them, no prob.'s, but make sure to still do water changes if they're in there for more than 24-36 hr.'s (cleanest water can be brown in less than 24 hr.'s when moving them) & try to run a filter, but a good source of air is a must of course & don't feed them until they're in they're new tank. Do not use any of the water that you keep them in , the bio benefit isn't enough, of course seed your BB thru established filter media, & existing substrate/gravel if you have it from the old tank, keep the substrate/gravel in the trash cans w/ the fish, any BB that dries, dies.
I'm not planning to keep fish in this trash can. All I am using for is to store new water then use a water pump to transfer this new water to the tank. I am not 100% sure if the manufacturer use any chemical(s) on this trash that may harm fish so I figure I ask before I screw up my water change.
FishGoneWild;1161687; said:
.FishGoneWild;1161580; said:
Durrr,
that's what you said, water storage & changes, LOL. You would definitely want to chk w/ the manf. cause 3 stores I tried, no one who wrked at them knew anything about them or scenting of them, kinda looked at me weird, more so than usual, lol, when I returned the first few the first time, think 1 brand may have been Ridged. Had to go w/ the smell test & trust. The manf. Brute/Rubbermaid (which is what I wound up buying) makes a couple dolly/roller supported styles, 30-35 & 45-55 gal. cans that wrks great for your need, easy glide, see them used in my LFS all the time. Example: http://www.bettymills.com/shop/product/view/Rubbermaid%20Commercial/RCP2640BLA.htmlBTW, I like this approach (aging or pretreating your water) a lot better than the Python method.
The brand I have is made by Rubbermaid. I paid $15 after tax for it. Ya, saw the 45-55 gal grey trash can by Rubbermaid there too but I was not going to spend $35 for a trash can on water change. Plus, I don't need a trash can that big just to do waterchange. I think it should be fine because the Rubbermaid label did not mention anything about chemicals used on the trash can.
