[patrick1234]

I was wanting to know how to tell if a container is food save i.e for holding salt water in for pre-mixing?

[e_baer]

I am not sure if I entirely understand what you are asking....


but I think the answer is to buy a new one.

[patrick1234]

well I was looking around and frome my understanding some contaners are sprayed with mildew inhibiters which if i filled with water will leach

[patrick1234]

just give you a idea i have a 30gal sterilite contaner new never used that i wanted to set up but i dont want it to kill my hole take frome a water change

[emccullough1]

If I was worried about it I would wash it down with vinegar then rinse till there was no smell of vinegar. It should be safe after that. But just to be safe only add a small amount water from the barrel then watch how every thing dose. Like a top off. You could always have some carbon handy just in case. I'm not swearing that I'm right just that it is what I would do.

[patrick1234]

Well has any one ever use this contaner or one made by the same company?

but i was thinking about taking sand paper to it and sanding the top layer off

[emccullough1]

I would be more worried about contaminate from the sanding. If it dose not smell of any thing and you wash in vinegar which is a mild acid it should be safe.

[emccullough1]

Maybe I'm the one that is crazy but why would you want 30 gal of water with a 3 gal tank. I use a 5 gal bucket for my 10 gal tank and always have more then I need.

[e_baer]

I just use a 5g bucket from home depot.

[patrick1234]

I dont have just a 3 gal any more I have 2 (12) 1 (2.5) 1 (3) 1 (56-with fuge) and my frag+fuge holds about
(30)

[patrick1234]

for my 2 tanks im runing the test on i use 5 gal buckets but for the others it gets to be a mess mixing up 5 gal buckets for weekley water changes

[joeydunn]

I built my sump with a 30 gallon sterilite storage container and have been running it for about 5 months now. I rinsed it with water when I initially installed it and have had no problems.

[R-e-D]

i am with elliot .. home depot buckets rock ..

[stephaniesquires]

I mix in a Rubbermaid Brute heavy duty 50 gallon trash can on dolly wheels. Check with the company to see if they use mildew inhibitors. I would doubt that most rubbermaid products would use any chemicals, especially containers you would buy in the housewares section - ie Target...

[emccullough1]

Well that dose make a difference. I just happen to look up at your profile and seen 3 gal. That is what got me wondering what he heck you would do with that much water. If I had that many tanks to care for I would want to mix it all at once to.

[patrick1234]

lol I spend about 5h a day working on the tanks and learning and what not. I think of it as my schooling.

[blu23girl]

I beleive if it is food grade it is stamped with "HDPE" or the recylce symbol with a #2 in the middle, printed on the bottom.

I use to have a link saved that had this in there... but i cant find it right now....I will check my home computer tongiht.

Hope this helps!

[patrick1234]

I was thinking it have some kinda stamp well any was i went a picked up 15 gal of viniger a scrube the crap outa it so i think it most likley is good now