Airline Tubing Leaching?

bgoldb · Feb 18, 2018

I noticed on the tubing that I purchased from Home Depot that it states "Do Not Use For Icemakers". I wasn't sure why so I went to their website for more information and noticed that there is a proposition 65 warning (for CA residents). Is it possible that this tubing actually leaches certain chemicals into the water? If so, could it make a difference if used as dosing tubing.

lapin · Feb 18, 2018

Here is my guess. The tubing is weak. If you dont use a brass sleeve at the nut then you crush the tube thus causing a leak. As far as prop 65 warning, being in the chemical business for a while, we had to put this label on almost everything. Fire being the event that would release a lot of the chemicals.

bgoldb · Feb 18, 2018

Your guess seems very reasonable and likely the case.

Supurderek · Feb 18, 2018

I wouldn’t worry with using the tubing. Had it running on my system for years on sps dominant reef.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 18, 2018

Food and drinking water contact plastics must meet specific criteria, and it is certainly possible that the plasticizers and other components that might leach out of that tubing do not meet the criteria.

That doesn’t mean it is an issue, but I suppose it might be. As a counter example, copper is ok for drinking water but not a reef.

GoVols · Feb 18, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Food and drinking water contact plastics must meet specific criteria, and it is certainly possible that the plasticizers and other components that might leach out of that tubing do not meet the criteria.

That doesn’t mean it is an issue, but I suppose it might be. As a counter example, copper is ok for drinking water but not a reef.

Randy,
Would you take a pass on that tubing?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 18, 2018

GoVols said:
Randy,
Would you take a pass on that tubing?

I’d probably use it unless you see an easy alternative that was rated for drinking water contact. I used random hobby air line tubing to dose vinegar, which is much more aggressive in terms of leaching organics than is dosing alk and calcium. It slowly became milky looking as plasticizers likely came out, but I never had an issue that I would think related to it.