Water storage and cleaning?

[DougPurkey]

I’m in the process of planning and purchasing equipment for my reentry into the hobby. I recently purchased 2, used 30 gallon food storage containers, they smell very strongly of pickling solution. I currently have a gallon of vinegar in each container. How long should I let them soak and should I do this more than once or even use a different technique?

 

[DLHDesign]

Welcome to R2R! Glad you found us.

Do you, by chance, have any idea what was stored in the containers? Usually not, but figured it's worth the ask. ;-)

If they have a pickling solution smell, then that was very likely something very much like vinegar. I'd not expect that vinegar will help very much, but it also won't hurt.
What I did to clean out the tanks I have (which were "food grade", but I had no idea what was stored in them) was to rinse them out several times with tap water. Following that, I used a bleach solution (about 10:1 or so; not very strong). I let that sit for 24hrs+ and then rinsed them out again. Filled them up, and added some SeaChem Prime to dechlorinate them. Let that sit for another 24hrs and then drained them out. I let them dry in the sun until they were totally dry inside and out. At that point, I figured they were as clean as I could get them, so put them into service.

All that was back when I was still new, so I didn't really know if it was the most efficient - or even effective - method. Still don't, really. For that reason, let's call in the rest of the #reefsquad to see if I missed anything that could help you!

 

[DougPurkey]

Welcome to R2R! Glad you found us.

Do you, by chance, have any idea what was stored in the containers? Usually not, but figured it's worth the ask. ;-)

If they have a pickling solution smell, then that was very likely something very much like vinegar. I'd not expect that vinegar will help very much, but it also won't hurt.
What I did to clean out the tanks I have (which were "food grade", but I had no idea what was stored in them) was to rinse them out several times with tap water. Following that, I used a bleach solution (about 10:1 or so; not very strong). I let that sit for 24hrs+ and then rinsed them out again. Filled them up, and added some SeaChem Prime to dechlorinate them. Let that sit for another 24hrs and then drained them out. I let them dry in the sun until they were totally dry inside and out. At that point, I figured they were as clean as I could get them, so put them into service.

All that was back when I was still new, so I didn't really know if it was the most efficient - or even effective - method. Still don't, really. For that reason, let's call in the rest of the #reefsquad to see if I missed anything that could help you!

Thanks for the reply, I will most likely do a good bleach bath and then repeat the vinegar process.

 

[lapin]

Triple rinse them and let dry between rinses. To remove any smell you can use baking soda and water. Sometimes a surfactant like dawn dishwashing liquid will help break the bond of any smell in the poly tank.

 

[Flippers4pups]

I would bleach them and rinse well. Let dry. Should be good to use then.

 

[Big G]

A last spray of Hydrogen Peroxide and rinse with RODI or distilled water, then dry, would be my only addition to the good advice already given.