Cleaning Soap from Tank

[johnnymax]

I got a heck of a deal (maybe) on 275 gallon totes.
I found a place that sells them for $25
But...... it had soap in it.
So, I am going to cut the top off and set it up in my garage for a grow out tank.
I will fill it with water, let it soak and drain it out three times.
When I get the top cut off, I will spray it out.
Then, I will fill it with water and put a few goldfish in there before moving any fish from my aquariums into it.
Any advice on cleaning, other than what I an doing?

 

[esoxlucius]

Those IBC's are fantastic for fish. We get loads in at work and we just seperate the inner tote from the outer aluminium shell, scrap the ali and shred the MDPE inner and recycle it. A bit ugly to be inside your house as a show tank but for outside they are brilliant. If I was into keeping coldwater fish i'd have half a dozen outside lined up.

Cleaning wise yes, you're going to have to spend a bit of time rinsing and re-rinsing and filling and emptying and repeat, maybe get a jet wash on them too.

It's just a case of monitoring your "sacrificial" fish then, if that's what they turn out to be, you might get lucky and they might live.

Good price as well.

 

[deeda]

Were you able to identify which soap was previously in the tote? I've never used them but remember searching online for IBC tote cleaning and different soap based products used different methods to remove residue.

 

[johnnymax]

I was not able to find out what type of soap, but it smells like regular liquid soap.
I opened the valve and sprayed it out as good as I could.
Then, I closed the valve and filled it with water. I am letting it soak for 24 hours.
When I get home I will drain it and refill it with water.
I will let it soak 24 hours, then drain again. I will do this three times.
After that I will fill it up and start to test it with a dollar's worth of goldfish.
I am not in a big hurry. It will be a slow, careful process.

 

[Rocksor]

I was not able to find out what type of soap, but it smells like regular liquid soap.
I opened the valve and sprayed it out as good as I could.
Then, I closed the valve and filled it with water. I am letting it soak for 24 hours.
When I get home I will drain it and refill it with water.
I will let it soak 24 hours, then drain again. I will do this three times.
After that I will fill it up and start to test it with a dollar's worth of goldfish.
I am not in a big hurry. It will be a slow, careful process.

You could temporarily store with old tank water ( no detritus matter from tank) versus wasting new water for your soaking process.

 

[johnnymax]

You could temporarily store with old tank water ( no detritus matter from tank) versus wasting new water for your soaking process.

That would defeat the purpose of diluting the PPM of the soap in the water. That is the theory behind triple rinsing.
The water is taken from a well and the water will soak back into the ground, so I am not putting a load on a municipal water system. The water will return to its source.
All natural and no chemicals.

 

[Rocksor]

That would defeat the purpose of diluting the PPM of the soap in the water. That is the theory behind triple rinsing.
The water is taken from a well and the water will soak back into the ground, so I am not putting a load on a municipal water system. The water will return to its source.
All natural and no chemicals.

So the well water is no good for your current fish tank?

 

[Canoeist]

Maybe drop a power head in while soaking or something to keep the water moving.

 

[johnnymax]

So the well water is no good for your current fish tank?

Yes the well water is perfect. What I am doing is filling the tank with water so the soap residue can dissolve into the water.
When I drain the water there will still be soap in the water that is wetting the bottom and sides of the tank.
When I fill it up the soap will again dissolve in the water, but there will still be a tiny amount of soap in it.
When I drain the water there will still be a tiny amount soap.
Minimal laboratory procedure is to triple rinse.
Since I do not know what was in the tank I do not want to take a chance and kill or even put my fish under stress due to unknown chemicals.

Guidelines for Triple Rinsing

Guidelines for Triple Rinsing

Q. is there any industry guidance on triple rinsing...any literature that you know of that this is the accepted standard for manual cleaning that you could provide me? A. To our knowledge, there are no authoritative source documents to define how many times you should rinse glassware. The logic...

technotes.alconox.com

 

[Rocksor]

Yes the well water is perfect. What I am doing is filling the tank with water so the soap residue can dissolve into the water.
When I drain the water there will still be soap in the water that is wetting the bottom and sides of the tank.
When I fill it up the soap will again dissolve in the water, but there will still be a tiny amount of soap in it.
When I drain the water there will still be a tiny amount soap.
Minimal laboratory procedure is to triple rinse.
Since I do not know what was in the tank I do not want to take a chance and kill or even put my fish under stress due to unknown chemicals.

Guidelines for Triple Rinsing

Guidelines for Triple Rinsing

Q. is there any industry guidance on triple rinsing...any literature that you know of that this is the accepted standard for manual cleaning that you could provide me? A. To our knowledge, there are no authoritative source documents to define how many times you should rinse glassware. The logic...

technotes.alconox.com

So why can't you use old tank water (after a water change)?