Cannot get 55g Barrels Clean (Smell)

[SloppyJ]

So I purchased two 55g barrels for my water station in my garage. The guy I bought them from sells rain barrels so I figured he knew what he was doing. I didn't smell them as I took his word that they were cleaned out. The one I'm worried about smells like pickles.

I've tried everything I can think of. I initially started out by scrubbing them with Clorox and rinsing them out. That didn't work. I then filled them up with water and let them sit in the sun for a few days. That didn't work. I then filled them up with water and bleach and let them sit in the sun for a week. That didn't work either. I'm about ready to throw them in the trash. .

Any ideas what I can use to clean these babies? I thought HDPE wasn't supposed to absorb anything?

[Psirex]

Soak with vinegar 1:5 solution for a day or so then fresh RO water for a day or so. Then towel dry them and let then sit uncovered for a few days.

Thsts what I did to get rid of tomato paste\sauce out of mine

[Reefkeeper_DR]

Bleach kills 99.9% of germs and Bactria but there can be issues with it effecting water chemistry in your system because the smell your concerned of is the smell of aged plastic due to mold and mildew and it being used as a rain water drum considering it's purpose and use a used plastic container that could have been used for years and I'm not 100% sure that the moldy mildew smell is a potential contaminant but the warter will too smell of it because I had the same issue with a plastic bin I used befor I didn't dry it out befor I sealed it and I tryed bleaching/ vinegar brillow pads and Ajax the smell aways comes bake so I use it to holde old pumps filters and what not

[SloppyJ]

Think it would help to have a pump going in there while it soaks?

[Psirex]

Yes

[woodnaquanut]

Originally Posted by Reefkeeper_DR

the smell your concerned of is the smell of aged plastic due to mold and mildew

I believe the OP said the odor was pickels. Quite a bit different than mildew.

[zachts]

Were they used for pickles? mostly vingar anyway. Running water thru them slowly while circulating the water with a pump will eventually get rid of or reduce the smell. Plastics do absorb things, odors, chemicals, even water in the case of acrylic. Puting them in the sun just degrades the plastic. Use a heater or hot water to get the same job done for most things.

Always best to know what was in the barrel. If it was a food product then biggest worry would only be phosphates, aside from the smell of pickles!

[Reefkeeper_DR]

Not to very off topic of the OP post but @woodnaquanut mold and mildew smells very under different circumstances and weather/conditions I do no for a fact that mold can to cast a pickle smell and with my knowledge and cret in (ICRA) witch is Infection Control Risk Assessment
but I'm just trying to help with sum friendly advice recommend trying these steps if you want to eliminate the odder if they don't work it's bet you use the container for something els than house pure RO/DI water

It's proven that plastic absorbs odder like when you eat spaghetti out of a plastic container even after a wash it can still smell of spaghetti even a week latter

• Newspaper: Crumple newspaper and stuff it into the container. Snap on the lid and leave it overnight or longer.

• Charcoal: Place a piece of charcoal in the container. Seal shut and let sit until the odor has been absorbed.

• Baking soda: Make a paste of baking soda and water and rub over the interior of the container. Let it sit for a day or two and wash off. Repeat if necessary.

• Lemon: Rinse container with lemon juice or rub a cut lemon over the interior surface.

• Coffee grounds: Place used coffee grounds (wet or dry) in the container and let sit until odor is gone.

• Sunshine: Place your containers outside on a sunny day to simultaneously air them out and take advantage of the odor-fighting power of the sun.

[Reefkeeper_DR]

Originally Posted by Reefkeeper_DR

Not to very off topic of the OP post but @woodnaquanut mold and mildew smells very under different circumstances and weather/conditions I do no for a fact that mold can to cast a pickle smell and with my knowledge and cret in (ICRA) witch is Infection Control Risk Assessment
but I'm just trying to help with sum friendly advice recommend trying these steps if you want to eliminate the odder if they don't work it's bet you use the container for something els than house pure RO/DI water

It's proven that plastic absorbs odder like when you eat spaghetti out of a plastic container even after a wash it can still smell of spaghetti even a week latter

• Newspaper: Crumple newspaper and stuff it into the container. Snap on the lid and leave it overnight or longer.

• Charcoal: Place a piece of charcoal in the container. Seal shut and let sit until the odor has been absorbed.

• Baking soda: Make a paste of baking soda and water and rub over the interior of the container. Let it sit for a day or two and wash off. Repeat if necessary.

• Lemon: Rinse container with lemon juice or rub a cut lemon over the interior surface.

• Coffee grounds: Place used coffee grounds (wet or dry) in the container and let sit until odor is gone.

• Sunshine: Place your containers outside on a sunny day to simultaneously air them out and take advantage of the odor-fighting power of the sun.

I searched this up in references to eliminating pickle odder's hope it works for you because two 55gal container would be great really helpfully for you planes that's 110gal of stored water WOW

[SloppyJ]

Didn't think about the charcoal. I'll try that. Yes the large volume would be very helpful. If it doesn't work I'll just buy two brute trashcans. But I'd like to use what I have instead of spending more money.

[Reefkeeper_DR]

Originally Posted by SloppyJ

Didn't think about the charcoal. I'll try that. Yes the large volume would be very helpful. If it doesn't work I'll just buy two brute trashcans. But I'd like to use what I have instead of spending more money.

Try more Charcoal than what it's instructing I think that's for a smaller volume I' think one pies per half gollon try throwing a bag or two in there over kill

making baking-soda past sound good I'll try that on my 40gal Ben and see if it works and I'll let you know ASAP

[jonwright]

I had the same thing. Barrels that had flavorings (lemon). Tried backing soda and then vinegar Anf for each let sit for days. No good. Called the manufacturer. Referred me to a refurbisher. No real advice except that the barrels were manufactured for hazardous material and almost SH!t when I told him I was using them for aquarium. Did have flammable placard on it due to alcohol.

Nonetheless. I rolled the dice and went with it. No problems and the smell has abated after being in use for a couple months.

I do NOT have corals though but other inverts are fine. Shrimp, crabs, other pods and such. Can't tell any impact.

[TWISTER702]

Just fill it with water and add two gallons of muriatic acid and let it sit for 24 hours then empty them and let dry and your done.

[woodnaquanut]

Originally Posted by TWISTER702

Just fill it with water and add two gallons of muriatic acid and let it sit for 24 hours then empty them and let dry and your done.

I have no opinion about the above working. i'm just writing to warn you to be VERY careful using muriatic acid. Eye protection and gloves are the minimum safety gear. NEVER add water to acid, always add acid to water. Work outside if possible and don't splash the concentrate on anything you want to keep. If you do spill or splash, make sure you rinse it off ASAP with lots of fresh water.

[SloppyJ]

I have a BS in Environmental Science. Do as you otter, add acid to water.

[bravanc]

my barrels were from the Pepsi plant and had syrup (DR Pepper and Mt Dew) once you clean them let them sit outside for a few weeks empty and they should be ok. some of them will hold the smell for awhile but it should not be a problem.

[SloppyJ]

The tank in question has been outside for a month or more. No such luck.

[Sethjamto]

I have some that used to hold soap for a car wash. I did the same routine...water/bleach/vinegar over and over again to rinse them out. Let them air out for a while too, and the smell was still there, but fainter. I rolled the dice after reading on here for a while and filled with RODI and haven't had a problem yet. I've been using it for about 6 months at least like this for water changes and top off water, and now the smell it totally gone too after having that much water flushed through the thanks.

As for yours smelling like pickles. I'd call it good and go with it!

[KafudaFish]

If you have done everything you stated they are good to go.

[ArnoldoOfferman]

I hate to rehash an old thread.. but here's my issue.

I bought two barrels from a yard sale, because my brute garbage cans are obviously not keeping the water completely isolated. They said all that was in it was laundry detergent so I figured easy to power wash out and we are good to go. However instead it was formic acid.

Now the problem is these are not the lids that remove, they have the little 4 inch holes in them.
Filled it up with water, flushed as much of the acid out as I could. Just for safety sake I filled it up with bleach and rotated the drum quite a bit. Then I dumped out the bleach and water solution, let it dry a little bit and then I was going to add more water to flush it out. Then I was going to do the same with white vinegar.


Can’t get a scrub brush in there, so I filled it halfway up with an entire bottle of white vinegar and 30 gallons of water and I’m rotating the barrel every hour.


Then I flushed it out.

Then I added 30 gallons of water and 12lbs of baking soda per barrel. I shook and rotated every hour for almost 12 hours.

Flushed it out.

However, there's still a noxious smell that also burns... no mater how many times I've washed it out. It smells like chlorine but if I inhale, it's almost like it's burning. This happens as soon as I add water.

What's going on??

[Psirex]

What does it smell like? Maybe completely fill the barrel let it sit for a few days or a week. Then drain 》smell 》repeat?

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[Clowning_Around]

Oh boy... after reading this I'm wondering what I just got myself into as well. I happened upon some inexpensive previously used foodsafe lemonade concentrate barrels. I got them sitting on the porch full at the moment with a 1:9 bleach soak. My plan was just too disinfect the mold/ mildew inside from them sitting in the sun with the little residual concentrate amounts remaining. At least it still smelled like lemons ... well until the anticipated and now hopefully bleach smell. I plan on draining them tomorrow and then air drying for the week.

For those of you who use these polypropylene barrles, do you just use the small 3" screw openings to add your salt or have you come up with some other fashioning for a larger resealable opening. If so please share because i would love to be able to get inside these and put a little elbow grease into the cleaning.

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[tkeracer619]

Ditch them and invest in better water storage containers. Brute cans are fine. Poly tanks are better. If you are buying used barrels they need to be food grade and have contained food product. Muriatic acid is a good way to get them clean, but, you shouldn't be mixing chemicals.

Pickle barrels are the best if you can find them since they are mostly vinegar already. That said, I love my ace roto mold tanks with large ~14" openings. I highly recommend going that route.

[ArnoldoOfferman]

Originally Posted by Psirex

What does it smell like? Maybe completely fill the barrel let it sit for a few days or a week. Then drain 》smell 》repeat?

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hard to describe the smell... :/

I'm going to clean the threads of the bungs, I just realized I never cleaned THAT so maybe I'm smelling residue?

[ArnoldoOfferman]

Originally Posted by tkeracer619

Ditch them and invest in better water storage containers. Brute cans are fine. Poly tanks are better. If you are buying used barrels they need to be food grade and have contained food product. Muriatic acid is a good way to get them clean, but, you shouldn't be mixing chemicals.

Pickle barrels are the best if you can find them since they are mostly vinegar already. That said, I love my ace roto mold tanks with large ~14" openings. I highly recommend going that route.

My brute cans keep inviting all sorts of unwanted particles. Never going Brute again.