Using a used Food Grade barrel for aging water?

[Melissa]

I bought a used 'food grade' barrel from someone here in San Diego to use for ageing water.. Here is a link to the site:

http://www.sandiegowaterrecycling.com/

I bought it because it says on the site it has been power washed... But I just opened the lid to the one I bought and it smells like pickles......

Safe to use? Not safe? Anyone?

[William Palumbo]

LOL...mine smell of pickles/olives...still!...but I have had no issues at all with them. I just rinsed them as well as I could...Bill

[Melissa]

Lol! Ok good! Hah I was shocked when I was blasted in the face with the smell when I unscrewed the lid. I'm glad I didn't just waste my money.

[zhound]

How do you age your water and for how long?

[jball1125]

Mine smells like Coca-Cola. Never had any problems.

[Melissa]

I age my water approx. 24 hrs... I just drop a heater in a barrel and turn a water pump on in it to circulate the water to help all of the nasties gas off. When it comes time to use the water, I just pull the water pump up to the surface and attach a hose to it and voila!

[Melissa]

Mine smells like Coca-Cola. Never had any problems.

LOL! Weird! Coca-cola huh? I'm in for it now though.... My hubby rolls his eyes every time I do a water change... Now the living room smells like pickles. I'm in trouble.

[Keith Perkins]

Melissa - you need a pickle dish sitting out at every meal for a while until the smell diminishes to confuse him. Marriage counseling, just another service I offer.

[Melissa]

THAT is such a great idea! I'm going to go get the pickle jar out of the fridge and dump the contents... He will be home soon and when he gets here I'll just say I spilt some pickles.... As long as it isn't fish related he shouldn't get mad about it

I left a little bag of SAFE out in the car last week and when the car got hot in the middle of the day it made it WREAK like rotten eggs! LOL!

He wa so so mad! I grabbed the bag out of the car along with some air hose I had picked up and other things, brought them inside the house, went back out and aired out the car.... Went back inside later to find the house then wreaked like eggs.... Yeah, I didn't think that one through.

If only the hubby loved fish as much as I do! Things would be so much easier! Lol

[Keith Perkins]

... Went back inside later to find the house then wreaked like eggs.... Yeah, I didn't think that one through.

Hmm, sounds like you might need someone who can be on call 24/7. Doesn't sound like my kind of job, I already have discus.

[TURQ64]

Three of my barrel's were raisin concentrate..an interesting aroma now and then...

[jball1125]

LOL! Weird! Coca-cola huh? I'm in for it now though.... My hubby rolls his eyes every time I do a water change... Now the living room smells like pickles. I'm in trouble.

Yea, guy I got it from said it used to hold the syrup that they use in Pop. Every time I do a WC I feel like having a tall glass of coke lol.

[Keith Perkins]

LOL, okay, I've got a good one for you. Last Saturday when I finally met William Palumbo I picked up a small quantity of live black worms from him. I didn't really have a good container to put them in (good would mean something my wife would approve of) so I rinsed the last 3/8 of an inch of pineapple salsa out of the glass Paul Newman jar. Oddly enough I have a strong hankering for chips and salsa now after just giving all my fish a treat. Yup, they and the water definitely smell like salsa.

[Scott293]

Mine were ketchup barrels. No strong odor but they had mold in them. I cleaned them with bleach but as a precaution I use plastic barrel liners that you can purchase from Lowe's. $14.95 for 40 bags. Do a search on drum liners. I also found a distributor here in Cincinnati who provides food grade heavy 4 mil clear 55 gallon drum liner bags that I plan on getting.