how to get smell out of barrel?

[bettebulldog]

picked up some food grade barrels that had a juice concentrate in them. They smell very fruity. I pressure washed the heck out of them and filled and drained. now filled with bleach solution. still has a odor. Will this harm the fish or how can i get rid of it?

[River Studio]

Warm salt water should shift it.

[tcyiu]

picked up some food grade barrels that had a juice concentrate in them. They smell very fruity. I pressure washed the heck out of them and filled and drained. now filled with bleach solution. still has a odor. Will this harm the fish or how can i get rid of it?

Not saying you have to do this, but this is what I would do. I would use straight bleach (don't use the fancy ones with perfumes and other added stuff).

I would spritz bleach straight from the bottle all over the barrels (WHILE WEARING eye protection, face mask and gloves). Or you can use a sponge and do a wipe down which probably less hazardous. Let that sit for a while. At this point, you should only smell bleach and no trace of fruitiness. If you still smell fruit, apply more bleach, but concentrate on the seams where the juices might have accumulated. The bleach breaks down the organic chemicals and preservatives in the fruit juice so that they can be easily flushed away.

Now you need to get rid of the bleach. If you are doing this in your yard, DON'T just rinse the bleach away because that will kill your grass, or if it goes down the drain, make sure it goes into the sewage system and NOT into some nearby river.

Turns out getting rid of bleach is incredibly simple. Standard aquarium de-chlorinators do this very effectively. The only consideration is cost.

The cheapest way is to use pure sodium thiosulphate that you can buy at a pool store. In my area, a 3 pound bottle costs ~USD$10. Out of which you will only need 1 tablespoon mixed with one gallon of water. Or you can use standard de-chlorinators straight from the bottle. You may end up an entire bottle which costs ~$USD9. I would just use the pure stuff from the pool store.

Spritz the concentrated de-chlorinator over all surfaces that have bleach. Keep spritzing until you cannot smell bleach.

Then fill with water (don't need to rinse because the residual de-chlor is still active and can remove any left over), and test for chlorine with your testing kit. You should be good to go.

Tim

[Jhhnn]

If they're closed head barrels, you'll probably need to cut a hole in the top big enough to fit a pump inside. Do that so that you can scrub the inside of the top, inspect thoroughly, rinse a couple more times. Once satisfied that they really are clean, you shouldn't have any problems, even with the fruity smell, which will dissipate over time...

[bettebulldog]

yes i have cleaned the piss out of this thing, I have cut a hole just bigg enought for the pump and pressure washed, rinsed bleached, spritx bleach method and filled and drained god knows how many times. smell has subsided alot but its still there faintly. I dipped a cup out of it and there was no smell from the water in the cup. I just got done filling it for the last time since i need to do a w/c tomorrow. Will this be fine for the fish with just a hint left over.

[yim11]

Fish will never know...they will be OK.

HTHs,
-jim

[David Rose]

I bought a couple of 55G food grade barrels as well that had drink concentrate in them. I added about 1/3 gallong of chlorox bleach as I filled the barrel and let it sit for a day, then tipped it on its side to stand it on its top for another day. After that I drained and filled with water again to let sit for another day, drained and filled again. No stains and no smell and no major fuss.

hth

PS: I agree with Jim, you're fish will never know. Especially, with having disinfected them with the bleach. Just be sure you soak and rinse them well to remove the bleach and let them dry out for a day.

[Jhhnn]

You really, really should be fine, honest. Few people would have done as good a job as you have, and they'd be fine, too.

I only mentioned the part about cutting the hole because the shape of some barrels makes it hard to be sure that the underside of the top is completely clean w/o doing so- they're designed to maintain an airspace, and they do...