trash cans for water changes?
 

any reason not to use rubbermaid trash cans to do a water change? Just thought i would ask before i do it. Got two new rubbermaid trash can and they seem to be perfect size for water changes.

Like everything else, everyone has a different opinion on using them. :wink: But it is all I have ever used. :biggrin:

i use one for water changes,I just give it a good rise out before you use it.

I use them too...never had any problems.

Eric Borneman had a problem with them while doing research then posted this http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic101230-9-1.aspx However even he admits to using them for many years problem free until that happened. I've also heard claims that PVC plumbing leaches chemicals into our aquarium water and not to use it.

This is True. Thats why most use Potable PVC.
the black ABS that i have seen on lots of tanks it typically the bad stuff.

Same here, but I use one as storage for my top up resevoir.

When you clean them make sure you use a warm water/vinegar solution. That'll hopefully remove any deposits of whatever. Don't use soap of any kind. But that's perhaps blatenly obvious.

While everyone knows ABS isn't recommended it was actually statements like this that I was referring to about typical PVC plumbing. I've stumbled upon a few more arguments against PVC recently as well. Maybe we'll know more in a few years.

"I have been looking a lot more into plastics and their many various additives as flex agents or UV inhibitors, and whether they are coatings or impregnated into the whole plastic. The basic material of the Brute cans is actually one of the safer and better plastics to use in terms of toxins, additives and leaching. In reading about this, PVC is really causing me to have serious questions now. And, I have to say that there may very well be an effect of the place of manufacture, too. But there are so many chemicals used in plastic manufacture, and a very limited scope of testing in terms of toxicity. We are only now figuring out some of the very real human effects, and while a particular UV inhibitor may not have shown a high LD50 or impact on whatever test species used - if any aquatic toxicity was done at all - it may have a very different effect on other species, aspects of development, etc.

Like I said originally, I don't know to what degree these affect reproduction in tanks, or if it is temporary or continuous depending on the lifespan of the chemical to exposure to seawater and light, etc., or if perhaps the effects are even mild compared to the other plastics used in abundance in our tanks (like our PVC plumbing). All those are just theoretical, however real they might be. But, this is a case where there was a definite and dramatic effect that may be very specific but was dramatic enough that the potential of it deserved mention especially given the widespread use of this particular container."

http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic101230-9-7.aspx