New plastic outgassing from water. How long? Unsafe?

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Masha

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Sep 26, 2013
Messages
996
Location
Cape Town, South Africa
For this question to make sense, you need to know that I live in Cape Town, that we are having a severe drought and are limited to using 50 liters of water a day (that's about 13 gallons). So wasting water is quite a big deal :)
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I like to prepare for a water change by filling a 70 liter bucket with water, treating it, letting it outgass and get up to temperature before doing the water change.

I just bought a new garden hose, and when I filled the bucket, I noticed a very strong smell of new plastic coming off the water even 12 hours after filling it. PVC outgassing, maybe? I've had the hose for about three weeks and have used it a bit for other purposes so it's not the first time it's had water in it.

I'm not going to use this bucket of water for my tank, too worried about that smell. I can use it elsewhere, flushing the toilet, washing clothes etc. But my question is this:

In future, would that water ever be usable in an aquarium? Would it eventually outgass enough to be safe? Will I ever be able to use this hosepipe for aquarium uses?
 
Is there another means of filling the bucket besides the hose you got? Is your tank to large to use a large pot to change your water.....if your bucket is to big to fill in a sink???

What's the purpose of off gassing the water for a water change?
 
I can certainly fill the bucket by carrying buckets, which is what I plan to do :) A 70 liter bucket is a little bit too big to fit in my sink :) A hosepipe is just more convenient.

Outgassing is not the primary reason for filling the bucket and letting it stand. It's just a side thing. I do it this way because it's an easy way to get the water up to temperature for the water change, (I have a heater in the bucket) and because it means I can pump water from the big bucket up into my tank, rather than laboriously scooping or whatever other method I might use.

Anyone able to answer the question I asked though? Which is - if I ever DO use the hosepipe again, will the water always be unsafe, or do the toxic plastic gasses eventually outgass?
 
Gotcha. I do something similar. I place a 55 gallon drum next to my tank, fill it with a garden hose, heat it with a heater, treat the water then use a small pump to pump it into my tank. I've never had a noticeable smell in the water from my garden hose. If you are using PVC tubing, which I assume is what you mean, and it's meant for water I wouldn't think it would leach harmful contaminants.
 
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