PVC Pipes

[Elisabeth83]

I bought some PVC pipes to use for my peacock gudgeons. After cutting them I noticed they had a really strong plastic type smell. I'm worried it might be toxic to my fish?

Those of you who are using them or have used them have you found them safe to use in your aquairum? No bad outcomes?

Thanks!

 

[SirMinion]

It depends on the pipes.
If they are suitable for potable (drinking) water, then they should be fine for the aquarium.

We have a large pipe in a tank for our huge polypterus.
When we bought the pipe it had a greasy feel to it so we gave it a thorough scrub with a mild detergent (baby shampoo) then rinsed it, rinsed it and then gave it another few rinses.

Lastly we soaked it overnight in water with a triple dose of water conditioner, rinsed it and added it to the tank.

 

[Elisabeth83]

Hmm...well the pvc piping I bought was in the shower/drain section of the hardware store. I've washed it in a mild soap too. Should I soak it in a bucket of water overnight like you did with some water conditioner??

Not sure how I can find out if this particular type of PVC is safe. I went to their website but I can't find much info.

 

[SirMinion]

If it's for domestic plumbing then it should be safe.
An overnight soaking in heavily conditioned water will remove most impurities.

 

[Tropjunky]

I tend to think that if it's food grade it's also fish grade lol

 

[xxSarahxx]

Not sure this is possible with piping but when looking at plastic ornaments/tanks/etc if there is that knife and fork sign on it then once I have soaked and soaked and soaked it!
Thinking about it..........is there such a thing onpiping? I'm afraid I wouldn't know about piping but hopefully this will help.

 

[Opcn]

if you soak it well it should be fine, as PVC can't really have anything that breaks down in water otherwise the pipes wouldnt last long, but in the future see about getting it from the generall plubing section, safer that way. Now, about soaking it, if its small enough a piece a good place to keep it is the toilet tank. Most toilet tanks can handle the slight decreese in volume andthe constant changing of water will remove just about all the nasties from it.

 

[Tolak]

I've been using pvc pipe for angels to spawn on, it poses no problems.

Tolak