Pickle buckets used for water storage

mtnbiker44

New member
Seeing as we use vinegar to clean some equipment, can I use, used pickle buckets from a local sub shop to store my tank water in? It certainly smells like vinegar!
 
we use vinegar to clean BECAUSE it rinses clean afterwards.. not because it's alright to dump vinegar into our systems..


FIREHOUSE ROCKS, BTW!!
 
The buckets should be okay after a good rinsing. I might wipe them down with a bit of baking soda, too, if they smell like pickles.
 
The buckets should be okay after a good rinsing. I might wipe them down with a bit of baking soda, too, if they smell like pickles.
so that's how you get rid of the smell... My dad keeps these on his boat to thaw out frozen bait. He's been using these for awhile, and through all the stinky fish smell you still smell pickles lol
 
I've been using one for my 90g for awhile now. It definitely took a few months for the pickle smell to go away completely but it is fine now. We did soak it in old tank water for a week though initially.
 
I have a question about these firehouse buckets! I recently purchased 10 of then for water changes, storage, etc. and even after cleaning them without soap and trying to rid the smell of pickles with coffee grounds I still smell pickles and it still seems to leech vinegar into my tank when I change the water. I can see the new water going into the tank looks very acidic like vinegar is present (blurrier than the rest of the water, dispersing what I view kinda similar to the way heat waves do on a hot day. Is this vinegar or is this just what newly mixed saltwater looks like?
 
Its new salt water mixing in with old salt, same thing when fresh water dumps into salt.

I've been using pickle buckets since I started reefing, never had an issue with them. Sure they smell like pickles, but it goes away eventually. I even went so far as testing them for ammonia, nitrates, and phosphates, all came out 0.
 
I work in the food service and its really hard to get rid of that garlicy/pickle smell. We don't put anything in them that we don't want a smell/flavor transfer, like orange juice. They're food grade and designed for what's in them. I'd be concerned about the preservatives. We use RO/DI and then we're going to introduce these traces?
 
There's not enough vinegar in the containers to cause a problem. In theory, the molecules that produce the odor might cause problems, but I doubt I'd worry much. Did you try a baking soda scrub? That might reduce the odor.
 
Every time I see this thread title, I grin a little. Pickle Buckets. I just like saying it. I think the words are cute, like it should be the name of a cartoon character or something. Little Miss Pickle Buckets!

Okay, sorry for the off-topic. :lol:
 
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