Reef safe detergent?

[EnderG60]

I picked up two food grade 275g totes that had coconut oil in them. Id like to use them for RO water storage and salt mixing.

Is there a reef safe detergent or something else I can use to clean the oil out? Or do I just keep rinsing with hot water till I dont smell coconut?

 

[bertoni]

You could try some vinegar. That's safe enough. If there's a lot of oil, some lot of hot water followed by vinegar might do the trick. How much oil is there? There's no such thing as a reef-safe detergent, as far as I can tell.

 

[mcgyvr]

The detergent of choice in oil spill cleanup is Dawn
As long as you rinse it out I'd wager that any soap would be just fine..
I have used soap before without issue..

I'd do a mix of vinegar/soap and hot water.. That should cut through it..

 

[dkeller_nc]

Yep. The correct answer to your question is "all detergents are reef safe - as long as you thoroughly rinse them" and "all detergents are reef killers, if they get into the tank".

I'm afraid that you're likely to be forced to use a detergent to remove something like coconut oil. Dawn's a good one, if for no other reason is that it's gentle on your hands. The only non-detergent chemical that I can think of that would be effective at removing an oil or fat would be sodium hydroxide, which will saponify the oil/fat into a water soluble "soap".

But since getting sodium hydroxide on your skin will take the hide right off of you, and you'd just be making a form of detergent anyway, skip the drama, use some Dawn, and rinse the heck out of the totes, preferably with hot water.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

It's always funny to me when people have containers that held something nontoxic, organic, and safe for (or even meant for) human consumption, and want to use chemicals to clean it. What's the worst that would happen if some coconut oil residue got in the tank? I bet the answer is, a lot less than what would happen if any dawn, soap, or detergent residue got into the tank.

Water, vinegar if you want. But overall, the coconut oil is less dangerous than anything else you would clean it with.


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[EnderG60]

It’s always funny to me when people ostracize others for asking questions on a forum.

I asked if there was a reef safe detergent because I dont want to use it unless I have to, the answer is no there is not. Ive also learned that using really hot water will open the pores of the plastic to help release anything it may have absorbed AND that vinegar and muriatic acid do not break down fats, oils or grease and thus would do nothing to help in this situation. You ask questions and learn. See how that works?

So I will try pressure washing with hot water, then filling the totes with 120F water and letting it sit and see if anything comes to the surface.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Cool it dude. Meant no offense.


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[bertoni]

Let's keep the focus on the chemistry here.

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

I'd personally just rinse with lots of hot water after pressure washing. Extra hot water (120F+) seems to do well at breaking coconut oils loose from cooking ware, and after rinsing for a minute in the sink very little remains IME. I don't know if any would be absorbed into the plastic and difficult to get absolutely clean, but i doubt trace amounts would cause an issue.

Not to start anything, but I think your question on reef safe detergents is valid. I've used several things to clean stuff before putting in my reef or using for maintenance, but always follow up with some strong cleaning afterwards to limit the chances of getting them into the tank. The only exception would be things that are dosed in the tank anyways like vinegar or ethanol. And just because something is safe for human consumption doesn't mean I want to be putting it in my tank. Coconut oil, I'd suspect would at least mess with skimmer effectiveness until it was removed, which if there's a good bit of oil could take a long time. Maybe not cause damage to your livestock, but still cause issues with your filtration.

Perhaps if you had a spare one sitting around you could stick a protein skimmer in after you rinse and see how it works with the water in the tote, or use some of the water you rinse with in a skimmer. If it goes nuts overflowing, do another rinse and try again.

 

[Mr. Wiggles]

I never understand why vinegar is recommended for everything reef related as though it can do everything. In this case you need alkalinity, like sodium carbonate. That will saponify the coconut triglyceride into a soap and it will remove itself. Wash and rinse and then you are done. Any leftover carbonate will be safe. Just don't use kalk or you will have a real mess on your hands.

 

[mcgyvr]

I never understand why vinegar is recommended for everything reef related as though it can do everything.

Because not everyone has a degree or deeper understanding of Chemistry..
Saponification isn't general knowledge and is mostly a word reserved to those with a Chemistry background..

Very few people have pure "washing soda" (Sodium Carbonate) sitting around in their house anymore.. Seems like that was information/product that was more "known" in the 50's when women were bound to a kitchen/laundry room

 

[dkeller_nc]

By the way, folks. Sodium carbonate (or bicarbonate) will only very slowly saponify oils. It's a little more effective on actual fatty acids, but it will still be glacially slow compared to sodium hydroxide.

The bottom line is that while it would be a bad deal to introduce detergent or soap into a reef tank in any appreciable quantity, thorough rinsing, especially with hot water, is 100% effective at removing the detergent from a hard glass, plastic or metal surface. The only way you're going to get in trouble with this is if you were putting some sort of absorbent material into the tank that had been washed with detergent and not really thoroughly rinsed, like felt reef socks.

I'll note that I nevertheless launder reef socks in the regular wash with normal laundry detergent. To ensure that the detergent any dye/perfumes are completely removed, I soak them in a bucket of RODI afterwards.

 

[bertoni]

I agree that baking soda won't saponify fats very quickly. Even lye can take a while. I wouldn't particularly want to form soap, but it's likely not that much of an issue.

Vinegar won't dissolve oil, but it can remove other kinds of precipitates, etc, and thus can help with cleaning a bit. It's non-toxic in the quantities left after a bit of a rinse.

 

[dkeller_nc]

I agree that baking soda won't saponify fats very quickly. Even lye can take a while. I wouldn't particularly want to form soap, but it's likely not that much of an issue.

Vinegar won't dissolve oil, but it can remove other kinds of precipitates, etc, and thus can help with cleaning a bit. It's non-toxic in the quantities left after a bit of a rinse.

The (potential) reason for wanting form soap is simply to make the oil/fat considerably more water soluble, but yeah, there's just really no need to go through all of that when scrubbing something out with a bit of Dawn and giving it a thorough rinse takes all of 15 minutes.

And I think you're quite right to recommend vinegar, since it certainly won't hurt anything, and uncautious use by a newb reefer isn't going to burn their skin, and really can't mess anything up in their reef tank unless they completely leave off the rinse step and dump a fairly large quantity into it.

My only hesitation with vinegar would be the same thing mentioned above - if used on something absorbent like a reef sock, it's critical that said reef sock be really thoroughly rinsed, as a significant vinegar dose into the reef tank could cause a massive bacterial bloom.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

The (potential) reason for wanting form soap is simply to make the oil/fat considerably more water soluble, but yeah, there's just really no need to go through all of that when scrubbing something out with a bit of Dawn and giving it a thorough rinse takes all of 15 minutes

I understand this in theory, but I still stand by my assessment that it's not worth the risk. If I had to choose between a few drops of coconut oil in my sump, or a few drops of dawn, I'd take the coconut oil.


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