Ishkabod Posted November 20, 2009 Report Share Posted November 20, 2009 For those of you who use Garden hoses for water changes Be warned many newish PVC Garden Hoses use Lead to Stablilize the plastic. It can and Will leach into water left in the hose between uses. This information came from Bill Nye`s new show Stuff Happens. They reccomend using the hose to water plants for a few minutes before filling a childs pool with water and i think that advice should be followed with garden hoses for water changes too so as to reduce the lead your fish are exposed to. Just thought some of you ought to know so you can take precautions. L Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jewels Posted November 20, 2009 Report Share Posted November 20, 2009 Thats a good tip. After all, Bill Nye IS the science guy ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T Dawg Posted November 20, 2009 Report Share Posted November 20, 2009 This seems kind of frustrating. I cannot find a link to Bill Nye’s comments, nor can I find authoritative information on issues surrounding PVC pipes and hoses. Sources I would consider non authoritative seem to comment on all forms of PVC plastics being linked with lead, Bisphenol-A (BPA), Phthalates, and other various compounds. It would seem most kids pools are made from materials on the suspected lead based materials lists, so the recommendation seems odd but harmless. I do recall several older CBC Marketplace series on lead in water that referenced the Health Canada recommendation to run water for 3-5 minutes to flush lead and other contaminants that could leach into water lines that had not been used for several hours. In this link http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/pre-2007/fil...ater/index.html that recommendation is again referenced by Health Canada's Dave Green. Given the broad use of products in the fish industry it’s hard to gauge how big a deal this is. It sounds like as long as you are wasting a bit of water first, which I am in spades, the risk is low. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairdeal Posted November 20, 2009 Report Share Posted November 20, 2009 There are also hoses that use chemicals to reduce or eliminate mould and mildew. I'm thinking those are definitely ones to stay away from. Last hose I bought it took me 15 or 20 minutes just to read all the particulars on the packaging before I found one that was alright to use for water changes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geleen Posted November 20, 2009 Report Share Posted November 20, 2009 mmm I just added a large piece of PVC to my loach tank ,,,so this is a no no? John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
werner Posted November 20, 2009 Report Share Posted November 20, 2009 Don't many water conditioners bind heavy metals anyways? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RD. Posted November 20, 2009 Report Share Posted November 20, 2009 Don't many water conditioners bind heavy metals anyways? Not really - bascially only what one can typically expect to find in a residential water supply. (as in the PPB range) Any substantial surges in lead, copper, etc, will not be fully bound in most cases. A number of years ago Prime actually removed the "binds heavy metals" portion of their label, and when I contacted Dr. Greg Morin of Seachem, here's what he had to say with regards to my question about Prime no longer mentioning detoxifying heavy metals. Prime has not changed, that is just a clerical error in the text description during one of our website updates. it should be corrected shortly. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We did remove from our labeling as it is a fairly minor effect and did not want to mislead people into thinking it was some kind of heavy metal removing product... but maybe removal of that has caused more confusion since competitors still make the claim for an effect that is identical in their products as well. John - not to worry, PVC pipe is fine in a fish tank. I would hope that most people read the fine print when buying a hose that they plan on using to refill their tanks. There's an old thread on AA about this topic as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moutain Dew Posted November 20, 2009 Report Share Posted November 20, 2009 I read something somewhere sometime that the white PVC was preferrable to the black pvc? Do no if there is a differemce.. but I say it on different occasions. John - not to worry, PVC pipe is fine in a fish tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patrick Posted November 20, 2009 Report Share Posted November 20, 2009 I use a black garden rubber hose for my water changes. It's a bit more expensive but it will not fold, which is nice. I always drain the hose after each use, and always run water through it before I use it, just to be safe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RD. Posted November 20, 2009 Report Share Posted November 20, 2009 Black is ABS, which is designed for waste water, where PVC is used for incoming fresh water. Many people have used ABS in their tanks long term without incident as well. As Harold mentioned the bigger issue with garden hose is that some of them contain mould/mildew inhibitors which I would think will have a far greater effect on the health of your fish vs lead contamination. (at least in the short term) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T Dawg Posted November 20, 2009 Report Share Posted November 20, 2009 At the end of the day if or how badly any of this could/would effect fish seems subjective at best. I view this more in the going the extra mile to make fish abit more healthy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geleen Posted November 20, 2009 Report Share Posted November 20, 2009 "John - not to worry, PVC pipe is fine in a fish tank. " Good to know I was a bit worried Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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