Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

If anyone is using the blue plastic 200 litre drums, this is a timely reminder to cautious.

I bought a couple of drums from a salvage yard, he had dozens of them, and when I asked if they where clean he said of course they were, they were cleaned before he got them, then he rinsed them all out himself as well, just to be sure... He opened one of them just to check, tipping the fluid on the ground, he sniffed it and stuck his finger in it but no problem, just a little bit of detergent mixed with water.

I bought them home and started to cut them in half lengthways with the circular saw. After cutting down one length, I flipped it over and cut down the other length before noticing that the liquid seeping out of my first cut didn't seem like water. It was thicker than water and seemed to bubble just a little bit on the ground.... I grabbed the container of sodium bicarbonate I had for raising the pH in my systems and sprinkled some onto the liquid, and it reacted with violent bubbling.....

It was 85% Phosphoric acid.......... Just like the old label had said on the side of it... One drum had been cleaned, the other drum was an acident waiting to happen.....

OUCH!
Would have liked to see him stick his finger into that

yikes... Natsy nasty nasty
What if small kiddies were around then!!!
Did you let the bloke know after you made this discovery?