Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello and happy spring! I am in the process of building a new outdoor aquaponics system and greenhouse and just went and picked up some nice used IBC totes. The shipping label said that they contained Vitamin E (Tocopheryl acetate). I looked it up and read through the Wikipedia page on it and it seems like a pretty harmless product, just really sticky. After cutting the totes open and rinsing them all out with hot water, a lot of hot water, and scrubbing them good and wiping them down, I've gotten it to the point where there is just a very thin film of it along the inside. This stuff was really sticky and hard to get out. I now have the tanks filed with water and you can still feel a small amount of oil in the water. I am wondering if the oil will be harmful to the fish at all (koi and tilapia) or if it could hurt the pumps at all (rule 25d bilge pumps) or if I may have any problem with it accumulating in my media bed. Will it just break down over time? If anyone has any experience with this stuff please let me know. Hoping to have the solar hooked up this week and to start transferring plants from my old indoor system. Thanks!

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I could only suggest that if we can swallow it, then a washed IBC will be perfectly fine...
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If it were me I'd probably use a detergent or a relatively safe organic solvent to break the oil up then give them two or three good rinses (whatever it takes) to get rid of the cleaner. You'll probably be fine as is but I'd be wondering if the oil might affect aeration at the waters surface.