IBC Contamination

[John Buckley]

I just bought an IBC tote that had contained a herbicide.  Can I wash, rinse and sun it enough to make it usable for AP?

[TCLynx]

It depends on the particular herbicide that it contained.  I would be personally hesitant to use any herbicide, pesticide, or poison container to grow my food unless it was something as simple as really 30% vinegar which can be diluted down to edibility.

[Robert Davenport]

after using sprayers I would triple rinse with dawn dish washing liquid  and pump and spray out the soap getting the hose and nozzle too , I later used some folar spray with it and almost killed a dogwood , if you still want to use it buy some TSP [ paint store ] along with Dawn fill and let sit . the tsp is a high PH stuff plants ain't gonna like it,,,,,,,do this 3 x fill with water and oxygenate if it will grow slime its probably OK for rain water collection ; some of the stuff we can buy at the store for weeds is agent orange diluted

 

 

[Debra Davenport]

Ammonia will cut the pesticide in my past experience. I am new to aquaponics but not to farming and whenever we use any kind of pesticide/herbicide we always clean the equipment with soap and water and followed by diluted ammonia and let it air dry. We have never had a problem with any chemicals mixing and causing a bad problem.