Plastic carboy fish tank?

Howdy, fellow Fishlorians..

I've been curious lately on whether or not you can use a plastic container as a long term tank for fish and inverts.

I've done some reading online and the spontaneous comments I've found are all mixed and I don't feel comfortable just going with any few I've read.

Some say the chemicals from the plastic container can/will leach into the water and could kill them and I wonder how valid that is. I have been tinkering with the idea of using a carboy as a container for a pond setting and don't know if it's going to work...

Anyone have their .02 to donate here?

My questions are:
- Will the chemicals used to make the container leach out and how much?
- Will it be such a quick leaching that weekly a 10-25%(or more) WC can't dilute to safer levels?
- Any ideas of how I can fix, clean, prevent any problems to make living within it a possibility?

Thanks in advance. ^_^

 

I personally haven't done it, but I know plenty of fishlorians who use a large rubbermaid conatainer. (Thanks to them, everythime I go into Lowe's, I start looking for the 90 gallon containers.....)

 

I brewed my own beer for several years. One of the main concerns when storing/aging/fermenting beer is impurities leeching from the vessel it is being stored in. Carboys are fairly popular in the homebrewing hobby so I wouldn't worry about chems leeching.

That being said, I would be concerned about not being able to get my hand in the carboy to clean the tank. The openings on these tend to be very small. Also, carboys I've seen are, at the biggest, in the neighborhood of 5-6 gallons and are more expensive than a 5 gallon tank.

That's my 2 cents.

 

I was thinking of the 265gal equivalent actually. ... :-D

I was intending on taking the whole top off and attaching a hinged grate to keep out leaves/animals.

 

oh, ok then. It seams that we are talking about 2 TOTALLY different things. Like I said, I was a homebrewer for several years and I have a very specific in my head when I see the word "carboy".

 

So then the question may still stand... should I be concerned?

 

The type of plastic is important.

Acrylic fish tanks, most aquarium equipment, and pond liners are all made of types of "plastic."

Anything food-safe is generally held to be fish-safe, although I'm sure there are exceptions. If you can store food or drink (especially drink) in it, I wouldn't worry.