Pine Sol use by accident

[Dr. Reef]

Hi Everyone
So we are in process of moving warehouses and in that one of my employee used pine sol to clean some tanks we took off the island to move.
They were dry but dirty and were getting ready to move to new warehouse to be installed there.
Now that couple of them have been in contact with pine sol. what should be the way to clean them to get rid of any bad left behind?
Should i clean these 2 tanks with bleach or soap or just rinse them very good?
Any help will be grately appreciated.
Thank you
Mike

 

[JoJosReef]

Hi Mike, I don't know, but I'm happy to keep this bumped for you. Maybe @vetteguy53081 @Jay Hemdal know what's best for removing residues and safest for fish?

 

[Reef Wizard]

Hi Everyone
So we are in process of moving warehouses and in that one of my employee used pine sol to clean some tanks we took off the island to move.
They were dry but dirty and were getting ready to move to new warehouse to be installed there.
Now that couple of them have been in contact with pine sol. what should be the way to clean them to get rid of any bad left behind?
Should i clean these 2 tanks with bleach or soap or just rinse them very good?
Any help will be grately appreciated.
Thank you
Mike

I believe citric acid would likely get rid of it. Seems to be cleaner and easy on plastics and such other than white vinegar in my experience

I use it to clean my QT tanks

Lemi Shine Citric acid

Exact product I use no extra additives

 

[Gribbles]

I believe citric acid would likely get rid of it. Seems to be cleaner and easy on plastics and such than white vinegar in my experience

I use it to clean my QT tanks

Amazon product

Exact product I use no extra additives

Link is broken but I did find the product. Hopefully this works for others

Lemi Shine 100% Citric Acid 5 Pound Bag l Pure Food-Grade Flavor Enhancer & All-Natural Preservative | Fragrance Free Citric Acid for Bath Bombs, Cooking, & Canning https://a.co/d/ha9Wkoc

 

[Marcus H.]

So this is what is in Pine Sol. 8–12% pine oil, 3–7% alkyl alcohol ethoxylates, 1–5% sodium petroleum sulfonate and 1–5% isopropyl alcohol

I would rinse, wipe down with a rag of isopropyl alcohol, (to remove any remaining pine oil) and rinse again. If the smell is gone I would be confident to use the tanks. The MSDS did not say much.

https://www.thecloroxcompany.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Pine-Sol-Original-Pine.pdf

 

[Reef Wizard]

Link is broken but I did find the product. Hopefully this works for others

Lemi Shine 100% Citric Acid 5 Pound Bag l Pure Food-Grade Flavor Enhancer & All-Natural Preservative | Fragrance Free Citric Acid for Bath Bombs, Cooking, & Canning https://a.co/d/ha9Wkoc

Thats it I tried fixing the link not sure what happened to it

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi Everyone
So we are in process of moving warehouses and in that one of my employee used pine sol to clean some tanks we took off the island to move.
They were dry but dirty and were getting ready to move to new warehouse to be installed there.
Now that couple of them have been in contact with pine sol. what should be the way to clean them to get rid of any bad left behind?
Should i clean these 2 tanks with bleach or soap or just rinse them very good?
Any help will be grately appreciated.
Thank you
Mike

Flush them with cold water to neutralize the pine sol and run the tanks with freshwater and a small nylon bag with lab grade carbon to further neutralize any chemical content. This often applies to vinegar and bleach use. If you can still smell it after all this - Caution !
Alternative is citric acid

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The only things that are a concern in Pine Sol, IMO, are the surfactants. Those will be readily soluble in water so I would just rinse the tanks well and call it done.

 

[exnisstech]

I'd be keeping an eye on that employee.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi Mike, I don't know, but I'm happy to keep this bumped for you. Maybe @vetteguy53081 @Jay Hemdal know what's best for removing residues and safest for fish?

I’ve never come across that happening, and I don’t like to guess about those sorts of things…

Here is another thread about pine sol though:

Pine-sol

So I purchased some Pukani reef rocks yesterday, from someone who has been out of the hobby for some time, and I gave them a good hose bath. Today I get up and give them a smell to assess and I smell Pine-sol. I texted the lady who sold them to me and she said her mother in law may have cleaned...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[KrisReef]

So this is what is in Pine Sol. 8–12% pine oil, 3–7% alkyl alcohol ethoxylates, 1–5% sodium petroleum sulfonate and 1–5% isopropyl alcohol

I would rinse, wipe down with a rag of isopropyl alcohol, (to remove any remaining pine oil) and rinse again. If the smell is gone I would be confident to use the tanks. The MSDS did not say much.

https://www.thecloroxcompany.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Pine-Sol-Original-Pine.pdf

This makes sense if the tanks are made of glass?

I don’t think that I would use isopropyl on plastic tanks, I would just use lots of water if the tanks were acrylic.

And posting so people looking for information can read about it now and later. Glass is not as reactive as plastic from chemical reactions we might normally encounter.

 

[KrisReef]

I'd be keeping an eye on that employee.

Former employee, I’d make certain that they found their way to the unemployment office to prevent possible injuries to living creatures.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Yes employee is an ex now, and tanks are glass. I think i am going to rinse them (just 2 tanks before i caught him) with bleach water and then rinse them out few times and let them air dry and go from there.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Flush them with cold water to neutralize the pine sol and run the tanks with freshwater

Cold water is of no use, hot if anything but neither are a solvent for pine oil. Cold increasing the viscosity and hot decreasing it....

Organic solvents (citric acid for example) can dissolve it.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Cold water is of no use, hot if anything but neither are a solvent for pine oil. Cold increasing the viscosity and hot decreasing it....

Organic solvents (citric acid for example) can dissolve it.

No hot water with silicone as it can soften silicone and according to reps at chemipure, cold water neutralizes bleach, vinegar and many household cleaners which contain alcohol and other soluble liquids such as surficant #3. As stated by Randy, water should alone dissolve this. I go by what others have found successful and more than once have I seen water itself work. I did mention citric although im reluctant with tank versus rock, but find it safe

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Cold water is of no use, hot if anything but neither are a solvent for pine oil. Cold increasing the viscosity and hot decreasing it....

Organic solvents (citric acid for example) can dissolve it.

The oil is present with lots of surfactants to dissolve it.

 

[BeanAnimal]

The oil is present with lots of surfactants to dissolve it.

Ahh, so in theory/practice can be rinsed away with water.

 

[BeanAnimal]

No hot water with silicone as it can soften silicone and according to reps at chemipure,

I suppose it depends on what you consider “hot” and how long the exposure is

The suggestion is not to fill the aquarium with boiling water, let alone maintain it that way. Using warm or “hot” water (say 140F) to rinse a silicone and glass aquarium will do no harm.

Thermal expansion is extremely low (joint integrity) and typical silicone sealant does not begin to degrade until around 392F. Prolonged exposure at 200F and above does speed aging. Sorry, but well intentioned anecdote and materials science sometimes don’t match. Nobody is going to damage their silicone and glass aquarium using hot tap water, needed or not.

cold water neutralizes bleach,

Cold water doesn’t neutralize bleach; it just slows its chemical activity, while warm water speeds it up. Both hot and cold water will dilute bleach.

In fact, “neutralization”…. I think that around 77F bleach begins to (slowly as in days or months) decompose and that process speeds up as temperature rises. At 140F, degradation rate is pretty high (sorry too lazy to look but more like hours).


Yes.. I get stuck on facts, but you know me and topics like this

 

[BeanAnimal]

Ohh and back in the 80s I was a vert skater, and once I washed my very stinky pads in mix of pinesol and Murphy’s oil soap… and they forever smelled like that even after rinsing a dozen times. It was terrible on hot days. Worst part is the knee pads were custom made (flap jax ) and super expensive back then.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Ohh and back in the 80s I was a vert skater, and once I washed my very stinky pads in mix of pinesol and Murphy’s oil soap… and they forever smelled like that even after rinsing a dozen times. It was terrible on hot days. Worst part is the knee pads were custom made (flap jax ) and super expensive back then.

I have a swimsuit that got exposed to high bromine in our hot tub. A year later it still smells, despite washing it. I just do without now…