ozone and copper

[astroboy]

I was mixing up a batch of salt water in an 80 gallon food grade plastic barrel. I had run the pump for 36 hours to mix up the salt (35 ppm). When I checked the salinity I noticed an ozone smell. It turned out the extension cord - pump connection was in the water. I can't imagine why it didn't blow a circuit breaker. What a hoot. I can't imagine I was that stupid.

 

Question for someone who knows more chemistry than I do. Did the copper from the wires end up in the water? The prongs were nice and shiny and smaller than they had been, so I figure some copper did go into the water. Would this have been likely to have precipitated out?  I'm figuring the ozone is not a problem; it can be rinsed out. But, is it likely that the copper permeated the plastic of the barrel. Can I use it for salt water mixing in the future?

 

I filled the barrel with hot fresh water and a gallon of vinegar and am running a pump in it. I figure it can't do any harm, perhaps  the acidity will make the copper inert somehow or help it leach out of the plastic, assuming it's in there. 

 

I have two barrels. If worse came to worse I figure I can use the 'contaminated' one for my freshwater tank, the small amount of copper that might be in there I don't think would harm freshwater fish although it might not be good for inverts? Anyone have a feel for that?

 

As always, thanks in advance. The insights and advice I get from WAMAS posts has been a vast help over the years.

 

Mark

 

 

[Jon Lazar]

I did something very similar where a connection leaked current into saltwater.  I think it was a MJ1200 running in a 5 gallon bucket to mix saltwater, and the cord was frayed where it entered the body of the MJ.  This probably ran several hours before I noticed it, and the water was shockingly bright blue.  Not just fresh-saltwater blue or slightly-tinted blue.  I expect the electricity dissolved the braided copper wires in the power cord.

 

So some copper ion, like copper hydroxide or some such, almost certainly ended up in your container.  I would think that a good cleaning will be sufficient, but I would still proceed very cautiously both for freshwater and saltwater.  Do you have access to a low-range copper test kit to verify there's no detectable copper?  Or a Poly-pad that you could use prophylactically?