Abs reef safe?

[Poseidon]

I know some people use it, and I've heard it's not reef safe,
Would like to hear some opinions, doing a bit of remodeling to my fish room and have a ton of abs in the shop but no PVC...

 

[curiousphil]

opcorn:

 

[Salty Cracker]

opcorn2:

 

[Big_Als_London]

:drool:

 

[Poseidon]

Lol u guys are useless haha

 

[Big_Als_London]

Some ABS have a mildew inhibitor.  If it says on it not for drinking water than I wouldn't use it.

 

[MrHermit85]

I did a load of research on it and there are people that have been successful using it for many years without any noticeable problems arising from it. If you look at many products made for our hobby you will see that they are made from ABS like bulkheads and float valves... Of course from wha I have read ABS is not all created equal and some will have mildew inhibitors in them but not usually the general kind found at general hardware stores like Home Depot... ABS is not for use in pressure situations though from what I recall. I opted for using a coupling and a union on my overflow made from ABS but removed the piping and replaced it with flexible hose as I found rigid to be too noisy.
That's just from what I have heard and I am not saying that I am right but I am usin it and from what I hear I am confident in my decision.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=586157 one of the many links to people discussing it.

Not sure if that helps. I foresee someone tellingly that I am wrong and crazy lol.

 

[curiousphil]

If I had any useful info I'd throw it into the mix... but all I can say is that my hours of research on the matter have proved more or less fruitless...

 

[Poseidon]

I did a load of research on it and there are people that have been successful using it for many years without any noticeable problems arising from it. If you look at many products made for our hobby you will see that they are made from ABS like bulkheads and float valves... Of course from wha I have read ABS is not all created equal and some will have mildew inhibitors in them but not usually the general kind found at general hardware stores like Home Depot... ABS is not for use in pressure situations though from what I recall. I opted for using a coupling and a union on my overflow made from ABS but removed the piping and replaced it with flexible hose as I found rigid to be too noisy.
That's just from what I have heard and I am not saying that I am right but I am usin it and from what I hear I am confident in my decision.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=586157 one of the many links to people discussing it.

Not sure if that helps. I foresee someone tellingly that I am wrong and crazy lol.

hmmm definitely an interesting read... ive read several more links and posts saying they've used abs with no ill effects....
still waiting on others to chime in...
i can easily grab a piece of pvc tmrw im just curious as to why we cant use abs

 

[J_T]

Its not that you can't....PVC is for potable water (human consumption). Abs is used for drains....

Not all abs is made the same. Unlike PVC there are little, to no "standards" the stuff we use in the fish tanks (bulkheads, power heads etc) are made with better abs. Hard sell when people know its only going to leach crap into the tank.

So, can you? Yes. But down the road when you are struggling with issues, you may have nagging thoughts "is it the ABS"? Given what we spend on these tanks. I would just go over kill, and safe.

Sent from my {HTC X8} using Board Express

 

[J_T]

Crap, bad formatting from phone. I will fix that after
Sent from my {HTC X8} using Board Express

 

[yveterinarian]

Its not that you can't....PVC is for potable water (human consumption). Abs is used for drains....Not all abs is made the same. Unlike PVC there are little, to no \"standards\" the stuff we use in the fish tanks (bulkheads, power heads etc) are made with better abs. Hard sell when people know its only going to leach crap into the tank.So, can you? Yes. But down the road when you are struggling with issues, you may have nagging thoughts \"is it the ABS\"?Given what we spend on these tanks. I would just go over kill, and safe.
Sent from my {HTC X8} using Board Express

+1  (my 2 cents worth    )

 

[Boga]

Last week I did some research on the ABS and PVC ASTM standards.

ABS is not checked for contaminants. There are regulations on the contaminant level for PVC and CPVC. This includes metals.

So if in your ABS batch, the manufacturer used good prime material and they did not have any contamination through the process then you can use it. How do you know?

If it was, let’s say recycled material, or they had a leak of some sort of lubricant, or your batch is the first run after they cleaned their equipment, then your ABS may have contaminants.

There is no way to know, unless you test it for every single contaminant that we care (i.e metals) and at various pH levels.

In terms of power heads and other parts manufactured for aquarium use, they may use a clean ABS, made from prime product and tested.

Surface matters. Compare a 2 sq in surface that is leaching from a union, with maybe 2000 sq in surface leaching from all the tubing.

Leaching may be slow … based on diffusion. It could take weeks, months or years to accumulate contaminants to a dangerous level. At that point you would probably not know what generated your tank regression. Water changes and carbon will help, but some metals can be absorbed and accumalate in rocks, sand, inverts, fish etc.

Let’s ask ourself if we would drink water coming from an ABS system? If we answer NO, then ….



References: ASTM D3965, ASTM D1785, ASTM F441, NSF Std. #61

 

[Salty Cracker]

It would explain why some have luck with it, and some swear it killed their tanks.