Vinyl Tubing Poisoning?

[Mark Bianco]

I was at the local hardware getting some plumbing for a new reef tank and when I got to purchacing the tubing for the short return from the pump to the pvc line I was told by the sales person the vinyl tubing leaches out chemicals into the water thats why they can not sell them for ice makers. I have used vinyl tubing for years. Is there any truth to this?

[stiki21]

I've never heard that before and was under the impression vinyl wasn't used for icemakers for pressure/leaking reasons.

[NirvanaFan]

Not that I'm aware of. The plain vinyl tubing may not be rated for enough pressure.

[tmz]

No;it's widely used and recommended for fish tanks, drinking water transport and other low pressure applications even by Home Depot:

ww.homedepot.com/webapp/catalog/servlet/ContentView?pn=Vinyl_Plastic_Tubing&storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053

As far as I can tell it's just pvc embeded with a plasticizer for flexiibility.

[ScorpD]

Typical vinyl tubing should not be used with icemakers due to the fact that it tends to fail and leak not because it leaches chemicals.

[Jstn]

Generally PVC tubing (tygon) includes a plasticizer to increase flexibility, if you compare it to the "cheap" PVC tubing one will see a difference in fluidity. The most common plasticizer is bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, weather or not it is hazardous to reef tanks I cannot comment but it does indeed leach.

I was bubbling argon through a new piece of tygon into reaction overnight via , and upon analyzing the product by NMR, I observed 1% of the phthalate in my product.

[bertoni]

I agree that plasticizers do leach. I haven't seen any evidence that such leaching will cause problems in reef tanks, though, and there's a lot of vinyl in setups, including some of mine. If there are effects, they probably are small or at least gradual. I guess that's the best we can do as far as reassurances.

[tmz]

Hi Justin,
Yes, I agree plasticizers leach over time ;sometimes decades leaving a brittle product behind. However, all of the flexible plastic products we use in aquarium sytems (cans, bins, some valves reactors,etc.) contain some ,probably phthalate. It's even used in pharmaceutical tablet coatings.
Vinyl tubing has been in use for a long time for aquariums and drinking water applications without issues.
I know there are some ongoing but unclear concerns about high eposures and a possible birth defect realtionship in rats receiving high doses and consequent concerns about human exposure levels primarily from ingestion.

Does argon cause faster leacihng than water btw? I know vinyl tubing is rated for various chemical and lab applications. Cole Palmer has a chart which will probably make more sense to you than to me and save me a headache.

For those interested in more information on phthalate, this wikipedia link may be of interest:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phthalate



From it:

"...Phthalates in the environment are subject to biodegradation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodegradation), photodegradation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photodegradation), and anaerobic degradation; therefore, in general, they do not persist in the outdoor environment..."

I don't think they would acummulate in an aquarium . Personally, have no reservations about using vinyl tubing or pvc..