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Can I use a normal garden hose?

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VanEternal

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Londn
Hi Guys,
I require around 15 m of hosing to reach my sink, do you think using a standard garden hose will be just fine? Or is there a possibility that it will leach something? I intend to use it for water changes
 
I use a garden hose reel up type. Hasnt caused me problems that I know off.

I do plan on changing to clear food grace hose. With valves etc to optimise Water changes.
 
A good point, I use garden hose and it all looks the same to me. I did however end up with one length that, if hot water was passed through it, smelled very strongly of TCP? This went into the change water, I could taste it and you could smell it in the room too. Swapped it for another different length off another reel, smell gone. I guess it was something used in manufacture but I've no idea what or why.
 
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I use a long garden hose and it works well for me, maybe drain/refill takes a bit longer because it's not a giant diameter, but I'm ok with that. A cheap and versatile option, and much easier to put away than bigger hoses.

My big tank is on the top floor of the house, and the kitchen and bathroom and below and the hose works great for that, gravity drains the tank and a basement flooding pump pumps it up into the tank from the sink through the hose.
 
VanEternal said:
Hi Guys,
I require around 15 m of hosing to reach my sink, do you think using a standard garden hose will be just fine? Or is there a possibility that it will leach something? I intend to use it for water changes
Click to expand...
Garden hoses contain plasticizers to keep the hose flexible and to prolong their lifetime. These plasticizers are not food-grade. I do not know if this will be a problem or not in the longer term, but I would prefer to use a hose that is fit for drinking water.

Is there any reason not to use a food-grade hose? You can get a hose made with food-grade PVC approved for drinking water for the same price as a garden hose. I have a 20m long of these for water changes:
1644491603462.png
 
VanEternal said:
Hi Guys,
I require around 15 m of hosing to reach my sink, do you think using a standard garden hose will be just fine? Or is there a possibility that it will leach something? I intend to use it for water changes
Click to expand...
It depends on the garden hose... This may be helpful : leaching garden hoses. Some hoses leach all sorts of nasty stuff such as lead, phthalates and hazardous flame retardants.

Cheers,
Michael
 
aaron.c said:
I always used a garden hose without issue. Some of the food grade hoses I have used, for other things, can kink a lot more easily than stronger garden house.
Click to expand...
Correct, normal PVC hoses can kink. But you can also get a reinforced food-grade hose if that is a concern. For example, this four-layer food-grade hose costs 24 EUR for 15m.

1644522789803.png
 
I have always used a garden hose for the inside tanks and pond... I believe over time that the hose can break down but would say you would be ok with a new one..
 
I would think the chance of chemicals leaching from a garden hose would be directly related to the dwell time of the water within the hose. In normal water change scenario... whoosh... the water isn't in there long enough to pick anything up. If, on the other hand, water is left in the hose for long periods between water changes, rather than being drained, this is when chemicals are most likely to leach into the water in any measureable quantity.
 
VanEternal said:
Hi Guys,
I require around 15 m of hosing to reach my sink, do you think using a standard garden hose will be just fine
Click to expand...
Yes... However... using this could cause the Russians to invade Ukraine or the ice caps in Antarctica to melt. You could use a specific "aquarium friendly" expensive 15m tube and the above will still happen.

My advice.. use whatever you have to hand. There's far worse things to worry about than the suitability of garden hoses. 🙂
 
It makes me wonder about fish health in general. How many ailments, and diseases are aquarium related due to our use of plastics etc, and other contaminates that can incrementally affect them over time? A lot of disease, and cancers can be linked to the environment where people are concerned so it should be the same for them.

I think we should go on what we do know not on what we dont. I remember even as a kid knowing the dangers of drinking water out of a garden hose. We know that some of these hoses can contain chemicals, and we wouldn't want our fish exposed to that no matter how low the risk. Swapping a garden hose out for something non toxic is cheap, and easy to do.
 
I could be wrong, but if you used food grade tubing to water the garden, and then treated that tubing like you do standard garden hose, you wouldn’t drink out of it either.

Most of our pipes are copper, lead and plastic. We l, and fish are still Ok, just.

Lead bad.
 
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The plastics that people should be concerned about leaching are those that are in constant 24/7 contact with the aquarium water. Such as filter hoses, filter bodies, plastic lily pipes, suction cups, filter strainer inlets, pump bodies, hose adapters, plastic castle ornaments etc.

I can see how chemicals would leach into water in a garden hose if you left it out on the lawn in the sun for two weeks full of water, or if you ran particularly hot water through it (depending on the type of plastic), but for normal cold water transfer over 15 metres the water is not in the hose for sufficient time to leach anything measureable.

I wouldn't use a garden hose to connect a filter or any other 24/7 arrangement, but for occasional water changes what is the issue?
 
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