by bill fish » Jan 29, 2007 11:59 am
Gawd..everyones a know it all critic....
I caint spell Ms T but you caint read...
"And, considering h202 at the pharmacy is a 3% solution already, and comes in pretty small bottles, how are most people going to get enough to disinfect an entire show cave, without spending a fortune?"
I said use the weak over the counter stuff...so what the deal with the already part?
Are we talking disinfecting 10000 square feet of smooth flowstone that a brillo pad would barely scratch....or we talking a handfull of delicate porous formations that anything other than a light water spray or careful tooth brush scrubbing would break?
I've used acid in caves to remove the outer layer of calcite to remove mud/paint/graffiti...and unless you collect pretty much ALL the runoff...you can smell the stuff for awhile after...and having done lots of cleaning at home with chlorox...I'd bet the same applies for it as well in a cave....so the stuff hangs around...not good for the wildlife and maybe not good for the fomations as well
Peroxide is unstable...contact with metals, organics, and often in trace amounts causes it to bubble...and breakdown quickly into water and oxygen.....both substances caves and critters are highly used too
Chlorines and acids are nasty things as just like high test H202 (ie something along 30 percent or higher concentrations as opposed to the 3 or so percent over the counter stuff)....and these are often chemicals caves/critters are NOT used too...
Shoot, weak peroxide you can GARGLE with....I sure would rather do that than weak acid or chlorine....heck you might even be able to drink it...but DONT!
I mainly suggest peroxide for several reasons...bubbles nicely with organics...BOTH lifting it from the surface AND outa cracks/voids....sterilizes as well...breaks down quickly...is safe to handle at low concentrations...and doesnt expose anyone or anything to that is in abundance....water and oxygen
Sterilizing AND getting all the organic residue off the formations is probably a good thing...as opposed to just sterilization....and I'd guess that there are circumstances where peroxide will work better than other methods..but this is just an educated guess...never dealt with algae in a cave...
" At higher concentrations, I would seriously suggest going online and reading the MSDS-- it's pretty nasty suff and requires special handling."
Maybe its just my roids and bad coffee this morning but this comes off as pretty condescending and pompass....first as ifffff I didnt know the high test stuff was nasty...and secondly, where the heck did I say use or get high test stuff in the first place?
Though to be honest I'd rather handle high test peroxide rather than ALOT of other stuff you can order from chem companies and have sent to your home....
Wonder how high strength the stuff is hair dressers use? "So easy even a hair dresser can use it?"
Sure the stuff taint free..and if your talking gallons and gallons of the crude the cost might add up....but shop around and you can probably get alot more than you think for alot less than you'd think...heck I often buy the stuff at the local shopping areas JUST to get a nice bottle outa the deal...its not like we are buying Jim Beans finest here....
Bahhhh....enough of this...time for more preparation H and warm coffee....
Blll