Rid-X Danger!

[Barney Fife]

Hey boys, ex-nay on the RidX -ay. Or, put another way, don't try this at home!

Intrigued by the idea of it's use as a simple enzyme source, I ran a little test a few days ago; I cooked a few pounds of cracked corn down to a nice mush, let it cool, and at 150°F, tossed-in a tablespoon of Rid-X, and placed an airlocked lid on the bucket just to keep bugs and all out. Got sidetracked a couple days, and when I walked into the shed tonight, the airlock was working like crazy! Not having used any yeast, and having closed the bucket up when at 150 degrees, I was surprised, to say the least. I took the lid off and was hit by a big whiff of unmistakable Hydrogen sulphide gas, "H2S" for those who know it by that name! It's the gas formed by rotting mater that gives off that unmistakable rotten egg smell. Not good!

Now, I did make the mistake of leaving it unattended a couple days, and closed up tight, I provided it with a perfect anaerobic environment for H2S production, and if I had returned the following morning as planned, I may I found a nicely converted bit of corn and simply tossed yeast to it and all would have been okay, BUT, the fact remains that it did produce H2S and was still producing it aggressively. Simply leaving warm corn and water in a closed pail would have caused the same situation, but not at this rate, and having some experience in industrial environments where H2S posed a constant danger, I am well aware of its dangers, and in a small, tightly closed shed, this could have been quite dangerous.

Let's can the idea. NOW!

Edit: I'll add that it's not a good idea to walk away from a bucket of wet corn, no matter what was added. <lol> As I noted above, natural decomposition in a anaerobic environment would/could have caused the same thing, naturally, but not in 2-3 short days. But hey, now we know this shit definitely will work great in our septic systems

[father william]

Hey boys, ex-nay on the RidX -ay. Or, put another way, don't try this at home!

Intrigued by the idea of it's use as a simple enzyme source, I ran a little test a few days ago; I cooked a few pounds of cracked corn down to a nice mush, let it cool, and at 150°F, tossed-in a tablespoon of Rid-X, and placed an airlocked lid on the bucket just to keep bugs and all out. Got sidetracked a couple days, and when I walked into the shed tonight, the airlock was working like crazy! Not having used any yeast, and having closed the bucket up when at 150 degrees, I was surprised, to say the least. I took the lid off and was hit by a big whiff of unmistakable Hydrogen sulphide gas, "H2S" for those who know it by that name! It's the gas formed by rotting mater that gives off that unmistakable rotten egg smell. Not good!

Now, I did make the mistake of leaving it unattended a couple days, and closed up tight, I provided it with a perfect anaerobic environment for H2S production, and if I had returned the following morning as planned, I may I found a nicely converted bit of corn and simply tossed yeast to it and all would have been okay, BUT, the fact remains that it did produce H2S and was still producing it aggressively. Simply leaving warm corn and water in a closed pail would have caused the same situation, but not at this rate, and having some experience in industrial environments where H2S posed a constant danger, I am well aware of its dangers, and in a small, tightly closed shed, this could have been quite dangerous.

Let's can the idea. NOW!

Edit: I'll add that it's not a good idea to walk away from a bucket of wet corn, no matter what was added. <lol> As I noted above, natural decomposition in a anaerobic environment would/could have caused the same thing, naturally, but not in 2-3 short days. But hey, now we know this shit definitely will work great in our septic systems

This definitely answers one question I had about using Rid-X after reading this thread: whether one would create a thriving bacterial community in the wash, and if so, what type. Apparently the wrong type.

According to the home site, most enzymatic activity occurs pretty early on in the process, and there is a half life for the enzymes, measured in hours. The activity tails off exponentially, so leaving the Rid-X to work for several days serves no purpose. It would be nice if it worked "low and slow" but I guess it doesn't.

If someone still wants to use it (I haven't, and don't really have an opinion yet), using it for only a few hours and then pasteurizing the wash (at presumably higher than 150F) should eliminate this problem. Whether it's worth the bother to use it when alternatives are available is a different question.

[blind drunk]

The best part of waking up ... is RidX in your cup

[Barney Fife]

Thanks BD; now I have that damned jingle in my head...

Hey, it was worth a shot! Kudos to the gang here for thinking outside the box a little. The stuff is definitely not directly dangerous to us, as some Google footwork found that some large aquarium users even use it, and similar septic system treatments, to clean out their aquariums, with the fish in them. The stuff eats away at the fungi and slime and whatnot and clears up the water. It just happens that corn is one of those things that can produce H2S while decomposing, so, it produced the results I saw with my mistake. As Pa Bill says, if we kill the bacteria after conversion, it should be fine, and I suspect that getting the yeast working before bacteria activity begins would likely do the same. But the warning stands.