I have a removable monel water tank , but I would do the shake and drain approach if my bow tank was usable. Just drain to the bilge and pump out with the big pump , that way you clean the bilge too!!
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I have a removable monel water tank , but I would do the shake and drain approach if my bow tank was usable. Just drain to the bilge and pump out with the big pump , that way you clean the bilge too!!
Geez-I just took the tank out of 113, checked it for leaks, ground out the the funky blue 'resin' and tabbing in preparation for reinstallation. Mayby I'll just install a reverse osmosis, de-ionization unit, chase that with a little ozone and wash it all down with UV sterilization! Maybe just drinking the lake water would be better for me-giardia who?!
Theis, drinking the well water IS blind faith. Pay the hundred bucks to have a good independant lab test it for you. Folks not more than a couple of miles from here have ammonia levels over 8ppm! We don't really know what ALL is down there. Water from these wells tastes like blood(Fe) and chlorine flushing is common practice. Birth defects in this area are to me unusually frequent but within the norms or averages I've been told. It seems the real problem is that we are an agri-based economy around here and we don't want to entertain the idea that we did it to ourselves.
Ebb, they call us paranoid:confused:
News: I spoke with a sterilization engineer for one of the major drug companies yesterday and got the low down.
1. Forget Bicarbonate of Soda routine. It does nothing other than remove oders (the Arm and Hammer box confirms this - there is nothing on the directions about cleansing water or water holders). It is useful for swimming pools to adjust ph levels and for water containers only to remove odors.
2. If you have a galvanized tank, do NOT use Chlorox, as Chlorine will react with the with the Zinc. For stainless, Chlorox is OK. For drinking water is so little Chlorine in drinking water that it has no effect on the zinc. Although there is enough Chlorine in marina water to prevent those little puppies from causing anything, there is not enough to cleanse what exists, if anything.
3. If you want to use water, all you need to do is fill the tank with above 138 degrees F. So you could lug 160 lbs of boiling water down to the boat (20 gals) and put it into the tank and that would work, since there is no way the water would cool fast enough to not sterilize the tank.
4. BUT, there is nothing to worry about. There is nothing in the tank that is harmful. What is necessary for growth of little things is not there - even if there is rust. There is no light. There is no food. There is nothing for little critters or photosynthesis. You need not do anything, except perhaps flush it out. Don't worry about it.
5. He suggested a 40% solution of hydogen peroxide for those that are still concerned, but then admitted that unless you are an engineer for a pharmaceutical company, that would be no way you could get the stuff.
6. He went on to say that if you are still concerned, flush the tank and drop some iodine purification tablets in the water. That would have none of the drawbacks of chlorine, but do the job.
7. So with that in mind, I went to West and bought some Aqua tabs
In summary, concern about fuzzies or their microscopic relatives is much ado about nothing, and bicarb is useless.
The stuff I used (that I bought from West and is called Puriclean) is Sodium Dichloroiscyanurate 6% (It sounds terrible but hopefully works). I put 100 grams in the 20 gals of water, left it for 6 hours, pumped it out, and put two flushes, the third stayed.
My water tank is from the 1960s, and has never given anyone any problems. However, after 40 years, with everyone so uppety about their water, I figured it was about time I did a thorough cleansing. As you can tell from this dialog, there sure is no concensus on the proper course of action.