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Convert existing steel freshwater tank to blackwater holding tank?

3K views 7 replies 7 participants last post by  mitiempo 
#1 ·
I have no blackwater holding tank on my boat (an old English boat with just a sea head) and have a large steel freshwater tank under the vberth exactly where I'd install a blackwater tank if the other tank wasn't already there.

I'm thinking about just using that steel tank for the blackwater holding tank, and installing two new collapsible freshwater tanks in the bilge (there are two perfect spots on each side of the for them).

The main benefit of having the blackwater holding tank in the vberth is that it would be trivial to configure a gravity drain to the current sea head thruhull. If I put a holding tank in the bilge, I'd need to always pump it out when offshore since it would be below the water line.

My only concern is whether the salt in the seawater will cause the steel holding tank to rust out (since the head flushes with seawater, not fresh). Would that be a problem?
 
#3 · (Edited)
Something in the back of my mind told me this wasn't a good idea. I googled something like "steel waste holding tank" and found the following at www.tec-tanks.com. Caveat: this is a commercial site and they're selling polyprop tanks, but the following is consistent with my recollections.

Although you'll see aluminium and stainless holding tanks, no metal of any kind should ever used to hold sewage. Urine is the most corrosive material that is possible to put next to any metal. If you are in doubt (ladies will have to take our word for it), notice the dividers between urinal stalls in men's toilets. If that facility has been open for more than a week, no matter how clean and well-maintained it is, even though the dividers are stainless steel coated with enamel, you'll see rust stains from the bolts that attach the dividers to the tile.
I'm not sure he's correct about "pee" being the most corrosive material -- hydrochloric acid is probably just a tad worse.
 
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