Water Tank Treatment

[TejasSailer]

This suggestion for Beneteau. I've just been using a cup of bleach, and I'm wondering what folks think of this idea.

Beneteau Horizons

[rockDAWG]

Sounds correct if you want to disinfect your tank. Remove all charcoal filters, in the line and and run the all taps until you smell choline, don't forget hot water tank. Wait over night, and flush the chloride out if you want but not necessary. Chlorine will eventually evaporate or diluteto minimum.

All bacterial entry is through the filler, so clean and disinfect the surrounding area and cap well. You will be good for years, so disinfect yearly is more than enough.

[T37Chef]

What kind of tank? Stainless steel doesn't like chlorine.

I have Polyurethane tanks and do the bleach thing during Spring Commissioning. Its also good to run some of the bleach water into your water lines and let them all sit overnight. Followed by a good flushing with lots of fresh water.

As mentioned, replacing filters after is a must, and IMO, keep the hot water tank out of the loop by removing the inlet and outlet and fix them together. Should be already done if you winterized properly anyway

[tomperanteau]

Cleaned several tanks on boats using Clorox. Seems to work well.

[rockDAWG]

I agree that chlorine (bleach), in paper, is incompatible with SS. However, the concentration needed to kill all viruses and bacteria is about 1ppm. At this concentration with a minimal contact (less than 24 hours), the effect of chlorine on stainless steel is insignificant. In fact the hardness of the municipal water will do more harm than anything else that the tank exposed to.

Besides, there is no other simple, environmental, human friendly and inexpensive alternative than bleach.

One more side note, do not install the carbon filter back until the chlorine is gone. ie. Chlorine will inactivate or severely reduce the effectiveness of the carbon filter.

Hope this helps.

[RichH]

The standard 'industrial' dose of Clorox (5% .. consumer grade) for 'sanitization' is 10-15 ppm (40 oz. per 100 gallons for 1-2 hours 'soak' time.
For 'maintenance' dosage is 1ppm (4 oz. per 100 gallons) ... or just enough so that you arrive the 'faintest smell' of chlorine in the water.

All the above is for a clean system and is standard practice for stainless steel. If the system is crudded-up with bio-scum or large bacteria colonies then multiple sanitizations are needed.

[tomperanteau]

I had to treat our first boat three times before it started to taste/smell okay. The see-through hoses still looked bad, but it was a start. If your system is really bad/old, you should probably think about replacing the hoses.

Pull off the hoses in a few places and see if there are things growing around the connections inside.

[RichH]

Dont forget to clean out or change the VENT line !!!!!!!!

[ccriders]

After cleaning my water system three time I still had a foul taste in the water as the system was truly foul when I bought the boat. So I replaced the lines but the odor continued. Finally I took apart the whale galley foot pump and found a little colony living there that was not getting run off by the chlorine water. Every thing was just fine after that.
John