I'm just curious if any liveaboards/cruisers have, built and used solar food dehydrators, use them regularly, and your results.
Your cleanliness is admirable. Bleach works well. You could safely use much less. 1 cup of bleach for 70 gallons of water is way too much...... When the tank is completely filled, I add a cup of chlorine bleach, pump water through the lines until I can smell the bleach, then it's clean enough to wash dishes and vegetables.
I used to routinely test the water for bacteria, but after two years of testing and no bugs I stopped doing that. Besides, it was getting expensive. Somewhere on the Internet there is a formula for how much chlorine bleach to use per gallon when treating water. If I recall, it was about 16 drops per gallon, but I could be wrong on the formula. If you don't smell chlorine after 16 drops, add another 16 drops and wait 30 minutes. If you still don't smell chlorine, discard the water and find another source.
If you're worried about the chlorine bleach causing health problems, believe me, if you contract C-diff from contaminated foods and water it's a lot worse than anything you will experience from the chlorine bleach. Without proper medical treatment, C-diff can kill a healthy person in a matter of a few days.
Good Luck,
Gary