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Water tank treatment


bigcol

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We've had our boat a few years now,

wondering is there something we could add to the water tank to sterilize it.?

Is there a product that folks have used.

The tank is stainless steel. We do use the tank for drinking water,

were still here, so can't be that bad, can it?

 

Thankyou in advance

 

Col

Edited by bigcol
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Mine's the inside of the hull, painted with bitumen. I tend to go into it every ten years, clean it out, repaint it. Never bothered to treat the water, but I don't drink it unless it's been boiled. Apart from that, I tend to empty it completely and refill it once a year. I think it get cold enough in winter to kill all the bugs.

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Well I treat mine at the beginning of each year with about 3 litres of the basic thin bleach, fill up the tank, run the hot water tap to get it into the calorifier, let it stand for half an hour, then open all the taps until the tank is empty, fill, empty and fill again. Takes a while, but the bleach is pennies. I also separately sterilise the shower head after reading a post on here about someone getting Legionnaires' Disease from their boat water system

 

Edited to say my tank is plastic (polypropylene), which I don't think is affected by bleach. Whether it affects other materials I don't know.

 

 

 

I think it get cold enough in winter to kill all the bugs.

 

I hope this is said in jest. Cold will not kill bugs, just preserve them to multiply when it gets warm again!

Edited by Mac of Cygnet
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Last year I used some sterilising fluid designed for boat water tanks but it was quite expensive, other people use a couple of bottles of Poundland own brand milton fluid which is probably just as good. I don't drink tank water though, but fill up a couple of 5 litre plastic bottles when I'm at the water point.

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every time you fill it you are treating it.

As a live aboard I let mine run empty at least once a year and then fill up whilst running the sink tap for about 15 minutes to flush any sediment.

Edited by b0atman
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We have a stainless steel tank and use it for drinking water also. We use these periodically and found them ok. You do notice a slight taste too the treated water but after the first refill the taste is gone.

 

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Clean-Tabs-Water-Purifying-Tablets/dp/B00AUV40UK#productDetails

 

Available in most chandlers as well as online.

Edited by Phil.
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We have a stainless steel tank and use it for drinking water also. We use these periodically and found them ok. You do notice a slight taste too the treated water but after the first refill the taste is gone.

 

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Clean-Tabs-Water-Purifying-Tablets/dp/B00AUV40UK#productDetails

 

Available in most chandlers as well as online.

One tab = 225 litres or 50 gals

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We've had our boat a few years now,

wondering is there something we could add to the water tank to sterilize it.?

Is there a product that folks have used.

The tank is stainless steel. We do use the tank for drinking water,

were still here, so can't be that bad, can it?

 

Thankyou in advance

 

Col

I never treat my water system on our boat or at home. I would suggest in your case with a stainless tank and a good turnover of water you wont have a problem provided you keep the hose clean. We always seal ours after use and flush before use.

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Pretty much the same as ditchcrawler. SS tank, never treated, drink the water straight from the tank. My last boat had an integral steel tank. Looking down the filler there seemed to be all sorts of rusty prominences, but again never treated it, painted it or did anything else. Total of over 20 years use.

 

But we are very careful with the fillier hose. It has a short piece of 15mm pipe at the end with a lever ball valve, and a blanking plug for the tap end. Always let as much watter as possible drain out (put reel on roof and let it run out) and never let the end drag on the ground or go in the canal. Let the water flush through before filling tank. Standard anti-kink garden hose.

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Well, we measured our tank capacity recently. 'Mathematically' by using a tape measure and brains (haha!) it came to 750 litres. Filling two 5 litre bottles with the hose took 1 minute exactly. So 1 hour 25 minutes filling means 850 litres.

 

I painted the tank with bitumen in August, and it had plenty of time to dry well. Not a difficult job, result looks good - or did - now we have the lid bolted down again with 16 brand new stainless steel bolts.

 

But it's stagnant water however you look at it. Sloshing around when we ram lock gates, yes (just kidding!), but it's really just a giant swimming pool for 2321 different types of bacteria. Takes a week for us to empty it. If the water was changed every. say, 2 days, then I'd say it's potable. We have 2 or 3 5-litre water containers (that contained drinking water on purchase) that we use for drinking water - we can fill these at the taps at the same time as filling the tank.

I think we generally drink this water after it's been boiled anyway (tea, coffee, cappuccino), so that's another way to stun bacteria before your stomach acids dissolve them into their constituent amino acids.

 

Still Alive at Fifty-Five!

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We add Milton fluid at the beginning of every year, let it stand for a few hours and then drain the tank via taps and shower. We also flush the toilet a few times.

 

Once we have filled the tank again any water we use for drinking is run through a filter jug and then boiled.

 

Steve

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The tank on our boat was integral. We fitted a drinking water filter and used this for all drinking needs. (no boiling) After about 4 years I decided to have a look at cleaning and re-coating the tank. One look was enough! I decided to fit a Duratank liner. Good decision. No maintenance and clean. In the 10 years we lived aboard we had no trouble with water. (other than pump failures of course).

Bob

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Thanks all!!

 

We have a weekly turn over of water as in marina.

I will buy some Milton fluid to treat the once.

Then we will carry on as normal, drinking out of the taps as normal.

 

Well done emerald fox

We are also still alive at 55,

Haven't done us any harm

 

 

Again thanks all!!

 

Col

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Elsan fresh water tank cleaner. 8 quid so more than bleach or Milton, but once a year it ain't gonna break the bank. As it's peroxide based and cleanses the tank using oxygen, there's no nasty stuff to rinse out or attack seals, etc, and no aftertaste. If you're not sure of your tank, there's also an Elsan fresh water treatment you add a little of now and again through the year too.

 

 

 

Edited to add that we drink water directly from our tank cleaned annually with this stuff.

Edited by Sea Dog
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But it's stagnant water however you look at it. Sloshing around when we ram lock gates, yes (just kidding!), but it's really just a giant swimming pool for 2321 different types of bacteria. Takes a week for us to empty it. If the water was changed every. say, 2 days, then I'd say it's potable. We have 2 or 3 5-litre water containers (that contained drinking water on purchase) that we use for drinking water - we can fill these at the taps at the same time as filling the tank.

 

Agree, as stated in post #4, that is what I do, I think it is always going to be safe practice to use freshly drawn water for drinking and I use 5 litre mineral water bottles for drinking water, making tea and coffee etc, just refilling them from the tap when I fill up the water tank.

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Agree, as stated in post #4, that is what I do, I think it is always going to be safe practice to use freshly drawn water for drinking and I use 5 litre mineral water bottles for drinking water, making tea and coffee etc, just refilling them from the tap when I fill up the water tank.

And how often do you sanitise them?

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And how often do you sanitise them?

I don't, I use them for a couple of weeks, then freecycle them on to some other use (pumping out the engine oil, replacing coolant, having a piss in because the Porta-potti is full etc) and then replace them, a 5 litre bottle of mineral water is normally £1 at Tesco, Iceland etc.

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Treated the tank once with Milton when we first got the boat, used it ever since for drinking water.

Never bothered with a filter or boiling it.....unless for a hot drink.

 

Since being on the boat we have never had a stomach bug (famous last words).

However we do have to re-new our colostomy bags twice a week and trim the hair in our mouths everyday.wink.png

 

Rob....

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And how often do you sanitise them?

 

-same answer as SS's although I don't wee in them - into a tea cup and down the kitchen sink works well for that.

But they are good for old engine/gearbox oil and diesel when we suck the bottom of the fuel tank.

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Mine's the inside of the hull, painted with bitumen. I tend to go into it every ten years, clean it out, repaint it.

 

That doesn't seem very often for a bitumen painted integral tank. Mine was coated in an epoxy cement for 10 years but there was plenty of rust on the underside of the deck. I'm painting it with a water potable epoxy paint this spring. Hopefully that will last 10 years.

 

I'd never want to drink water straight from a tank over a prolonged period without boiling or a decent filter. I have a General Ecology Nature Pure filter which is one of the best.

 

People also seem to be worrying about things getting into their hoses without giving much thought to the hose itself. Since my freshwater system is all made from food grade quality pipe I wouldn't fill the tank with a garden hose which is likely made from recycled PVC and will contain lots of plasticisers and other polymer additives. These will leach into the water. There are strict plastics migration limits which food contact materials must adhere to and be tested for, but they won't apply to garden hoses.

Edited by blackrose
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Our tank is so rusty that if we let the water get low it goes brown and tastes decidedly of iron. That happens f we are careless going into locks. We can't get at the inside of the tank. The access hatch is too small.

 

We add 20ml thin bleach for each 1000litres of water and have no health problems. We always add the bleach to the end of the hose neares the tap. That gives the hose a good sterlisation each time we fill up.

 

We drink the water from the cold tap and never bother to boil it unless we are making hot drinks or cooking the vegetables.

 

We only ever buy bottled water if we need the bottle. Bottled water is an environmental disgrace.

 

N

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  • 1 year later...
On 11/10/2015 at 20:37, Theo said:

 

We add 20ml thin bleach for each 1000litres of water and have no health problems. We always add the bleach to the end of the hose neares the tap. That gives the hose a good sterlisation each time we fill up.

And then do you drain the tank? Or is dilute thin bleach safe to drink?

Angela

 

On 11/10/2015 at 20:37, Theo said:

 

 

 

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