rusty water tank

[Nut]

2 hours ago, matty40s said:

This tank hadn't been opened for 20 years, they were drinking from it too!!

If you do buy the boat, leave the water tank until next summer as it will take weeks for the rust stuff and paint to cure at this time of year.

that is what would give a young child an immune system kick start , I made and ate mud and worm pies as a young un whilst chomping on the rhubarb patch ,sod all wrong with that tank

[blackrose]

30 minutes ago, aracer said:

Yuck! - the boat I've just bought is 30 years old, no idea when the tank was last opened, I hope it doesn't look like that (I'm not dead yet after 2 weeks of drinking from it). Should I be opening it up to have a look, or if the water from the tap looks and tastes OK not bother?

Have a look inside your water pump strainer (assuming you have one). If there's bits of rust inside then you probably need to have a look

19 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

I have been drinking the water from ours for 20 years.It hasn't affected me in the least. I was like this long before that

 

I drink from my tank too but I have a very good nature pure dedicated filter and tap just for drinking water.

[Bee]

53 minutes ago, Nut said:

that is what would give a young child an immune system kick start , I made and ate mud and worm pies as a young un whilst chomping on the rhubarb patch ,sod all wrong with that tank

Yup, good antidote to the nanny state. Seriously though. what is that mud in the picture? I have a poly something or other window cleaners tank, its translucent and has a big screw on lid. The inside is perfectly clean and all that's in it is a tiny bit of sand, its over 10 years old - I wonder if that mud is canal sediment that's settled and the tank is rusted through?

[aracer]

1 hour ago, Dr Bob said:

We do tend to run to empty every few weeks when we know we can refill so as to turn the water over.

Now in a marina with a water supply at the berth, so will run to empty before refilling, though I think that will be more than a couple of weeks as I filled the tank well! I reckon I was pretty close before I filled up looking at the trim, but as I was travelling I didn't want to risk running empty without somewhere to refill (I did consider a complete empty and refill when I got the boat, but it seemed like a lot of hassle and likely to take a long time when I was already running very late because of problems with payment).

 

Not sure why drinking from the tank should be a problem unless there's something wrong or water has been left sitting a long time - separate drinking water supplies definitely seems like far too much hassle.

 

Will have a look at the filter tomorrow (if I can find one).

[MtB]

I'd be interested if anyone can come up with any evidence that drinking water stored in a rusty and muddy tank like that can cause any harm. 

 

I've drunk plenty over the years and it's done me no harm. Obvs...

[rusty69]

2 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

I'd be interested if anyone can come up with any evidence that drinking water stored in a rusty and muddy tank like that can cause any harm. 

 

I've drunk plenty over the years and it's done me no harm. Obvs...

I had three mates once. They had great problems with water. RIP. Lee, jan and Ella. 

[MtB]

6 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

I had three mates once. They had great problems with water. RIP. Lee, jan and Ella. 

 

Drank themselves to death, eh??!

 

 

 

But more seriously, legionella is not a risk in cold water. It thrives only in water tepid to moderately hot. Cold water (25c or less) is fine, as is properly hot water (55c+).

Edited October 14, 2018 by Mike the Boilerman

[rusty69]

3 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

But more seriously, legionella is not a risk in cold water. It thrives only in water tepid to hot. Cold water (25c or less) is fine, as is hot water (55c+) is fine too

One of the reasons i stopped using my solar water heater. The other being it froze one winter and split the copper tubing. 

[jonathanA]

Did ours this summer. Speak to anyone in the water industry and they usually refer to potable water as the dirty stuff! 

 

Having opened the tank for the first time in the 8 years we’ve had the boat this what I found. Expected to poke a hole through into the canal but was pleasantly surprised to find the inside of my tank was galvanised once I scraped all the crud off. 

 

Note the spare bilge pump much easier for emptying than using the water pump and taps.  finished off with wet and dry vac 

Edited October 14, 2018 by jonathanA

[aracer]

On the subject of Lee etc., I presume it's only an issue with water that's left warm for significant periods? So turning on the heater and then changing my mind and turning it off again before the water got properly hot isn't an issue?

 

On a completely different but kind of related topic, I still need to work out exactly what the two mysterious switches next to the gas water heater do - from what I can work out I need to turn one of them on to get circulation through the calorifier and get hot water, though it seems that also results in the radiators getting warm (which I don't really need atm). Not sure what the other one does at all, and it doesn't seem to be that standard a thing from the info I've found. Wasn't an issue until a couple of days ago as I was cruising and getting engine heated water. I guess I should start a new topic...

[Onionman]

14 hours ago, Bee said:

Is it an 'Integral' tank? i.e. if you make a hole in the bottom does the canal come in? They used to be pretty common but I don't think they are now. Its quite important that it doesn't rust through as you will be drinking the canal - a Bad Thing, so it could do with cleaning, drying and painting even if you put in a liner. If its not 'integral' I'd be tempted to chuck it out and put in a plastic tank. We have a window cleaners tank (Just google it, lots of sizes) but they are all squarish so won't fit in a triangular space unless you have a long front deck and its not full of stuff underneath. To be honest there are plenty of waterpoints on the UK system so huge capacity for most boats is not vital.

That pic. of the 20 year old tank is 'orrible. Where did all that mud stuff come from? even an ancient old galvanised loft tank is not full of mud.

 

These guys might be worth a call:

 

http://www.plasticwatertanks.co.uk/35.html

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 15, 2018 by Onionman

[juragirl]

Thank you Onionman that looks really interesting. Thanks to everyone who has posted answers - it is very much appreciated. 

[dor]

My previous boat had an integral tank. In the eight years I had the boat I didn't do anything to the water tank.  I used to peer town the filler occasionally and could see some nice rusticles growing out from the side, but i didn't see anything swimming in it.  It was pretty rusty when i first had the boat, so i have no idea when it was last cleaned.

 

We drank the water straight from the tap, but the galley cold tap did go through a 'Springclear' filter.  This used to go fairly brown after a few months use, but I never found anything trapped in the filter bowl.

 

I always meant to open the hatch and go in and clean it out, but it was just one of those things i never got round to...

[Momac]

The tank photographed with sludge  is disgusting.  I would imagine filling the tank would stir up the sludge which is probably why it  was being investigated? I don't know how anyone can suggest that drinking water from a tank like that is healthy.

 

We have 5 litre containers which are refilled from  mains supply most days  and drink from that - other then brushing teeth.  But I do not live aboard.  

 

My tank on the boat  is plastic and the filter had nothing more than a little limescale when I cleaned it a year ago. 

[David Mack]

10 minutes ago, MartynG said:

I don't know how anyone can suggest that drinking water from a tank like that is healthy.

 

Why do you think that what may well be inert rust is any danger to health? Most domestic water is supplied through iron pipes, which after a century or more in use are certain to contain rust.

[Bee]

47 minutes ago, David Mack said:

 

Why do you think that what may well be inert rust is any danger to health? Most domestic water is supplied through iron pipes, which after a century or more in use are certain to contain rust.

You're probably right but what is that mud? old metal tanks in lofts of houses are rusty but I've never seen mud like that.

[Momac]

43 minutes ago, David Mack said:

 

Why do you think that what may well be inert rust is any danger to health? Most domestic water is supplied through iron pipes, which after a century or more in use are certain to contain rust.

It doesn't look like rust.!

[MtB]

48 minutes ago, David Mack said:

 

Why do you think that what may well be inert rust is any danger to health? Most domestic water is supplied through iron pipes, which after a century or more in use are certain to contain rust.

 

This was my thought too. It might *look* unappetising but iron is an essential part of one’s diet and it is probably healthier (whatever that means) than drinking water kept in a plastic container from which all manner of chemicals might have leached. 

 

Mud like that was common to see in galvanised steel tanks and if stirred up sank back to the bottom immediately leaving the water clear. Rust, basically, I suspect.  

 

 

[Bee]

On ‎14‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 21:18, jonathanA said:

Did ours this summer. Speak to anyone in the water industry and they usually refer to potable water as the dirty stuff! 

 

Having opened the tank for the first time in the 8 years we’ve had the boat this what I found. Expected to poke a hole through into the canal but was pleasantly surprised to find the inside of my tank was galvanised once I scraped all the crud off. 

 

Note the spare bilge pump much easier for emptying than using the water pump and taps.  finished off with wet and dry vac 

Now that looks a lot like my diesel tank looked. I wonder if a lot of the muck in water tanks is a version of diesel bug?

[MtB]

31 minutes ago, Bee said:

Now that looks a lot like my diesel tank looked. I wonder if a lot of the muck in water tanks is a version of diesel bug?

 

No. 

 

A lot of what people take for diesel bug is actually just rusty water in the bottom of their diesel tank.

 

[Iain_S]

The stuff in the tank looks very like the soft brown stuff that I find when cleaning out the tanks on a ship restoration I'm involved with. The stuff was about a foot deep in one of the fresh water tanks, although the drinking water tanks weren't as bad. I put it down to rust plus something from the limewash the tanks had been coated with. It seemed to form in big blisters where the limewash had disappeared.