Fresh water issues

[captain ron]

My fresh water doesn't look so fresh anymore. Although I never drink it I do brush my teeth with it but not lately as it look like a urine sample. It's yellow. How should I clean my tank and keep the water looking good? If I have time before the Non Rally I'm gonna completely remove fresh and black to build a new plywood box around them as I didn't use the right material first time $$$ issues and they got wet and warped. Plus I want a nicer appearance in that bay.

[Kristinsgrandpa]

If it is yellowish it could be an iron/steel fitting rusting a little, thus discoloring the water.

Flo-Jet recommends .013 oz of chlorine per gal of water, (thats 1.3 oz per 100 gal.) let the water run from your faucet till you smell the chlorine then shut off and let set for 4 hours.

Or they say double the amount of chlorine and let set for 1 hour, then drain and flush.  It won't remove the rust but will make the water smell and taste better.

If the discoloration is rust then R and R the offending fitting.


Ed

[Coops6]

Charley,

Yellow?  That is an interesting color. Does it get light in it?   I would start by filling the tank with a gallon of bleach and fresh water.  Let it sit for a few hours, run it through the system and then drain, refill with fresh water and flush the system again.  Just what I would do.

Looks like Ed beat me to the post.

Coop

[prevost82]

Do you have a filter on your tank fill line ... if you don't get one.

[WEC4104]

A gallon of bleach would be way too much, even for the largest bus tanks.  Also, rather than let it sit, and then run it through the lines, I would reverse the order.  Add the bleach to the tank and let the water run at each faucet. You want the chlorinated water to be distributed into all the water lines. Then I would let it sit for a while to let the chlorine do it's thing.  Drain, and flush the system with fresh water.

Two other points to mention:  To get rid of any remaining chlorine smell, add a little baking soda to your fresh water tank.   You should also take care concerning how much and how strong the chlorinated water is that makes it's way into your black water tank.  It will kill off some of the "friendlies" that break down the solid materials in there. 

[Coops6]

OK, a gallon would be overkill, but I believe in some overkill.  If it looked like a urine sample, I want to know I have killed something.  Off of the shelf bleach is only 5.25% chlorine. That means that a gallon of bleach has 6.72 oz of chlorine.  Ed is saying that 2.6oz of chlorine would be enough for the one hour treatment on a 100gal tank.  So roughly 3 pints of bleach, not the 8 that are in a gallon, would work for 100gal.  I'll propably still use whatever is left in my wife's laundry room at the time that I need to disinfect the tank. 

Coop

[HB of CJ]

Gee...looks like Pee....just swap the hoses to and from the holding tank to the water tank and seess if this helps!  Sorry...just kidding.  Could not help it.  Yeah, seriously, it sounds like something is leeching out into the water somewhere from in the plumbing system.  You could go to the trouble of having the water analyzed for iron, aluminum or brass infiltration--or just flush, bleach shock and try again. 

[captain ron]

All my connections and pluming are plastic. I figured I might have got some water with iron in it. It's almost emty so I'm gonna drain it and then try some of your sugestions.

[Busted Knuckle]

Hey that wasn't your fresh water tank fill that guy was peeing next to at the bar was it? Oh sorry, you were on stage how would you know? Just kidding but I'd empty it, run bleach thru it, empty it and refill it! If it were mine that is!   BK 

[FloridaCliff]

Ron,

Sounds like you may have put some water in the tank that contained clear water iron.

Goes in clear and shows up after it settles.  Won't kill ya if thats what it is. 

I fill up everytime before I leave and put in 1.5 ounces of regular household bleach (120 gallon tank)

I then dumpout the balance before I head out on the next trip and refill.  So far works great.  Always CLEAN, not GREEN

My tanks are plywooded in to stop the light filtration and thats a big help to unwanted growth in the tank.

Cliff

[WEC4104]

Actually, what I found says that Flojet recommends 0.13 oz per gallon for sanitizing a tank (not .013/gallon), and they use the word "bleach" not "chlorine" so they have already adjusted for household strength solutions. That is the strength to use if you let it sit for four hours.  They indicate that doubling the strength (.26 oz/gal) permits you to do the job in one hour. So that's 26 ounces (1.6 pints).  Almost doubling that again (3 pints) is probably still in a reasonable range, but personally I wouldn't go much beyond that.

Flojet reference:     http://www.flojet.com/files/triplex_81000-384.pdf

[jjrbus]

 I do not know if they will still do it for free, but the places that sell water teatment equipment use to test your water for free.
When not useing holding tank I put 1 oz bleach in 100 gal tank and overfill tank, let it sit that way till ready to use again. I drain tank and refill with fresh water when I want to use.
To add beach  I put filter on bypass, unhook hose pour 1 oz in hose hook back up and fill tank!

[JohnEd]

JJR,

I was thinking along your lines.....fill the tank with the bleach solution.  Stuff could be on the inside side and top of the fresh tank.

I wouldn't worry about sterilizing your black/grey water tanks.  One dump and you start over anyway.

good luck,

John

"Enough is enough but too much is plenty"  Would it change anything if I could remember who said that?

[Don Fairchild]

Ron

  On the coach I just bought that you saw, I put one cup of bleach and to big bags of ice in the fresh water tank filled with water and then drove it around on some less than even roads. I then drained the tank and changed the water filter and refilled the tank. It pulled alot of alge and other things out of the tank. The water now looks the way it should and there is no smell to it. oh I also put a screen on the intake side of the water pump.

Hope this helps


don

[kyle4501]

Hey Ron,
The Cove is on city water & the Airstreamers say it is of the best quality they have found in all their traveling, so you'll be able to get good water there. 

With the full hook ups, it will be easy to do the dump, rinse & refill.