How to get fresh water tank clean enough for the wife?

mnm99

Well-Known Member
Oct 2, 2015
2,445
Long Island
Boat Info
2004 340 SeaRay Sundancer
Engines
Twin 8.1 Merc
So I think the fresh water is fine. Good enough for a shower, but would never drink regardless. The wife won't even take a shower and sometimes even wash her hands.:smt101. She says it smells funny. Last year I flushed it many times and added a cap full of bleach, re-flushed and re-flushed. Any ideas what I can do to make it really clean. As I said I really don't smell anything. Thanks.
 
We never drink water from the boat faucets either, but we do everything else with it. I use bleach to sanitize it and use the fresh water tank all the time to keep it fresh. I almost never use the dockside water inlet which forces me to keep the water in the tank fresh. That helps a lot.
If she doesn't like the smell of the bleach you can get the sanitizer tablets in Walmart in the section where they have the RV stuff. That's also a great place to get RV/Marine TP.
 
We use aquabon. No odor. You can get it at West Marine. Also the same treatment in West Marine brand works just as well and is cheaper.

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Our water is fine but we have a Pur water faucet filter on the galley sink for drinking. We also filter the water when it comes in with an online filter. This really helps.


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What I've done in the past...
Fill the fresh water tank completely - 1/4 cup of bleach per 15 gallons of water.
Run the water out of every faucet, spigot, flush the toilet and make ice cubes if so equipped till you know bleach water is coming out.
Let the solution slop around in the tank and stand in the lines for a day.
Run the water on everything again and let stand for another day.
Drain the tank and refill. Run all the faucets again. Repeat till there is no more bleach smell.

I use two 3M RV filters in my water system. Probably overkill but I seriously do not want anyone getting sick but want ice and drinkable water.
I installed the WV-B2 after the fresh water pump and the USF-C in the line that feeds the ice maker and dedicated faucet.
If you do end up going this route, I replace the filters every spring and they are a bit on the expensive side.
The WV B2 filters are discontinued and are becoming hard to find but 3M has one that can be used in their commercial line with similar specs.
If you do start using filters, pull them out of the system before doing the bleach treatment.

This is really one of those thing where if its worth doing, its worth overdoing (IMHO).
3m rv marine filter guide.jpg
 
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Are you sure it's not just the hot water that is smelling? As you have been conscientious about the main tank, I would look there. It could be you need a sacrificial anode or that the heating elements have crudded up. If you can get to it, it's probably worth the effort to check and inject fresh water into that tank directly and flush.
 
Get a whole house carbon inline filter put it just after the 12 volt pump.
Our watermaker has a carbon filter and it takes out bad taste.
We have never got sick and use the tank water for all things including ice and drinking.
I replaced a water tank on our first boat. To get it out I cut it in smaller pieces. There was definite slime in the bottom. I do not think there was any way to remove the slime. I tried the 24 hour bleach and all we got was bleach tasting water for a while.
 
Is there anything that will get the thin film of slime of the bottom of the tank. Was thinking a lot of baking soda solution then adding vinegar. It sure would bubble for a while.
 
I went to a pool supply store did some research and did a ( shock it ) to get the PH levels back to normal. I had to clean the water pump filters several times but this took care of it. FW hit it on the head about the PH levels.
 
The absolute best solution. Empty and flush the tank. Pour in a couple gals of cheap vodka and let it slush around for a couple days. Then drain, flush and fill and your good to go with no smell or taste.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
What I've done in the past...
Fill the fresh water tank completely - 1/4 cup of bleach per 15 gallons of water.
Run the water out of every faucet, spigot, flush the toilet and make ice cubes if so equipped till you know bleach water is coming out.
Let the solution slop around in the tank and stand in the lines for a day.
Run the water on everything again and let stand for another day.
Drain the tank and refill. Run all the faucets again. Repeat till there is no more bleach smell.

I use two 3M RV filters in my water system. Probably overkill but I seriously do not want anyone getting sick but want ice and drinkable water.
I installed the WV-B2 after the fresh water pump and the USF-C in the line that feeds the ice maker and dedicated faucet.
If you do end up going this route, I replace the filters every spring and they are a bit on the expensive side.
The WV B2 filters are discontinued and are becoming hard to find but 3M has one that can be used in their commercial line with similar specs.
If you do start using filters, pull them out of the system before doing the bleach treatment.

This is really one of those thing where if its worth doing, its worth overdoing (IMHO).
View attachment 49177
My approach to a clean fresh water tank is very similar to this. I do the bleach treatment once at the beginning of the season and usually once more later in the season. Usually we don't ingest water from the tank but I like it to be clean and drinkable anyway.
 
When you get it clean, keep it clean. Drain it completely at the end of season. Blow out all your lines with compressed air and skip the antifreeze
 

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