Club 80-90 Forums

I have just drained the drinking water tank in my Westie undone the top and peered in, all looks well except for a fine coating of a brown substance. (It did not discolor the water in any way nor did it poison me cos i am still here )
My question is simple .....what is it ?

Andrew

Probably algae. You can get stuff to clean and disinfect water tanks. Try your local caravan shop.

callanish wrote:I have just drained the drinking water tank in my Westie undone the top and peered in, all looks well except for a fine coating of a brown substance. (It did not discolor the water in any way nor did it poison me cos i am still here )
My question is simple .....what is it ?

Andrew

Yes funny that! I had it in my last van and did all sorts to try to get it out as I had a kind of phenolic orTCP taste in the water. After all that I realised I was putting tainted water in from my very long hose which had standing water in the loops when hung up in a coil. A couple of minutes flush throughsolved the problem and I just used to pu in a couple of water purification tablets in every now and again.
Cheers
Ken
My new van has a custom job made for me by Oleary. Very nice!

Blimey! I've never looked in mine...Mrs Molly Man's pet gerbil went missing earlier in the year, do you think I need a dive team or will it just flush through! Seriously I empty all but a smidge after each trip and then drain just before refilling using a filter funnel, seems to work water tastes better than at home!

I just looked into the tank in the first time in 3 years, I had brown stuff in the bottom of mine, decided to empty it but the tap pumps it out REAL slow so I thought I would be clever and cut the top off from a 2ltr coke bottle and empty it. Only next day I found the drain tube underneath! . Cleaned it out now all ok, but the tap is REAL slow, is this normal?

As a cheaper solution I used Milton to clean the tank. Works well though

use "puriclean" its £2.35 for enough to clean two ten litre tanks (Thats £1.18 per water tank) and is the correct stuff that WONT ruin your water pump or tap........ availble from any caravan shop, and is the stuff for the job.

your better off with a black water tank so no light can get in then no alge etc plus keep it nearer full stops it too !!

jamesc76 wrote:your better off with a black water tank so no light can get in then no alge etc plus keep it nearer full stops it too !!

Yes my new (black) one was made to my own design by Olearys and I am chuffed to pieces with it. I am surprised they don't get much mention on here!
Cheers
Ken

thanks for your replys...................i got a couple of old towels and gave my tank a good rubbing...........lol.......so to speak..............looks fine now will be putting water into tank for trip to Tenby .................if i dont post anything else ever again then u know that it is important to clean out the water tank better than I did it....................lol.........no flowers please..........

Andrew

Milton apparently not good for water pump as it corrode it.

A long time ago friends of ours who owned a caravan used to put Steradent tablets in there water tank.
All was ok until Iris put peppermint flavoured ones in the tea tasted like
sh---.

Cheers Jeff

But I bet your smiles were the brightest around!

I have just got a camper and was a bit suspicious about what might be lurking at the bottom of my water tank.
I am also a home brewer and just chucked in a few teaspoonfulls of the usual brewers sterilising powder I use for demijohns, bottles and other brewing vessels.
I added some warm water from the tap and left it all for an hour or so.
Sterilising powder is available from any homebrew shop.
Remember to swill it out several times with fresh water.
I am sure that it would be a good idea to do this at the beginning of each season

grumpyoldgit wrote:I have just got a camper and was a bit suspicious about what might be lurking at the bottom of my water tank.
I am also a home brewer and just chucked in a few teaspoonfulls of the usual brewers sterilising powder I use for demijohns, bottles and other brewing vessels.
I added some warm water from the tap and left it all for an hour or so.
Sterilising powder is available from any homebrew shop.
Remember to swill it out several times with fresh water.
I am sure that it would be a good idea to do this at the beginning of each season

You sure you ain't covertly preparing it for a bit of Mobile Home Brewing?
Cheers (literally)
Ken