Emergency fresh water tank sanitizing

[mountaintraveler]

Baking soda will kill the smell and the bacteria. Mix up a half cup in a gallon of water and pour it in.

I wish I did just that. Or peroxide from the start.

I have connectivity issues and didn't have internet access for a while, so went ahead with chlorine sanitzing at the dump station. It's horrible now, water is worse than before because of chlorine fumes.

I'm trying peroxide to neutralize chlorine now (flushing didn't remove it), if this doesn't work I could try baking soda to kill the leftover chlorine.

Peroxide should be gone in 24 hours and I can try baking soda if water still smells like chlorine.

 

[dufferDave]

You can certainly try peroxide (or whatever else) to help, but I think you will find that the "chlorine" smell will dissipate fairly quickly with a little more use. I use bleach in an injection tank at my home, to kill an iron bacteria smell that comes in from the well and the aquifer, and if my injection tank ever runs empty the chlorine effects go away fast and the iron smell comes back immediately.
You must have given it a pretty good dose of bleach, but at least that should thoroughly get all the bad stuff out of your water system.

 

[mountaintraveler]

You can certainly try peroxide (or whatever else) to help, but I think you will find that the "chlorine" smell will dissipate fairly quickly with a little more use. I use bleach in an injection tank at my home, to kill an iron bacteria smell that comes in from the well and the aquifer, and if my injection tank ever runs empty the chlorine effects go away fast and the iron smell comes back immediately.
You must have given it a pretty good dose of bleach, but at least that should thoroughly get all the bad stuff out of your water system.

I did put too much bleach, it was a hard day, I have health issues/disability aggravated and with all the other stuff I deal with, I had put 2-3X of normal recommended chlorine concentration by mistake, but at least it only sat in the tank for 3 hours max, not 24 hours like normally should.

The problem even my skin starts smelling like chlorine if I get any water on it and it doesn't go away, my eyes water, and I was counting on taking a shower.
So killing the chlorine residue is urgent.

I have peroxide, baking soda and vinegar and they all react with chlorine.
I think I will try baking soda next after peroxide and if that doesn't work then a bit of vinegar.
It's just seems like one shouldn't allow vinegar to sit in the system, not sure. I didn't plan to go back to town until 7-8 days from now.

 

[mountaintraveler]

Apparently one very good way to neutralize chlorine is vitamin C.

 

[Ray-IN]

Are you sure the water you refilled the tank with didn't already smell of chlorine. At times water processing plants add more chlorine when their tests so indicate.

 

[Isaac-1]

A rough rule of thumb is that equal volumes of off the shelf peroxide and bleach will cancel each other out in an oxidation reaction. So if you put a pint of chlorine bleach in, then it will take about a pint of peroxide to neutralize it, this of course does not account for whatever amount of the bleach had already reacted with the gunk in your water tank.

 

[mountaintraveler]

A rough rule of thumb is that equal volumes of off the shelf peroxide and bleach will cancel each other out in an oxidation reaction. So if you put a pint of chlorine bleach in, then it will take about a pint of peroxide to neutralize it, this of course does not account for whatever amount of the bleach had already reacted with the gunk in your water tank.

I had put 1.5 cups of bleach into 30 gallons of water.
But I drained the tank twice after that, it was flushed with clean water.
So it's hard to hell how much chlorine is still there...
I wonder if hot water tank wasn't fully flushed and the bleach remained there, I did not bypass the tank.

When I look up about neutralizing chlorine in pools it all comes down to 1.5-2 tablespoons of peroxide per 40 gallons of water , and I already had put 1/4 cup of peroxide in it. It's supposed to react very slowly so I guess the end result won't be seen until 12-24 hours.

 

[mountaintraveler]

Are you sure the water you refilled the tank with didn't already smell of chlorine. At times water processing plants add more chlorine when their tests so indicate.

When I was filling the smell seemed to be coming from the water tank valve, not from the hose itself. Also, the water at that station run through some kind of filters.

Entire RV smells like Chlorox factory now.

 

[Knobs]

I had put 1.5 cups of bleach into 30 gallons of water.
But I drained the tank twice after that, it was flushed with clean water.
So it's hard to hell how much chlorine is still there...
I wonder if hot water tank wasn't fully flushed and the bleach remained there, I did not bypass the tank.

When I look up about neutralizing chlorine in pools it all comes down to 1.5-2 tablespoons of peroxide per 40 gallons of water , and I already had put 1/4 cup of peroxide in it. It's supposed to react very slowly so I guess the end result won't be seen until 12-24 hours.

Yes... as you said, too much chlorine. The recommended amount for your tank would have been just short of ½ cup. You put enough chlorine in there for a 100+ gallon tank.

Chlorine is very strong, as you discovered.

If you ran the faucets and the shower with the chlorine water, you will also need to flush/neutralize all of those lines as well, not just the tank.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

And yes, the water heater tank is probably laced with chlorine too. You will probably have to either run a lot of water from a hot faucet or drain the tank and refill.

It's not reasonable to criticize the use of chlorine for sanitizing when you didn't follow the correct procedure as to either the amount or method and didn't flush adequately for the amount used.

 

[Adventurous Traveler]

Well, the OP started this thread by asking questions about sanitizing his/her tanks with products on hand. Many good suggestions were offered, including "how much bleach to use" per 30-40 gallons of water. But the OP didn't take in anybody's suggestions and is now here telling us how bad the chlorine smell etc is.

I chimed in with a Google search and suggestions on a Starbrite product that worked for me in removing odors from my freshwater tank.

I question whether the OP is looking for help, or just somewhere to complain.

 

[ziplock]

I sure hope @mountaintraveler really did empty her fresh water tank and refill a couple times, and dumped her grey water tank and rinsed some more.

but my fresh water tank is a swamp of bacteria.
I need that water to wash fruit and take shower. Afraid to get poisoned. My hands smell like swamp after washing them.

I would think it would take at least 2 nights of flushing at a campground for as bad as the reported swamp water initially was.

For those of you in the know:

How could something like this have been avoided?

 

[CharlesinGA]

I sure hope @mountaintraveler really did empty her fresh water tank and refill a couple times, and dumped her grey water tank and rinsed some more.

I would think it would take at least 2 nights of flushing at a campground for as bad as the reported swamp water initially was.

For those of you in the know:

How could something like this have been avoided?

Avoid the swamp water? or the chlorine? Check the tanks BEFORE setting out into nowhere. Spend a few days in a campground with hookups learning the RV and flushing water system, checking out the waste tanks and how to dump them, learning the operation of everything else, then, once 100% confident that everything is OK, head on out.

As far as the chlorine, follow directions.

Purogene as mentioned by Zulu is used all the time by the Airlines to disinfect aircraft water systems. It requires liquid or granulated citric acid to work properly, breaking loose the scummy film on the inside of the water tank, and of course, the faucet aerators need to be removed and reverse flushed and soaked in chlorine for an hour or so.

For anyone reading this, DO NOT use the no splash bleach, as it has inert materials in it to make it gel somewhat and not splash when you pour it, however in a water system, it forms white foam, not harmful but a PITA to flush out. Learned that the hard way, and purely by accident. I now use Home Depot 8% concentrate sanitizing bleach.

Charles

 

[Ray-IN]

A rough rule of thumb is that equal volumes of off the shelf peroxide and bleach will cancel each other out in an oxidation reaction. So if you put a pint of chlorine bleach in, then it will take about a pint of peroxide to neutralize it, this of course does not account for whatever amount of the bleach had already reacted with the gunk in your water tank.

Plus, this can happen.

 

[ziplock]

@mountaintraveler

Been thinking about you.

Let us know how you are today.

 

[mountaintraveler]

@mountaintraveler

Been thinking about you.

Let us know how you are today.

Long story short, chlorine smell was gone next day, seems like peroxide reacted with residual chlorine.
Now I'm back the the original problem of water tasting like swamp when I try to brush my teeth. Even a bit of swampy smell is there (my drinking water supply is separate)

I think I will use iodine next, it kills everything and don't think it damages pipes and seals.
Non-toxic to humans and no bad smell (there're people with iodine allergy, but with me it's the opposite I was even prescribed iodine supplementation before)

May be followed by baking soda, as it usually work on smells.
Bacteria being already dead their smell can still persist.
Or may be there's some kind of hardcore biofilm that couldn't be taken care of by 4-hour chlorine treatment.

I got to take PH of the water to see what's best for it, baking soda or vinegar, after iodine treatment.

The manual says that water heater tank should be sanitized with vinegar by the way.

Ideally, fresh water tank this bad should be flushed many times, after adding more peroxide or vinegar but not running it through the rest of the system, to protect the plumbing, just the tank, but each tank flash costs $10 a pop at the water station, way too much.

There got to be a way of keeping the water fresh and I plan to do only boondocking for the next few months, in hot weather, without ability of flash-sanitizing the tank.
I might have to just be adding a bit of iodine to the tank over time.
Iodine kills more stuff than chlorine btw.

 

[Wasillaguy]

I use iodine to sanitize my wine fermenter, it's quick. Only a couple minutes. I think commercial standard is like 1 tblspn for 3 gallons or something.

 

[mountaintraveler]

I use iodine to sanitize my wine fermenter, it's quick. Only a couple minutes. I think commercial standard is like 1 tblspn for 3 gallons or something.

I see. I was thinking to start wtih 2.5 teaspoons (of regular pharmaceutical tincture,
I think 2-2.5% iodine) per 30 gallons, based on recommended by EPA concentration for drinking water sanitizing. I don't have more anyway right now. Real tank sanitizing, such as to kill any biofilm, I guess takes higher concentration.

When you say 1 table spoons/3 gallons, not sure which iodine you use/what is the tincture concentration. Also I guess depends on what material the tank is made of.
Too much iodine can change color of RV plastic water tank, though I guess won't harm it as I used very strong iodine solution to sanitize my plastic drinking water storage bottles for years with no harm (but it made them yellowish). I love the smell of iodine by the way.

 

[jackiemac]

Is the $10 for every fill or can you fill then empty then fill again?

 

[mountaintraveler]

Is the $10 for every fill or can you fill then empty then fill again?

Yeah, not paying them dozens of dollars to fush it, I already paid extra for chlorine flush, I'm not rich. I used iodine for years for my tent camping container stuff, will be just doing the same now.