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Small Cabin Forum / Off-Grid Living / Water Tank Surprise
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paulz
Member
# Posted: 5 Aug 2020 11:16am
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Had a peek in my water tank this morning. Time to refill already, but I have been taking a lot of showers. Surprised to see this stuff floating on top (the white part is just a reflection from the camera, same stuff). Algae? It's a 750 gallon tank, I add a cup of household bleach on fillup. Also last time (about 2 months ago) I mopped the bottom spotless, green just like the sides, already looks like some sediment. Goes from my well through a sand filled pool filter into the tank.

Dang, something else to deal with..
20200805_080405_resi.jpg
20200805_080405_resi.jpg


razmichael
Member
# Posted: 6 Aug 2020 06:53am
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I suspect you will find you need to add chlorine on a more regular basis. One cup for 750 gallons is really a maintenance level so after a few days nothing is left so anything that survived or is reintroduced has the rest of the month to grow (you mentioned filling once a month or so). Reasonable info on maintenance and shock levels Water Tanks . Naturally there is a dependency on what your water source is.

Brettny
Member
# Posted: 6 Aug 2020 07:46am
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If you have a well do you need 750gal capacity?

paulz
Member
# Posted: 6 Aug 2020 09:54am
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Thanks guys. The well is 200' downhill and the pump runs off a 220v gas generator.

Thanks for the chart raz. I don't see where it says how often to add the maintenance dose. Any suggestion? I mistakenly bought test strips a few months ago that must have been for pools, didn't go down to potable water levels. Any suggestions there?

So the plan today is drain the rest, scrub it out, refill.

razmichael
Member
# Posted: 6 Aug 2020 12:06pm
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I don’t think I have the expertise to dig much deeper😀. The idea of a maintenance dose is you keep a certain level and the requires testing as it will depend on organic stuff in the water, your risk acceptance, taste etc. obviously an automatic chlorinate would handle this but not cheap. I pump lake water into a rain barrel - dump chlorine in and let it sit for a few hours. But our drinking water then goes through Berle filters. If I come back up after a couple of weeks I re chlorinate.

darz5150
Member
# Posted: 6 Aug 2020 12:34pm
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I rigged up a very cheap solar fish pond/fountain water pump. I made a styrofoam float for the pump.
Put the wire thru the filler cap and set the panel where it catches the sun.
The pump floats around aimlessly all day.
It keeps the water fresh and aerated. Seems to knock out any algae growth also.
My tank is 325 gallon. Mounted on a trailer. Covered with a thick tarp. I also add bleach.
Pump and panel
Pump and panel
Pump float
Pump float


paulz
Member
# Posted: 6 Aug 2020 05:58pm
Reply 


So I emptied my tank, mopped it up with bleach, got the generator fired up after 25 pulls, rinsed the tank and now it's filling. Going to be a few hours. I'm leaving tomorrow for the weekend, can get by without using it until Monday. Thinking maybe I should give it a shock dose..

Darz that is a cool setup, love it.
20200806_143924_resi.jpg
20200806_143924_resi.jpg


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