Steps for Sanitizing Fresh Water for a (relative) newbie

[Morich]

Originally Posted by BarryLS

One minor point. A couple years back a friend of mine used some older liquid bleach to clean his tank and lines after the MH had sat for 6-8 months. He mentioned to me that he didn't think it was clean enough...

Liquid bleach breaks down pretty quickly (saltwater), about 6 months is typical. So, use fresh bleach and look at the date codes when you purchase it.

This is a point that often gets overlooked as chlorine is a gas by nature! It has to be tricked to stay in the bottle after we open it. One of the ways is it is "tied" to other items to make it a little more stable but it doesn't work if we don't keep it solidly capped and stored correctly.

You may notice that folks complain about the smell when they drink water treated with chlorine? You can certainly smell it when near a pool or spa?
Those are both directly caused by the chlorine gassing off and leaving as soon as it gets a chance and water treatment folks have to take that into account when doing the calculations for how much to add to make sure there is the correct amount left when the water gets to the far end of the line.

In our RV tanks, it is not a precise thing to worry about as we never know for sure how much organic materilas it will meet in the tank, so just be sure you do get enough to kill the bad guys!

When using chlorine found in the normal cheap bleach found on the store shelf, it is often just 6% chlorine when new and if we open it and let set on the shelf the chlorine will totally leave, making you just using water for the tank! The normal drinking water will have something like 3-10 PPM in it and we want a whole lot more for trreating a really dirty tank that has set for a few months. Fill it, treat it, rinse it!

Some basics of bleach use?
Do not get it directly on your clothes at full strength as it WILL eat holes. Ask the lady of the house about that!!! Or maybe a son who first did his laundry at college?
Not a good idea to store it in a closed space like a small shed with your garden tools as it can sneak out and turn those fine metal tools into iron oxide (RUST!)