Drinking Water from watertanks

[memelou]

Hello,

I was wondering about how long you can let fresh water sit in the tank before it goes bad?

What are some good tips to prevent freshwater from going bad?

Any suggestions are highly appreciated.
Thank you

[chowdan]

As long as bacteria cant grow in it, it should last a significant amount of time(months or years). Many places in the world build cisterns to store thousands of gallons of water for emergency purposes.

Originally Posted by memelou

Hello,

I was wondering about how long you can let fresh water sit in the tank before it goes bad?

What are some good tips to prevent freshwater from going bad?

Any suggestions are highly appreciated.
Thank you

To the thread starter - for drinking from your tank it is safe. If your concerned, just throw a carbon filter on your supply line.

My neighbor is a weekend sailor on a brand new beneteau. He fills his tanks with water that is filtered using the RV hose filter. He will not drink his water from his tanks. He does 1-5gallon jugs. Though he washes dishes and makes tea/pasta with water from the tank.....

The tank is safe to drink from, sure maybe dont drink it if it smells like plastic but flush the system till it's no longer present

[Chotu]

Biologically, it’s not too hard to have a safe tank water. My concern is more with what leaches into the water from the material the tank is made from.

Still, as much as I could tell from research online, a carbon filter should catch all of that.

[contrail]

Originally Posted by Exile

I suspect the variance between this CDC info and what I've been advised lies in the fact that most standard home/boat systems labeled as "RO" -- incl. mine -- rely on relatively low household-level pressure (35-60psi) to push water through one or more membranes. This is in contrast to the type of high pressure RO systems commonly associated with watermakers that are obviously much more effective at filtration. I'm not sure which type the CDC is referencing from your link, or if they even consider low pressure household-types as qualifying as true RO systems.

Could you have been advised incorrectly? There is much myth about water and watermakers.

[Exile]

Originally Posted by contrail

Could you have been advised incorrectly? There is much myth about water and watermakers.

I certainly could have been advised incorrectly, and agree there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about water filtration and what various products & technologies actually do.

Do you have any specifics in mind?

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, memelou.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Exile

I suspect the variance between this CDC info and what I've been advised lies in the fact that most standard home/boat systems labeled as "RO" -- incl. mine -- rely on relatively low household-level pressure (35-60psi) to push water through one or more membranes. This is in contrast to the type of high pressure RO systems commonly associated with watermakers that are obviously much more effective at filtration. I'm not sure which type the CDC is referencing from your link, or if they even consider low pressure household-types as qualifying as true RO systems.

Perhaps.
Reverse Osmosis generally has a pore size range of 0.0001 – 0.001 micron.
However, in ‘Culligan’, for instance, home (under-counter) RO Systems, the spaces in the membrane are approximately ONE micron.
Membranes with a pore size of 0.1 – 10 µm perform micro filtration, which removes most bacteria.
For complete removal of viruses, ultra filtration is required. The pores of ultra filtration membranes can remove particles of 0.001 – 0.1 µm from fluids.
Bacteria size ≈ ± 0.2 to 1.0 micron (µm) in width
Virus size ≈ ± 0.004 - 0.1 micron
As always, it pays to know what you've got.

Perhaps, JT, Rich, or Thinwater might weigh in, here?

[coopec43]

Originally Posted by Exile

I certainly could have been advised incorrectly, and agree there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about water filtration and what various products & technologies actually do.

Do you have any specifics in mind?

A tap water filtration system is not a water maker/ desalinator.

lowest cost marine water makers, boat watermakers, marine desalination, water ... SeaWater Pro ..... The Karcher pump draws about 1300 watts at 800 psi.

https://seawaterpro.com/

[Old fella]

Years ago I bought an old place with an old concrete open top water tank fed of the roof, the water tasted alright and all seemed fine, then after about 4 years the tank got a leak and emptied, so I climbed in to fix it. Well it was gross it was about a foot deep in muddy silt, full of dead birds and even a dead possum, funny I never felt sick until climbed into the damn thing, it's amazing what human body can handle, any way I've never worried about my boat tank or my camper tank since, but if it has foul taste I just in an ordinary water filter.

[thereefgeek]

We installed two new poly tanks to replace our 43 year old leaky stainless water tank. A couple months ago we noticed a bit of a funk when we used the tanks We live aboard full time and are plumbed into dock water when were tied up in the marina and only use the tankage when we go out for the weekends.

Our marina water is from a well in a highly agricultural area of the California Delta and it's incredibly high in mineral content, and God knows what else. We use a 3-stage filter system on all water coming through the dock hose, as well as a portable RV water softener post filtration. We were initially using the deck fill pipe to fill the two tanks which circumvented all but one of the filters. As a result the tanks have a little staining and mineral deposits, so I plumbed a post-filtration/softener tap below the floorboards to now fill the tanks.

We drained all the water last month and performed a thorough interior cleaning with a mild bleach solution, and use a Starbrite product for keeping the stored water fresh. So far, so good. Here's a shameless plug for the video we just released on the tank cleaning project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUB52BkJddY

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by thereefgeek

We installed two new poly tanks to replace our 43 year old leaky stainless water tank. A couple months ago we noticed a bit of a funk when we used the tanks We live aboard full time and are plumbed into dock water when were tied up in the marina and only use the tankage when we go out for the weekends.

Our marina water is from a well in a highly agricultural area of the California Delta and it's incredibly high in mineral content, and God knows what else. We use a 3-stage filter system on all water coming through the dock hose, as well as a portable RV water softener post filtration. We were initially using the deck fill pipe to fill the two tanks which circumvented all but one of the filters. As a result the tanks have a little staining and mineral deposits, so I plumbed a post-filtration/softener tap below the floorboards to now fill the tanks.

We drained all the water last month and performed a thorough interior cleaning with a mild bleach solution, and use a Starbrite product for keeping the stored water fresh. So far, so good. Here's a shameless plug for the video we just released on the tank cleaning project:

Don't let your water sit for extended periods of time. Fill the tanks and run off the tanks. If you use the water in a week or two it does not have time to turn into a green pond.

[BVIbrian]

well said

[Nyaminyami]

Originally Posted by TheRailRoader

We have old tanks.. dubious water quality + kids I'd rather not see sick.

So I also have a two stage water filteration system at the tap.

RR

It has nothing to do with the age of the tanks. It has everything to do with the treatment and maintenance of the tanks and pipework. Most of the water we drink, by the way, is probably well over 10 000 years old.

[chowdan]

Originally Posted by Nyaminyami

It has nothing to do with the age of the tanks. It has everything to do with the treatment and maintenance of the tanks and pipework. Most of the water we drink, by the way, is probably well over 10 000 years old.

And the plumbing system of infrastructure can often be well over 20 years old in areas.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Nyaminyami

Most of the water we drink, by the way, is probably well over 10 000 years old.

Most of it is billions of years old.


There are not many processes than destroy or create water molecules and the quantities involved in such processes are insignificant compared to the amount of water on the planet.