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Joe Joe is offline
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First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 3,698
Default Water tanks - alum or plastic?

On Oct 8, 11:19 am, Rich Hampel wrote:
An aluminum tank will be attacked by any chlorine in the water, plus
you 'really' need to install a magnesium removeable anode.

The chlorine attack will prevent you from chlore shock sanitization
and/or keeping a small concentration of chlorine to keep down the
growth of fungals and bacteria.

The BEST probable solution is to use aluminum (with baffles) and then
put an FDA/NSF approved 'lining epoxy' on the inside to render the tank
safe for chlorination, etc. Such lining epoxied can be applied with a
roller and brush (after sanding, etc. to make the aluminum 'bright').
Youll want: rated for POTABLE water and has the FDA/NSF
'certifications'; if you use 'common' epoxy you will get a high
concentration of 'leachables' in the water. This stuff is pretty
easy to 'roll-on'.
Do websearch for NSP-120 or go to the 'commercial' division of Interlux.
Such tank 'lining' in the marine and transportation industry is quite
common.
The advantage of lining a metal tank is that the tanki can have BAFFLES
which is impossible with a roto-molded 'plastic' tank.


problem is on a normal baffeled tank of any size (under the size a man
can crawl thru the baffles) is painting it with a brush or roller is
next to impossiable, unless the tank has an inspection/work port in
every space between baffles. It's a great way to go if your building
tanks but expensive to do right. And roto mold tanks can and do have
baffles. They are made by molding deep V's into the sides of the
tanks.

Joe