On Fri, 16 Apr 2010 18:52:48 -0400, "Wilbur Hubbard"
wrote:

"silverdragon" wrote in message
...
Hey my wife and I purchased a Columbia 29 Mk II and there is some
green slime on the walls of the aluminum water tank under the V-Berth
I was wondering what the best way to disinfect and clean it out.

Is there some sort of cleaner or bleach water mixture that we can put
in the tank to kill what ever is growing down there?




Yes there is. Put a cup of household bleach (non-scented) into it, fill it
to the top and let it sit a day or two. Then pump or drain it all out.
Refill with fresh water.

On the other hand, you might consider just leaving it be.

I drink water out of my bicycle water bottle daily, the insides of which are
green with algae. I never bleach it out. I figure the algae puts extra
oxygen in the water and I like the taste of algae water better than plastic
water. The algae seems to coat the plastic and the water tastes great. It
goes down smooth. But, I was raised on a farm in the Midwest with cisterns
for drinking water filled by galvanized steel barn roofs. Dug deep into the
red clay and lined with stacked white stones - no concrete. We had algae,
frogs and fish in our cisterns but never have I had better tasting water
than rain water-filled, bio-diverse cistern water.

People these days have a fetish about their water. They need to get over it.


Wilbur Hubbard


It sort of reminds me of the story about the UN Group that was
stationed in Arabia, at a desert oasis.

The oasis had a great pool of water that was never failing and Arabs
came from miles around to take the waters. Of course the watering hole
served the local village as a source of water for washing, bathing,
watering the herds and even for bad little boys to play in, and the
camels and goats did what camels do and goats do what goats do, and
mothers washed little babies that have done what they do and the dirty
little boys often had contests to see who could do what dirty little
boys do, further, and the waters in the never failing pool had a
certain color and odor.

The UN Team after viewing the sole water source for the entire area
with horror and amid much report writing in which terms like cholera
and water born diseases were mentioned, gained approval to make a new
water source and contracted with a well drilling company who flew a
drilling rig in and set up.

For weeks and weeks they drilled and at last one day; water! A stream
of clear, fresh, sparkling, cold water flowed form the well head, and
the UN Group was proud and wrote reports on the successful surmounting
of yet another age old problem.

Some days later the Group noticed that not a single Arab was using the
new, clear, fresh, sparkling, cold water and sent an emissary to
question the ruling Sheikh as to what was going on. The Sheikh simply
said, "the water has no flavor, it may not be good".
Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)