Re: Stinky Fresh Water Tanks
Here is an excerpt from an article from Peggy Hall Headmistress - She's a recognized expert in head and water systems on boats.
Sanitizing Your Water System
Always disinfect your boat’s potable water system at the start of each boating season and whenever water taste, odor or appearance becomes a concern. Before starting, ensure that the water heater is turned off at the electrical panel. Ice-makers should be turned on to allow the feed
line to be disinfected. Remove any filter cartridges as well as any aerators at faucets. Flush the entire system with potable water and then drain it completely through every faucet.
Next, fill the entire system with a chlorine solution (approx. 1 ounce of common household bleach per gallon of tank capacity). Run the water from each faucet or outlet until you can smell bleach at each location. Leave the system pressurized with this bleach solution in it for at least 4 hours, but not more than 24 hours. Drain the entire system again, flush it thoroughly with potable water (fill and drain at least 2 times), and discard the first two buckets of ice generated by the ice-maker (if installed). Fill the tanks with potable water, clean the sediment filter installed to protect the pressure
pump, and install new water filter/purifier cartridges as appropriate. Clean and reinstall the aerators at the faucets.
Water treatment systems (filters) can be used to remove taste and odor as well as sediment, rust, algae and other microscopic solids. Point-of-use (POU) systems treat water at a single faucet. Point-of-entry (POE) systems treat water as it’s drawn from storage tanks or enters the boat via a city water inlet. I recommend both.
