Holding Tank Cleaned Out This Year

C

CapnBrian

Member
Joined
May 9, 2005
RO Number
17316
Messages
22
Boat is in my driveway and we have used it for 4 years. I decided to finally completely clean out the holding tank.
1) Plugged a rubber hose into the macerator thru hull that had a male garden hose connector on the other end.
2) Held the hose mess in place with suction cup contraption and bungee cords.
3) Ran garden hose from macerator mess to sewer man hole in my backyard.
4) Removed holding tank level electric sending unit on top of holding tank (required unhooking 4 small electric lines). MMMMM that smells good. It is about a 3 - 4 inch hole.
5) Sprayed fresh water all around the inside of the holding tank with macerator running and neighbors watching.
6) Everything worked and waste went down the sewer. Now it is clean enough to drink out of...ick!

Anyone else have a different approach?
 
I also installed the Tornado into my holding tank last season. It does a great job of rinsing the tank during pumpouts. However, mine only lasted one season and would not rotate so it had to be replaced.
 
"Anyone else have a different approach?"

yeah, i've never cleaned any holding tank in 25 years! why bother?
 
I just cleaned mine. Emptied the holding tank, put 5 gallons of fresh water in it, and emptied it again. I don't see why it has to be any cleaner than.
 
quote:
Originally posted by PascalG

"Anyone else have a different approach?"

yeah, i've never cleaned any holding tank in 25 years! why bother?

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I have been in drydock on a couple of large grey things with white numbers on the front. Holding tank sanitation was part of the maintenance. If somewhere in the multibillion dollar scheme of things the US Navy deemed it necessary to clean the holding tanks and if in my short 30 years of owning boats that I discovered rinsing holding tanks reduced the odor they emitted, to me it seems like a good thing.

Of course, that is just my limited boating experience.
 
maybe my nose is used to the smell then :-)

with all due respect to the Navy, they do things differently... you know... uniforms, no women in bikinis, ... that sort of things. :-)
 
quote:
Originally posted by PascalG

maybe my nose is used to the smell then :-)

with all due respect to the Navy, they do things differently... you know... uniforms, no women in bikinis, ... that sort of things. :-)

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Part of the "no women in bikinis" problem is liberals insisting on total equality between the sexes.

bikini.jpg
 
Some people like pumping out the tank, then adding a few gallons of fresh clean water to it. Then, if you have a cleanout cap at the top of it, add about 10 lbs. of ice cubes to it. After adding the ice, take the boat out and do figure 8's for a half hour or so. The ice banging around inside the tank will loosen up any sludge buildup, and when the ice melts, pump it out again.
 
I'm with Pascal, I don't open it up unless there is a reason. It's like the guys who will only pee in their heads and then wonder why they have the worst stank problem with their systems. Some folks are just embarassed about biology.
 
I've never cleaned out the H/T, nor would I ever consider it unless there was enough stuck-on sludge to affect the capacity.

IMHO, the presence of sludge likely means that I use -less- K. O., which seems to be a nice idea. ( And, no. I've -never- had an "odor issue" with my H/T )
 
He has guts I give him that. Hope he never runs for office, that is sure to be used against him.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Ghost

I'm with Pascal, I don't open it up unless there is a reason.
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Same here. I mean, you're only going to "dirty" it up again, right? Would you clean your septic tank at home to "drink out of it" standards? Or just get the sludge out every few years.

On my trailered boat, I would just pump, rinse, and pump again. If it's going to be laid up a while, I would repeat until the rinse water was no longer "brown".
 
quote:
Originally posted by CapnBrian

Boat is in my driveway and we have used it for 4 years. I decided to finally completely clean out the holding tank.
1) Plugged a rubber hose into the macerator thru hull that had a male garden hose connector on the other end.
2) Held the hose mess in place with suction cup contraption and bungee cords.
3) Ran garden hose from macerator mess to sewer man hole in my backyard.
4) Removed holding tank level electric sending unit on top of holding tank (required unhooking 4 small electric lines). MMMMM that smells good. It is about a 3 - 4 inch hole.
5) Sprayed fresh water all around the inside of the holding tank with macerator running and neighbors watching.
6) Everything worked and waste went down the sewer. Now it is clean enough to drink out of...ick!

Anyone else have a different approach?

Click to expand...


I have one suggestion - make real sure you never use that garden hose for anything else. [:-yuck]

Here's how I pump my trailered boat out at home:

203062913.jpg
 
I have seen this pumpout set up on another web site and like it but it duplicates something I already have (macerator) and it doesn't really "rinse" the holding tank.

Why?

Why not rinse the sludge out of the corners and bottom of the tank (every once in a while)? Can't hurt and can only help in the long run with the overall maintenance of electric sensors in the tank not to mention sludge build up. We spend a ton of money on keeping the boat cleaned/waxed, the power pack maintained and the fresh water system filters cleaned and treated, it is easier and more pleasant to just ignore the holding tank.

I bought a Tornado but didn't like the thought of cutting another big hole in my aluminum holding tank.

I do like adding the ice cubes to break up the sludge if the boat is in the water. That is a novel idea!
 
I have a similar setup as rwidman, except I use a hand operated bellows pump that pumps the sewage to a pipe that runs into my sanitary sewer.
I also installed the tornado tank rinser. My tank had a 4" clean out cap on the top of it, so I mounted the tornado to the inside of the cap. After pumping out the tank I connect a dedicated garden hose to the tornado and run it. While it is running in continue to pumpout for about ten minutes to get rid of the last solids in the tank.
Prior to this I had tank odor problems. Now there is no odor.

FWIW
eric
 
quote:
Originally posted by CapnBrian

..........it doesn't really "rinse" the holding tank.

Why not rinse the sludge out of the corners and bottom of the tank (every once in a while)? ......

Can't hurt and can only help in the long run ....

I do like adding the ice cubes to break up the sludge if the boat is in the water. That is a novel idea!
Click to expand...


As I posted, you can "rinse" the tank after you've pumped it. You can do this as many times as you wish. I usually didn't bother if the boat was to be used again within a week or two, but I used several rinses if it was to be put up for the winter.

I've seen the suggestion for ice cubes before. My thought is that if you use a biological treatment such as Odorloss or K.O., the "sludge" will be digested. I have not tested that theory though.

I see little point in trying to keep a holding tank "clean". Empty should be fine. You're just going to soil it again.
 
quote:
As I posted, you can "rinse" the tank after you've pumped it. You can do this as many times as you wish. I usually didn't bother if the boat was to be used again within a week or two, but I used several rinses if it was to be put up for the winter.

Click to expand...


Yep, EVERY TIME I pumpout.

quote:
I've seen the suggestion for ice cubes before. My thought is that if you use a biological treatment such as Odorloss or K.O., the "sludge" will be digested. I have not tested that theory though.

Click to expand...


Ought to give that a test and let us know the actual results.

quote:
I see little point in trying to keep a holding tank "clean". Empty should be fine. You're just going to soil it again.

Click to expand...


Every 4 years, at the end of the season, is not a big deal but, using this line of logic, we should also stop washing/waxing boats because they just get dirty again and same with the oil, etc.
 
quote:
Originally posted by starfishkiller

I have a similar setup as rwidman, except I use a hand operated bellows pump that pumps the sewage to a pipe that runs into my sanitary sewer.
I also installed the tornado tank rinser. My tank had a 4" clean out cap on the top of it, so I mounted the tornado to the inside of the cap. After pumping out the tank I connect a dedicated garden hose to the tornado and run it. While it is running in continue to pumpout for about ten minutes to get rid of the last solids in the tank.
Prior to this I had tank odor problems. Now there is no odor.

FWIW
eric

Click to expand...


That's a good idea and I originally started down the Tornado path. I noticed when I took off my sensor cap that it was sealed air tight. All venting is to the exterior of the boat. I think adding something like the Tornado might allow that wonderful smell to leak into the bilge if your hose connection is in the bilge area and not on the exterior somewhere. But I guess a cap could be screwed onto it which should help.

Bottom line here is that I am not alone in my holding tank maintenance compulsion (founded or not) which definitely makes me feel better.
 
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