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Re: Exactly a month ago today....
# Sanitize your fresh water tank at the start of the season and drain it if it will be unused for more than 2 weeks (you should also do this is you ever get bad water in your holding tanks). To sanitize the tank and the fresh water system, do the following:
1. Prepare a chlorine solution using one gallon of water and 1/4 cup of Clorox or Purex household bleach (5% sodium hypochlorite solution, NOT THE SCENTED STUFF). Pour one gallon of solution into tank for 15 gallons of tank capacity.
2. Complete filling of tank with fresh water. Turn on the pump. Open each faucet and let it run until all air has been released from the pipes and entire fresh water system is filled. You should be able to smell chlorine strongly at each faucet.
3. Allow to stand for three hours.
4. Drain and flush the tank and system with potable fresh water.
5. To remove any excessive chlorine taste or odor which might remain, prepare a solution of one quart vinegar to five gallons water and allow this solution to remain in tank overnight or longer.
6. Drain tank and again flush with potable water.
# If in doubt about the quality of the water going into your fresh water tank, add a small amount of common household bleach to the water in the tank. A teaspoonful of bleach per 20 gallons of water is plenty!
We use filters ( a sediment filter and a whole house 0.5 micron) not bleach. We did end up in a campground once that had bad water. We just didn't realize how bad. We didn't drink it but the dog and cat did. The dog was young and healthy. she recovered. The cat was healthy but very old and "fragile" is the best way to describe her. She picked up something that messed with her urinary tract (she cried when she would pee and she seemed dehydrated). Vet could do nothing. Suggested putting her down rather than the very, very expensive operation that she probably wouldn't survive due to age. We did get her better but it took about a year to do it. She lived for about 3 years after that. She never did completely recover. She always got a cold before anyone else did (something she rare did before). She was listless all the time. the cat was between 20 & 25 yo when she died. Lesson learned... we all (pets included) drank bottled water or water from home when camping. With the RV, I put together a filter setup together because we were staying long term, in an area with a lot of agriculture, high fertilizer use, and very sandy soil. My filters filter out just about everything without hitting the Reverse Osmosis (RO) level of filtration. I put the filter system inline when filling the water tank while traveling. We would never know we had taken on bad water until it was too late and possibly several states away. Keep a bottle of sanitizing solution to spray down the water pipe spigot. ALWAYS use your own hose to fill your tank with... you know where it has been. I have heard and personally seen horrible, nasty things done with dump station potable water hoses. Trust me on this one... sanitize the spigot with a trigger sprayer (even up inside the spigot) until it is dripping and ALWAYS, ALWAYS use your own water hose to fill your tanks with. If all you have are long hoses, then pick up a 6 to 8 ft shorty (or cut one down) just to travel with for filling the tank.
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