I am faced with the task of cleaning the sediment built up in my tinaco. I can think of a few ways to do it, but none seem very easy or efficient. Except for the one of me hiring a 5 year old to get in it and clean it; since I don't want to potentially break any child labor laws, I figured I would post this question. Does anybody have an efficient process for cleaning a tinaco without removing the connections?
- Thread starter TOOBER_SDQ
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What's the best way to clean this tinaco?
Just don't do anything stupid, like playing around or letting somebody play around with chemicals while standing INSIDE the Tinaco. Some chemical's gases (like the ones used to disinfect pools) can knock a person being in the tank out and put to sleep for good if not rescued quickly. The rescuers may also meet the same fate!
I think there is no other way than to pump that thing empty and then dig out the settlements and only then clean it by hand with cleaning solutions which will not release fumes or form gases (some hand dish washing liquids are antibacterial without releasing fumes or gases). Then only fill it again with water and drop a some pool chlorine tabs (while being out of it, of course).
... J-D.
I think there is no other way than to pump that thing empty and then dig out the settlements and only then clean it by hand with cleaning solutions which will not release fumes or form gases (some hand dish washing liquids are antibacterial without releasing fumes or gases). Then only fill it again with water and drop a some pool chlorine tabs (while being out of it, of course).
... J-D.
Thanks JD. I certainly won't put anyone in danger. I will probably just see if the hassle of cleaning it outweighs the option of buying a new one as JR had suggested. Thanks for the input gents.
A new Tinaco can cost up to a month or two of cleaning by some guy who, well... cleans and doesn't mind the messy aspect of the deal... I think such a person could have it cleaned out in less than a week. So, buying alone a new Tinaco, besides installing it, ought to be more expensive.
... J-D.
Chlorine
Hey there... a heavy concentration of sodium hypochloride (chlorine) will do a pretty good job of sterilizing the tank, but you have to flush it VERY WELL afterwards to remove residual chemicals and all of the precipitant fallout of "shocking" the tank.
A 50/1 mix of 5% hypochloride (typical clorox) will do the trick pretty well, and will actually clean off a good portion of the yuk stuck to the sides. Do this when the tank is pretty full, and use 1 gallon of clorox for every 50 gallons of water.
Shut off the supply to the pump and run the water form the Tinaca into a drain via gravity, rather than pumping it out. The residual amount of chlorine from this procedure won't hurt anything afterward, and you should probably put a gallon of chlorine or so in every month for maintenance...
Hope this helps
Hey there... a heavy concentration of sodium hypochloride (chlorine) will do a pretty good job of sterilizing the tank, but you have to flush it VERY WELL afterwards to remove residual chemicals and all of the precipitant fallout of "shocking" the tank.
A 50/1 mix of 5% hypochloride (typical clorox) will do the trick pretty well, and will actually clean off a good portion of the yuk stuck to the sides. Do this when the tank is pretty full, and use 1 gallon of clorox for every 50 gallons of water.
Shut off the supply to the pump and run the water form the Tinaca into a drain via gravity, rather than pumping it out. The residual amount of chlorine from this procedure won't hurt anything afterward, and you should probably put a gallon of chlorine or so in every month for maintenance...
Hope this helps
I agree with you J-D 100%. I am going with yachguy's1 instructions. Thanks for the detailed process yachtguy1.
be careful when flushing the tank too. I didn't get out everything so when I plumbed the tinaco back into the supply pipes all the non-return valves got blocked with little bits of green stuff. Tasty!
According to Wikipedia "For shock chlorination of wells or water systems, a 2% solution of household bleach is used", which tallies with Mark's recommendation. So I calculate that my 350 gallon tinaco requires 7 gallons of bleach. This is logistically difficult for me so I bought some solid "cloro" from Bellon instead. I thought this would contain 100% sodium hypochlorite but Wikipedia states that it might actually contain calcium hypochlorite and is also likely to contain less than 100% active ingredient (30% & 50% salts are mentioned).
Household Ajax cloro (Clorox) contains 5.25% sodium hypochlorite but I'm not clear on whether this is by volume or by weight. If I assume the latter (for simplicity), and also assume household bleach has the same specific gravity as water (I know it'll be slightly higher but don't think the difference will be significant), then:
7 gallons is equal to 26.5 liters
26.5 liters of bleach will weigh 26.5 kg (approx.)
26.5 kg bleach will contain 1.39 kg (~ 3 lb) sodium hypochlorite
My Bellon product seems to be used mainly for chlorination of swimming pools, so I assume it is actually HTH which "contains approximately 30% calcium hypochlorite". So does that mean I should add:
3x100/30 = 10 lb salt? Any chemists out there who can advise? I only bought 2 lbs as the guy being served previously said he added 1 lb per 18,000 gallons for pool chlorination, so thought only about 1/3 oz would be needed for my tinaco. Seems my alternate approach might not be so smart, so I might need to buy 14x 1/2 gallon bottles of Ajax instead to be sure of what I'm adding.
Household Ajax cloro (Clorox) contains 5.25% sodium hypochlorite but I'm not clear on whether this is by volume or by weight. If I assume the latter (for simplicity), and also assume household bleach has the same specific gravity as water (I know it'll be slightly higher but don't think the difference will be significant), then:
7 gallons is equal to 26.5 liters
26.5 liters of bleach will weigh 26.5 kg (approx.)
26.5 kg bleach will contain 1.39 kg (~ 3 lb) sodium hypochlorite
My Bellon product seems to be used mainly for chlorination of swimming pools, so I assume it is actually HTH which "contains approximately 30% calcium hypochlorite". So does that mean I should add:
3x100/30 = 10 lb salt? Any chemists out there who can advise? I only bought 2 lbs as the guy being served previously said he added 1 lb per 18,000 gallons for pool chlorination, so thought only about 1/3 oz would be needed for my tinaco. Seems my alternate approach might not be so smart, so I might need to buy 14x 1/2 gallon bottles of Ajax instead to be sure of what I'm adding.
I found this WHO web-page, which advises use of HTH granules to disinfect tanks. A normal dose of 25g of HTH is recommended per cubic meter of tank volume, so I'll need to add about 33g to my 350 gallon tinaco and leave the solution to soak for 24 hours. The soak period can be reduced to 8 hours by doubling the dose to 66g (2-1/3oz). This is about 7x swimming pool chlorination concentrations, which sounds about right to me (compared to 480x, if I added 10lbs HTH, as per my previous calculations).