diesel bug....sorry...again!

[Bilgediver]

Your picture shows what would be expected if you followed all the advice...Clean fuel and possibly rust or dead bug waste. If there are still bugs they will be hiding in the filter cartridge.

The water will remain in your tank and be sitting on the bottom of the tank only to appear in your filter if you shake the boat about as the suction is probably a centimetre or more up from the bottom.

You must get rid of all the water in your tank and there are products to help with small quantities.

Soltron is one and Starbrite another.

This is the Starbrite range

 

[DAKA]

Sealines used to be fitted with balance pipes, one of the best ways is to take one end off, drain a few gallons, let it settle in a clear plastic drum to look for water, then just tip it back in the tank leaving the water in the container.

 

[oceandrive]

Read through this thread and obviously you are getting great advice from the forum. Further as said from forum age of boat matters not. A good tip we adopt is that when the boat is not being used for a period of time or is laid up make sure tanks are full to brim thus reducing and surface area of the fuel.

Only an add on as you are getting great advice.

 

[Refueler]

[ QUOTE ]
does the bug grow on its own or have I had shite fuel somewhere....been occasionally using debug liquid. but I never expected a four year old boat to suffer this quickly...
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Yep the bugs grow faster than rabbits in the summer..Boat age is not important.

The bugs grow in the layer between water and fuel in your tank so you should endeavour to remove all water.

I would be wary about just pouring Solatron in as all you will do is kill the zillions of bugs that have taken residence and spend the rest of the season changing filters . Powerskipper will tell you there are nicer things to be doing when the sun shines than crawling in the bilges.

As a minimum get the fuel out and get out the water and gunge. Steam clean the tank and fuel lines if possible and then put in fresh fuel initially with a knock out dose of bug killer (Starbrite got the thmbs up in many tests) and you should be able to re use your old fuel as the bugs will die off and also the water will settle out. Use bug killer the rest of the season.

You could also eith make up a fuel polishing unit which is basically a good sized 5/10 micron filter and pump unit which circulates fuel round from and to the tank.

To reduce the chances of the dreaded bug you need to try and keep your fuel water free and there are products available to help here or find ways to syphon/drain the water out from the bottom of the tank.

You need to change bug treatments from year to year as the critters adapt over time.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ta for quoting my Fuel Filtering system !! The 5 micron I use is not enough to completely remove all from the fuel - but it gets it near as you get ! Of course best way would be to use a fuel filter as on the engine - but you'd be changing it often.

I devised the esystem because I have a lot of gash fuel from the blending and some is pretty awful. It all goes in to my own useage blend. Filtered over a period and then allowed to settle in the drums. The 200 litre drums outlets are above the bootom and that cm or so is enough to let other crud settle out. I then fill containers without the pump to transfer to the boat.

OK - lets put the record straight again :

NOT all bugs live in the oil - water interface. There are other purely oil liveable types that feed on the sulphur (SRB's) as well.
A tank improperly cleaned after a bug incident will quickly create a second incident. Steam cleaning and then when cooled - solvent such as kerosene washing will prove good measure.

Where does it come from ? It's present in all fuel supplies.