Diesel bug

[Guest]

What is this? We started drifting on to it further down in "lift out". Then someone sed oh yes they caught it, all dreadful. What does it look like? Or at least, what does buggy diesel look like? Can you catch it a bit, and if it's left then it gets "really bad" and the whole tank turns into half-set jelly goo?

I open the bottom of the fuel filters and some gunk comes out now and again, soon followed by the clean stuff. Is the black stuff diesel bug?

Praps it's a dreaded lurgy that comes from red diesel dye, as revenge for anyone using the cheapy stuff, instead of nice expensive gastronomic white diesel.

It can't be sort of crawly swimming things like dust mites, can it? Do they all drown if the tank is full, so there's nowhere for them to crawl out and have a rest and a sleep?

Someone said that they got it from a rogue fill-up. If so, should one ask where the diesel has come from, and have a little cupful first to see if it's nice, like tasting wine in a restaurant?

 

[rich]

dear matt if you havent got the bug good luck. you dont have to pick it up,it develops in the tank, when warm fuel and cold nights forms water it is really nasty stuff to get rid of, i have used soltron for 4 years it keeps the fuel clean. practical boat did a test in 1999.....

 

[ChrisP]

The bug is a type of yeast that lives in the water at the botton of the tank and feeds on the diesel above. Looks like black slime and buggers filters.
Use biocide often and drain off water from tank. Fill from good supplier with reasonable turn over of fuel.

Chris P

 

[david_bagshaw]

Unfortunately we caught it from a Barge supplier in the Netherlands,(whos turnover was in excess of 500 tons per day!) and yes we always filled a gallon pickle jar first , to see clarity etc, and also to make shure we were taking on red, for with a bunkering of 1500 ltr the cost implication of taking the wrong stuff doesnt bear thinking about.


Incidently has anybody noticed a benefit of using white?

David ps Take a look at my site www.yachtman.co.uk

 

[lezgar]

Be careful with biocides, some are very corrosives. Is better to use white diesel (better quality and have its own non corrosives biocides). In other countries where red diesel is only for heating they have not this problem.

 

[rich]

red diesel in most places, is white with a red dye. get caught with it in your truck ,and you will be find £1000s by customs

 

[ccscott49]

I picked it up with a load of fuel in ramsgate, and it breeds like wildfire, I hit it with Fuelset, which worked a treat, however once you have killed the bug, the black sludge remains, my engines pump the diesel through the engines back to the tank, (Mermaids) thus it all passes through my separ seperators, I changed them three tiimes, they looked like engine oil filters, all black and slimy! 600 gals passed through them, the fuel tanks are now clean, I use fuelset everytime I fill up, and havent (touch wood) had a problem since. I know of people who have had it with white diesel aswell, especially in the med. From an article I once read, the nasty microbe lives in the interface between the water and the diesel, keep the diesel tanks dry=no bugs! keep them as full as possible at all times, especially over winter. to stop condensation forming and use a fuel dryer additive, its cheaper than filters and better than calling out the RNLI, good bug hunting! Colin.

 

[DepSol]

Well done I was just about to recommend Soltron a second time today but you beat me to it. Soltron is an enzyme so it works quicker than chemicals, and clears the bug, but beware as the bug can always come back. As stated before got to www.soltron.co.uk for moe info....ffantastic stuff

 

[DepSol]

Dont use biocide it is weedkiller and rots your tanks!! doesn't stop the bug coming back either!!!

 

[ArthurWood]

Matt - take a look at
http://www.de-bug.com/boats/boats2.html

for more info on what the "bug" looks like.