Holding tank smell

Thank god, someone talking sense. Didn't know you were chemically qualified by the way
Terms I used were laymans rather than technical. I was a better molecular biologist than chemist, I will admit. Nitrates fertilise by the fact they have nitrogen in them, agreed, but you can't pump nitrogen into a plants roots in a way it will be taken up, it needs to be nitrates.

Calcium nitrate in sewage treatment is designed to remove H2S. How it does it, I don't really care about, but it's not about introducing O2, unless the equation gets complex.

Yes, I know organic compounds don't necessarily contain 02, and that they are carbon based /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Brendan - I don't want this to develop into a chemistry lesson (I'm no longer qualified to do that anyway, since I've long forgotten most of what I knew) but I do know that nitrate (NO3) ion, by its very composition introduces O2 into the "equation" as you put it. From the article referenced below, NO3 ion is reduced by the bugs, i.e. hydrogen replaces O2 to produce a compound of nitrogen, such as NH3 (ammonia), and CO2. If no free O2 is present in the sludge (anaerobic condition), sulphate (SO4) is reduced to H2S by the bugs.
The addition of calcium nitrate encourages the former and somehow inhibits the latter.
The H2S is not scavenged, because it is not produced in the first place. See
http://www.chemsoc.org/chembytes/ezine/2003/odriscoll_feb03.htm

Now can I go back to sleep. please? /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Thank you. I guess I knew a lot of that a long time ago, but still educational. Still doesn't introduce O2 directly though, which I guess was my main comment, and you are correct, it's not scavenging, but part of a process.
 
Depends what you mean by directly - in this case, directly would mean in a gaseous form, which of course does not apply. Stop squirming /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
I have a flexible butyl tank black water which is about 15 years old and smells ON THE OUTSIDE like old trainers.I have taken it out and left it on the deck.The inside has been cleaned and does not smell at all.I have tried scrubbing,bleaching etc but can't get rid of the smell.
Any ideas welcome please.
Thanks in anticipation
 
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