Nasty-tasting water

[pugwash]

Usually I flush out my 50-gal aluminium water tank under the floorboards several times before launching and the water remains pretty good all season. This time I forgot. Last weekend I found the water has already got a nasty metallic taste. Apart from exchanging the water, which is difficult, can anything be done about this? What can I do next time to keep the water sweeter for longer? I remember seeing a feature in one of the mags about this problem but I can't find.

 

[pvb]

Charcoal filter?

How about putting one of those charcoal filters in the pipe from the tank? There are several types around (Freshness, Aquasource Clear, etc) at about £20. I put one of these on my parents' ageing motor cruiser and it did the trick.

 

[vyv_cox]

You can treat the water and you can introduce a charcoal filter into the supply tubing.

Cleaning the tank out works wonders. Using a little soap and a brush clean as much as possible through any available inspection hatch(es). Flush well, then add some Milton (baby's bottle cleaner) and agitate as much as possible. I normally flush after this but Milton's taste disappears after a few hours, so not strictly necessary. Check the internal colour of tubing, if it looks greenish or brownish you may need some rather stronger hypochlorite, such as bleach solution. In any case, pump quite a lot of your Milton solution and flushing water right through the pump and pipework.

Finally, either add a charcoal filter or replace the existing one. They have a remarkable ability to kill unpleasant taste, although I have no experience of an aluminium tank. Incidentally, the various chloride solutions will not harm the aluminium.