Cleaning Pipes and Tanks

[mitchfloyd]

Hello, Does anyone have any good and standard products to recommend for cleaning pipes and tanks? Also, is there anything else to keep in mind when doing these things? Thanks.

[Sea Simon]

Which tank? Which pipes?

Fuel/water/ballast....?

[Graham W]

I may be doing mitchfloyd a grave disservice but I suspect that this is one of those AI-generated and bafflingly vague bot posts.  Could be a friend of this one https://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/smf/index.php?msg=16555.

[Sea Simon]

Lucky I wasn't more helpful then 

[The Lazy Sheet]

Simon - I think he meant bag pipes and Chieftan tanks!

Willie

[jwhitby]

Bot or not, I am curious about any answers for cleaning the ballast tank and associated inlets/outlets, and people's experience with keeping water ballasted boats permanently on a mooring (do the contents go green and smelly?).
In my case, if I buy such a boat it would likely be on a freshwater mooring. Here in Switzerland we can no longer move boats freely between lakes because of the risk of spreading the invasive Quagga mussel, and must in future obtain a certificate showing that the boat has been cleaned to certain standards (involving hot water), but I worry that the handful of certified cleaning stations may be expecting to hose down a hull and propellor, and not to have to clean internal volumes - I am not sure how easy it will be to clean the ballast tank.

[Ray S]

So is this an issue even if you empty the ballast time every time after use? (Preferable with an electric pump ). Do you have to clean the hull with hot water?

Ray S

[Sea Simon]

JWhitby.

I've posted several times on this topic. Search "mussels" in forum.
I've spent MANY hours at work trying to clean/sterilise larger tanks, ultimately often paying a gang of men a very great deal of money for dirty, v dangerous work.

My BRe was based on a tidal river estuary in UK.
I've used Jeyes Fluid and or Hypoclorite solutions/bleach (UK - horticultural/agricultural  "cleaners/sterilizers") to dose my boat's ballast tank, as a preventative measure when filling long/medium term. Object being to kill everything before it has any chance to grow.
This is similar to what some commercial operators do, but with rather more heavy duty biocide.

Generally, in my experience, "flora/fauna" needs some sort of water circulation or freshening/changing (Oxygen or gas supply, I guess?) to survive, but they do not all need light.

In some commercial situations, we try to create stagnant (no oxygen) water which is also heavily dosed with toxic chemicals.

Not sure these methods would be allowed on Swiss lakes! ...or even British lakes , for that matter...
I've no experience of fresh water operations, only sea. Do you antifoul hulls? What about sacrificial anodes?

Perhaps "shock treat" your ballast tank on your driveway, and empty into the civic sewage system drains? But then no certificate!

[Sea Simon]

JWhitby.

I've posted several times on this topic. Search "mussels" in forum. This may help?

I've spent MANY hours at work (Marine/offshore Engineering) trying to clean/sterilise tanks, ultimately often paying a gang of men a very great deal of money for dirty, v dangerous work.

I've used Jeyes Fluid and or Hypoclorite solutions/bleach (UK - horticultural/agricultural  "cleaners/sterilizers") to dose my boat's ballast tank, as a preventative measure when filling long/medium term. Object being to kill everything before it has any chance to grow.
This is similar to what some commercial operators do, but rather more heavy duty biocide.

Generally, in my experience, "flora/fauna" needs some sort of water circulation or freshening/changing (Oxygen or gas supply, I guess?) to survive, but they do not all need light.

In some commercial situations, we try to create stagnant (no oxygen) water which is also heavily dosed with toxic chemicals.

Not sure these methods would be allowed on Swiss lakes! ...or even British lakes , for that matter...
I've no experience of fresh water operations, only sea. Do you antifoul hulls? What about sacrificial anodes?

Perhaps "shock treat" your ballast tank on your driveway, and empty into the civic sewage system drains? But then no certificate!
[/quote]

[Llafurio]

The tank(s) can be flushed with biocides, where the use of those would be safe, but what grows inside the sealed centreboard well is the main enemy, and -IMO- practically uncontrollable.

One year I even removed the centreboard, and painted the complete well inside with high quality antifouling, but still had considerable growth in there which was impossible to fully powerhose out.

[Graham W]

While sparking an interesting flow of useful information, as suspected the OP mitchfloyd is not at all what he represented himself to be and almost certainly has no interest in tanks and pipes.  According to his IP address he may be Luong Duy Phuong of Hanoi, Vietnam!

[Sea Simon]

While sparking an interesting flow of useful information, as suspected the OP mitchfloyd is not at all what he represented himself to be and almost certainly has no interest in tanks and pipes.  According to his IP address he may be Luong Duy Phuong of Hanoi, Vietnam!

I have assumed Jwhitby is actually alive?  And genuine    

[Graham W]

Time will tell!  I doubt that even AI could produce such a specific (and accurate) post about Quagga Mussels on Switzerland's lakes, juxtaposed with the sterilising of the inside of sailing boat ballast tanks.  Switzerland is around 30% nuclear, so mussels blocking cooling intakes will probably become an expensive issue.

[Nicky R]

We sail on a lake in England with an invasive species. Although we never ballasted the boat on the rare occasions we sailed there, we did discuss how to manage the issue of invasive species. Our conclusion was that it might be best to fill the tank from a hose rather than using lake water, as that would guarantee the tank wasn't contaminated. Would that satisfy the tank requirements? (I guess the issue may be how you proved that the water was still the original tap water  and that you haven't emptied and refilled the tank.)

[jwhitby]

Thank you all for your responses. To answer some of the questions:

• Yes, I'm a real person, or at least I think I am! For any doubters, I am the treasurer of the Segelclub Neuhaus-Interlaken, although our website www.scni.ch is currently being modernised and may not be up to date. Anyone could claim to be me, so I will leave it to the moderator to decide if further evidence of my reality and identity is required.
• We may use some antifouling coatings here in Switzerland, and I think most people who leave their boats in the water do use one.
• The permitted cleaning regime is only hot water, not chemical