How to get rid of bad smell in a water tank

Hello.

For a month left a tank of 200 liters of water. There was an unpleasant odor, the water "bloomed". What can be done? Thank.

Evgeny.

Expert Answer

Good afternoon, Eugene.

The appearance of an unpleasant odor indicates that colonies of bacteria settled on the walls of the tank. This muck can be destroyed only with the help of fairly aggressive chemicals. One of the best tools for these purposes, which, moreover, can be easily purchased at any hardware store, is sodium hypochlorite - this chemical compound is part of the Whiteness type household chemicals. In this case, you should not choose a product with a pleasant smell - the cheaper the better.
If you want to remove the smell in a conventional storage tank, then the bleaching mixture is diluted in clean water in a ratio of 1: 100 and poured into the container for one hour. After this, the solution is drained, and the tank is washed with warm water with some detergent.

In the case of a boiler, the device must be disconnected from the mains and disassembled. After that, it is necessary to clean and rinse both the tank itself and the heater with a magnesium anode. Do not hope that heating to 60-70 ° C will destroy the bacteria - individual microorganisms calmly withstand water temperatures of 80-90 ° C.

It is recommended to carefully examine the magnesium anode - if traces of its destruction are visible, then the protective element should be replaced. Sodium hypochlorite treatment can be combined with filling the tank with a solution of citric acid - this substance copes well not only with bacterial contamination, but also removes plaque on the walls of the boiler. Before operating the tank again, heat the water in it to 90-95 ° C. After performing the whole range of procedures, you can forget about the unpleasant odor from the tank.