Yesterday the municipal water supply to our village quit flowing. I was pressure washing my driveway at the same time and had no idea that the water tank was not refilling, so last night while taking a shower the water completely quit flowing since the tank was empty. Late last night the water supply started flowing again and filled the tank over night, but the water is a dirty rust colored. My wife says to put alum into the water tank, but I have no idea how much should be added. So, does anyone out there have any idea how much I should add to a 1100 liter tank? I was also getting silt and small pieces of something green that kept clogging up the filter of my pressure washer, so I'm wondering if the tank should be cleaned or replaced. Also, if someone has a better idea I would be happy to hear from you. Thanks in advance for your advice/comments.

Me, I would empty the tank, as water is cheap, and use your pressure washer from another source to wash your tank out..sluce abit of clorine around, and rinse out again, clean any connections and refill tank. if you can cover the inlet pipe with a sponge it will act as a second filter for the green things you have. then take off once filled...cant do much more than that, except steam clean, but that will distort your plastic tank......basically Semi just rinse rinse and rinse...

My wife put alum in our 2000 liter tank when we were having issues with cloudy water and sediment in our tank. She told me when she was a kid that they used it all of the time when the village spring water would get cloudy. It coagulated the suspended solids ( dirty rust colored ) so that they settled to the bottom of the tank. We cleaned out the tank by opening the drain plug on the bottom of the tank and washing the sediment out of the tank. We went thru several sessions of draining, cleaning and flushing the tank before we got things cleaned up. I also put a cartridge sediment filter to catch the suspended solids from Home Pro on the input of the water storage tank also. Is your municipal water supply chlorinated ? Is the green stuff algae ?

Thanks guys for the replies. I went to a small hardware shop in the Nong Bua Market area on Nittayo Road and found Aluminum Sulfate (Alum) for only 5 baht per bag. I put a large piece of it in a netted bag that my wife uses to wash her undergarments in the washing machine, then tied it to the bottom of a long cane pole and stirred it around in the center of the tank until it dissolved. The water appears to have cleared up now, but the tank does need a good cleaning on the inside. I'm tempted just to buy a new one and have it installed, all for under 4000 baht, and save myself all the trouble of draining the old one and finding someone who is willing to clean it out. I'm just not agile enough to do it on my own, and finding a responsible trustworthy worker is hardly worth all the agitation and effort.

I genuinely appreciate all the replies!

Is the water now clear from the water supply side?
I have a tap installed prior to the tank inlet to drip feed the vege garden so as not to use the pressure pump.
I only say that so you can check the cleanliness of incoming water.
If not take a sample from the incoming inlet inside the tank in a white container.
If it is not clean now you will only end up with the same problem in a new or the existing tank.
We do not have mush pressure on the incoming from the village.

Barney wrote:Is the water now clear from the water supply side?
I have a tap installed prior to the tank inlet to drip feed the vege garden so as not to use the pressure pump.
I only say that so you can check the cleanliness of incoming water.
If not take a sample from the incoming inlet inside the tank in a white container.
If it is not clean now you will only end up with the same problem in a new or the existing tank.
We do not have mush pressure on the incoming from the village.

Thanks for the tip Barney. I will consider doing that. I just measured the water with my TDS Meter (Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) are the total amount of mobile charged ions, including minerals, salts or metals dissolved in a given volume of water, expressed in units of mg per unit volume of water (mg/L), also referred to as parts per million (ppm)). The EPA in the US advises against drinking any water over 500 ppm, but most health officials suggest that it should be less than 50. My tank water measures 64 ppm and this is coming from the Municipal Water Supply and is supposed to be treated and clean. I buy my drinking water in 20 liter bottles for 20 Bath each and it measures only 5 ppms, so that is pretty good. The only problem with that is the 4 tier filtering process which includes reverse osmosis which takes all the minerals out of the water. I might be healthier just boiling the tank water rather than drinking 2000 ml of filtered water per day which is doing nothing good for my body. Anyone have any suggestions on that?

semperfiguy wrote:

Barney wrote:Is the water now clear from the water supply side?
I have a tap installed prior to the tank inlet to drip feed the vege garden so as not to use the pressure pump.
I only say that so you can check the cleanliness of incoming water.
If not take a sample from the incoming inlet inside the tank in a white container.
If it is not clean now you will only end up with the same problem in a new or the existing tank.
We do not have mush pressure on the incoming from the village.

Thanks for the tip Barney. I will consider doing that. I just measured the water with my TDS Meter (Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) are the total amount of mobile charged ions, including minerals, salts or metals dissolved in a given volume of water, expressed in units of mg per unit volume of water (mg/L), also referred to as parts per million (ppm)). The EPA in the US advises against drinking any water over 500 ppm, but most health officials suggest that it should be less than 50. My tank water measures 64 ppm and this is coming from the Municipal Water Supply and is supposed to be treated and clean. I buy my drinking water in 20 liter bottles for 20 Bath each and it measures only 5 ppms, so that is pretty good. The only problem with that is the 4 tier filtering process which includes reverse osmosis which takes all the minerals out of the water. I might be healthier just boiling the tank water rather than drinking 2000 ml of filtered water per day which is doing nothing good for my body. Anyone have any suggestions on that?

These minerals aren't in the form your body needs. Just maybe only a very tiny amount. You get those from food. These inorganic minerals give you kidney stones and may harden your arteries.

BigRick808 wrote:

semperfiguy wrote:

Barney wrote:Is the water now clear from the water supply side?
I have a tap installed prior to the tank inlet to drip feed the vege garden so as not to use the pressure pump.
I only say that so you can check the cleanliness of incoming water.
If not take a sample from the incoming inlet inside the tank in a white container.
If it is not clean now you will only end up with the same problem in a new or the existing tank.
We do not have mush pressure on the incoming from the village.

Thanks for the tip Barney. I will consider doing that. I just measured the water with my TDS Meter (Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) are the total amount of mobile charged ions, including minerals, salts or metals dissolved in a given volume of water, expressed in units of mg per unit volume of water (mg/L), also referred to as parts per million (ppm)). The EPA in the US advises against drinking any water over 500 ppm, but most health officials suggest that it should be less than 50. My tank water measures 64 ppm and this is coming from the Municipal Water Supply and is supposed to be treated and clean. I buy my drinking water in 20 liter bottles for 20 Bath each and it measures only 5 ppms, so that is pretty good. The only problem with that is the 4 tier filtering process which includes reverse osmosis which takes all the minerals out of the water. I might be healthier just boiling the tank water rather than drinking 2000 ml of filtered water per day which is doing nothing good for my body. Anyone have any suggestions on that?

These minerals aren't in the form your body needs. Just maybe only a very tiny amount. You get those from food. These inorganic minerals give you kidney stones and may harden your arteries.

Good information BigRick808! I had no idea, so now I can drink my filtered water with peace of mind. Thanks for the reply.

FYI - " Reverse osmosis water leaches minerals from the body." Dr. John Wood PHD Professor in Chemistry